Exit to Malaysia via Cambodia

This morning, we visited KLM again, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any new updates about the airport situation. They’re hoping to send the first tourists home on Tuesday. We’ve rebooked our return ticket to Kuala Lumpur - Amsterdam - Billund for Monday, December 1st. So, our decision was pretty easy – we’re heading to Malaysia. No more waiting around in Thailand. However, getting to Malaysia is turning out to be a lot harder than we initially thought. All the tourists are making their way there to catch flights home. Every flight, bus, and train is fully booked for the entire weekend. Overland travel means a grueling 24-hour journey. Suddenly, we remembered Cambodia... AirAsia flies from Siem Reap too! We were lucky enough to find available tickets from Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur for Sunday, November 30th. Not many tourists have thought of that yet. We had to take a taxi to the Poipet border crossing – a 3-hour ride for 2300 baht. All other transport options were fully booked. At the border, we had to bribe a guy to get through faster. The wait time was about 3 hours. A taxi from the border to Siem Reap cost 2000 baht and took 3-4 hours. The local bus takes 6 hours due to the terrible roads. Rumor has it that an unnamed airline pays the government not to fix the road, so tourists prefer to fly instead. We had quite an eventful taxi ride when our driver hit a scooter with two people on it and just kept driving away from the scene. We saw out the back window that thankfully the two of them managed to get up. After a couple of kilometers, he felt guilty and stopped the car. He removed the license plate and put on a different cap. Then he called another driver to take us. Poipet is almost a lawless town. The locals shamelessly exploit everyone trying to get into Cambodia. They’re incredibly rude, and you just want to leave the country immediately. It’s so obvious they’re trying to scam us, but we need them to get through. Luckily, the rest of Cambodia isn’t like that! The price for a visa varies as they please. The cost of transport often doubles, and they make sure to arrive so late that people have no choice but to take the guesthouse where the bus stops – a nice commission for the driver.