Cambodia

I’m in Cambodia!

Except from Siem Reap with the famous Angkor Wat temple complex it feels like Cambodia is a little less developed than Laos.
But they have more beer brands! It’s also less rainy here, but a lot hotter and more humid.
And it’s flat! There are almost no mountains here but long straight roads (boring!).


Luang Prabang, Pakse and 4000 Islands in Laos

I liked Laos very much! It’s a rather small country, so I didn’t need to travel long distances and could stay longer in some cities.
The Kuang Si waterfalls in Luang Prabang were impressive in this rainy season! In Vang Vieng it’s impossible to skip the tubing (see the movie here) and on the 4000 Islands it’s just quiet and relaxed (although there are currently not so much islands due to the high water level in the Mekong).
In Pakse there’s a big golden Buddha and some more waterfalls…


Border crossing Laos – Cambodia

On the Laos side we parked the bikes and went to the first booth. We filled out the departure card and handed it over. They stamped our passports, wanted a 2$ (fake) exit fee and pointed us to the other side to the customs.
There you need to give your green temporary import paper of your vehicle. Which we didn’t have… after arguing for about 15min they let us go.

On the Cambodian border we needed to fill out a health survey and they checked our temperature for fever. And we needed to pay the usual fake 2$ entry fee.
We then needed to go into the building on the left to the second office (labeled with customs). But nobody was in there, so we waited. After a while somebody called the guy and he came aber 10min later. We handed over our carnets and he began to fill them out. A another guy came into the office and helped us translate and fill out the visa application forms. He looked official, but in the end it turned out that he’s just a tour guide who brought some tourists over the border and had too much time left…
The customs officer who stamped our carnets wanted 20$ per bike ‘for his service’. He also said that this is not official and we don’t ‘have to’. As I didn’t have my passport back yet and wanted to get it done fast, I paid 10$…
After about 10min the passport with the Visa came and we were free to enter Cambodia!