A Word on Bus Travel

It's been over a year since I got here and I've spent enough time on buses that I find it somewhat remarkable that I haven't posted specifically on bus travel. Traveling by bus in Cambodia is often exhilirating, loud, disgusting and uncomfortable and rarely does it get you to your destination quickly. More often than not, the buses are a model of inefficiency, though they are quite cheap.

By western standards, Cambodian roads are terrible. The national roads - note they're not even called highways - are barely two lanes wide without any sort of divider or shoulder and often lacking in the pavement department. Adding to the levels of exhilaration (some may say discomfort), it is almost immediately apparent that the rules governing road use appear to be practically non-existent. There are a few that I've picked up on though. The size of your vehicle is directly proportional to the amount of power you are able to wield, placing buses and trucks high on the totem pole and pedestrians very, very low. When passing or attempting pass a vehicle, it is essential to beep your horn as many times and as loudly as possible, to warn the vehicle you are passing to stay to the right and often to slow down so that you don't slam into oncoming traffic - there doesn't seem to be any sort of rule disallowing passing around corners or when there is traffic coming from the other direction. Oncoming traffic will flash their lights at you to ensure that you are aware of their presence, but rarely will they slow down.

Adding to the excitement further is the mix of transportation aloud on national roads:

• Taxis (i.e. Toyota Camrys) packed with eight people, including two in the driver's seat.
• Minibuses meant for fifteen people packed with either: thirty people plus five or six people on the roof or a ridiculous amount of one kind of product, like several tons of pineapple or an equal amount of cement.
• Private cars, often Cambodia's elite, driving their Lexuses and Mercedeses with total disregard for anything else on the road; it is not unusual for these vehicles to be traveling over eighty miles an hour despite poor road conditions.
• Motos, usually just a few people, but sometimes loaded with sacks of rice, crates of piglets, chickens hanging upside down, mattresses (I've seen up to four), and sometimes carts attached with rice, wood, or recyclables packed fifteen feet high.
• Trucks, always overloaded and either moving incredibly slowly and blocking traffic or frighteningly fast.
• Buses which look modern, but are all but. If they're running properly, they dominate the roads, driving all other vehicles on to the non-existent shoulders. However, they are often not running properly and you will often see them on the side of the road making repairs.
• Tractors unlike any seen in the west - they're twenty feet long, with the engine about ten feet in front of the driver, who has long metal poles to steer. Often used as local transport, with field workers stuffed into a cart attached.
• Bicycles, usually hordes of kids in blue shorts or skirts and white button-down shirts leaving school.
• Ox carts carting clay pots.
• Horse carts, more like pony carts which sort of resemble an Asian version of a Greek chariot.

Back to the bus. If you're going to Siem Reap or Sihanoukville, it's possible to spend a few extra dollars on an "express" or "limousine" bus, which is slightly newer and better maintained. However, for all other destinations, you will be rocking out on an old piece of crap. Fabric will be missing from seat cushions, air conditioning will only work for the first five minutes, seats will not recline, etc. However, despite the generally poor quality of buses, each and every one is equipped with a DVD/VCD (video CD system), which, for the duration of the ride, blares one of three things: Khmer karaoke, poorly dubbed kung fu movies, or slapstick humor (not all that far from the Three Stooges). About thirty minutes into the ride, you're ready to get off. Lucky for you, the bus makes an obsurd amount of stops, letting passengers on and off, seemingly at random.

Depending on the length of your ride, you will also make several stops for food. Trips from three to five hours will make two stops and those over five hours will make at least three stops. For some reason which I have not yet determined Cambodians use travel as an excuse to absolutely pig out, chowing down at every stop and stocking up with food for the ride to the next stop. Fruit is popular as are eggs, fish, sticky rice dishes, and pre-packaged snacks. I wouldn't be surprised if the average bus passenger spends more money on food in a four-hour journey than on the journey itself (usually about $5). Now, I have absolutely no problem with gorging oneself on tasty snacks. However, the combination of stuffing oneself with the startling propensity towards road sickness is unsettling. The problem is so bad that the bus companies often hand out black plastic bags at the beginning of trips for passengers to use as a receptacle for the "return" of all of the food they just consumed. It does not seem to me that anyone has made the connection between eating absurd amounts of food and getting car sick.

Despite all these factors, buses are the way to go. As I've already said, they're cheap and I'd say the best way to get you from A to B, unless, of course, you want to splurge on a private taxi. If you're prepared for a rough ride, the ridiculousness of the sights and sounds can become quite enjoyable.