Scariest car ride EVER!!

The road between Poipet on the Thai border and Siem Reap is rumored to be one of the worst. We heard gossip that Bangkok Air, the only airline that flies between Bangkok and Siem Reap, has bribed the Cambodian government not to fix the road until after their contract runs out in 2009. We don't know if this is true but...

The guidebooks and the Tales of Asia website scared us off of making the journey by road from Bangkok to Siem Reap. The hassles are many and the risk of running into someone who wants a bribe is high. So we flew there. Having heard that the return trip is easier and not wanting to shell out a second time for an overly expensive air ticket, we risked our backsides and returned via the road.

It was hell.

Not an eternal hell, not even a burning hell thanks to the Camry's air-con, but it was a three and half hour foray into the pits. At the very least, the potholes were deep enough to see demons running across the hood.

The road is unpaved. At the height of the rainy season there is no guarantee that the road will remain passable. For us, it was just one dusty, bumpy ride with little attention paid by our driver to which side is the "correct" side of the road (to be fair, neither did oncoming traffic). For the first hour, we chit-chatted about Angkor, our future kids, our families, our house -- basically our usual transit day conversations. For the second hour, our conversation died down to occasional comments and shared "oh sh*t" looks. For the third hour, we both stared straight ahead, too exhausted from trying not to hit our heads on the ceiling, windows, knees to even share a look at the particularly terrifying moments (will the car make it up the other side of the pothole before that big truck tries to share our molecular space?!). Arriving in Poipet, an awful place, came as a relief. Teeth loosened, but intact, we crossed the border without difficulty and caught a minibus to Bangkok -- a much smoother ride.

We were both 16 once and have had our share of scary car rides with our partners in crime. This was worse than all of them together.