The road from Siem Reap to Bangkok has always been a fairly tortuous one. So it wasn't a surprise when we started the fourteen hour journey to find out that almost the entire road on the Cambodian side was in road works. This is actually a good thing because it means they are building a real road; but alas, it meant for a no fun ride for us. Fourteen hours for only around 400-500kms; this has to be Asia.
The bus had a tyre blowout during the ride to the border. When it exploded the floor shook and everyone jumped out of their seats. Upon closer inspection, you could see that a hole the size of a rugby ball had been blown out of the rear tyre. Nice. We rode on the flat until we came across a shack that could do the change.
After the border crossing, we switched to a mini-van with me at the back in the child seats. My thighs were longer than the actual leg room, so a poor Japanese guy and I got nice and close for a few hours.
During the mini-Van ride I noticed that the van drifted into the centre of the road before going back into the left lane. I thought we had passed a car, but couldn't see it in the rear window. What I didn't know at the time was that our driver was falling asleep at the wheel. The drivers here pull massive shifts to get more money; and without the time control that we have in the UK and NZ, they aren't checked for how tired they get.
Later, Nic and I were talking at the back of the mini-van. A traffic island ahead was splitting the middle of the road to turn our traffic left and separate us from the oncoming traffic on the right. We were slowly drifting right to head straight into the traffic island. I looked closer, not really understanding what we were doing. It slowly started dawning on me that we were going to crash.
It was at that point we crashed through the metal knock-down warning sign. The Thai girl sitting in the middle of the van at the front screamed and grabbed the wheel from our driver who had fallen asleep. She yanked it to the left, it woke the driver with a start, and he stomped on the brake. The van locked the back wheels and slid with the van turning sideways. The back wheel slammed into the traffic island, tipping the van on its suspension and knocking the van back onto a straight course. The driver let off the brake and the van kept going along the road as if nothing had happened.
We stopped at a petrol station down the road and all got out. It wasn't clear what our driver was doing. He wanted one of us to drive because he was too tired to drive. He rang his office and they told him he would be fired if he didn't drive us himself. It was all a bit of a mix up and felt like an ad for "tiredness kills".
Nic and I thought better than to hop in the van again, so got out and started to chat/mime with an off-duty taxi driver about how to get to Bangkok. It turns out he was travelling with his son and his sister. She was very lovely and offered to take us to Bangkok with them, an hour's drive away, for free. They were true to their word and took us into Bangkok for free and wouldn't accept any money for petrol or the tolls. We pleaded with them, but they insisted (with hand-signals, because they only spoke Thai) that we pay no money at all. We gave them the strongest Thai thanks that we could muster (bowing with hands pressed together while saying thanks in Thai). They were wonderful and nice and kind. We thank you.
This is one of the greatest things about travelling around. You meet people who are genuinely lovely and nice, and only want to help you and be good to others. I love this part of it and I wish that I could be as nice as some of the people I meet.
We decided that although the family wouldn't accept anything for their good deed, we would have to do some good for other Thais to try level the debt we have to this wonderful country.
