Motorcycle Explorer September 2016 Issue 13 | Page 26

Feature: cambodia
A duck walks into a bar.
Duck says: “Got any bread?”
Barman says: “No.”
Duck says: “Got any bread?”
Barman says: “No.”
Duck says: “Got any bread?”
Barman says: “No, we have no bread.”
Duck says: “Got any bread?”
Barman says: “No, I already told you, we haven’t got any bread.”
Duck says: “Got any bread?”
Barman says: “Listen here Daffy, if you ask me for bread one more
time I will personally nail your stupid ducky beak to this very
bar.”
Duck says: “Got any nails?”
Barman says: “what? NO!… we haven’t got any nails”
Duck says: “Got any bread?”
This yarn highlights the utter frustration resulting
from a short walk through downtown Siem Reap,
only for ‘bread’ substitute ‘Tuk-Tuk.’ “You wanna tuk-
tuk?” “No thanks we’re walking.” Ten metres on
down the street; “You wanna tuk-tuk?” the exact
same question from a driver who just witnessed the
previous response… I know they’re just trying to earn
a living but the endless repetition every time you
walk down the street gets maddeningly irritating,
although I didn’t quite nail anyone’s beak to the bar.
But I’m getting ahead of myself…
worst fears… “You better leave the bikes here and
walk over into Cambodia to see if they will let the
bikes in before we stamp you out. Many people are
refused.”
A stifling five-minute trudge, wearing all our bike
gear, took us across a small stretch of no-man’s land
to the Cambodian customs office where upon
production of the ‘Carnet de Passage’ the smiling
officer efficiently stamped both bikes in, before
they’d even been stamped out of Laos. We wandered
back to complete the Laotian exit procedures and
“The worst border crossing in all SE Asia!” seemed to then got our Cambodian visas and were all done. In
be the consensus of several bloggers travelling
total it cost $2 each to get our passports stamped out
through the region. That would be the single point of of Laos (I guess this was a small bribe) and then the
entry from Laos to Cambodia at Veun Kahm / Dong
normal $35 visa fee for Cambodia that everyone has
Kralor where tales abounded of fistful of dollar
to pay. At a final check back with Cambodian
bribes for this and that and, most worryingly of all,
customs, a young French guy was being turned away
folk on motorcycles being refused pointblank entry
on a 125 he’d bought in Luang Prabang. He was
to Cambodia. Reading more carefully these tales all
distraught and furiously waving a scrap of paper
seemed to relate to individuals who had bought or
claiming it was the ownership document but the
rented small bikes locally and were travelling on
customs guy calmly explained he couldn’t let him
shop assurances that you could go anywhere and it
pass with that level of documentation…
would all be OK. Pulling up at the Laotian exit point,
the duty customs officer seemed to confirm our