aBe PaZoS SoLaTie

Inmigrants in Cambodia

Tue Apr 12, 2011

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Six hours in noisy boats in a sunny day. The first three hours in Vietnam. The second half in Cambodia. There was time to sleep, to observe and to think. I probably took over a hundred photos. I waved hello to many children. I saw people in their “toilets above the river” doing their thing and smiling or saying hi :)

The frontier between the two countries was totally invisible. We stopped before leaving Vietnam in a small floating construction where our passports were stamped. Our bags were left in a floating wood platform under the sun. We had something to eat while waiting for our papers. Our guide took care of them, so officials didn’t even see our faces. A hundred meters from there, our next small boat drove to the dirt shore full of plants, we climbed some stairs and we got our Cambodia entrance stamp. Totally low tech :)

After a few hours we got out of our boat and through the back of a house. We climbed some stairs, crossed a yard and there was a minibus waiting for us. The boat drivers filled the bus with their own things (hundreds of eggs and other things probably for sale). Then we jumped in the bus. I felt like I was sneaking in the country in a very unofficial way :) The road was a bit scary. It was very new and flat, so people drove fast, often in parallel on the two available lanes. The most impressive thing for me was seeing people sitting on the top of a van with legs crossed, like meditating. Nothing to hold on to, except a rope? There, sitting on the slippery top at 80 km/h.

Categories: travel photo text Tags: observations Places: cambodia vietnam