Pre Trip Dramatics

This trip is not without a lot of drama.

D-R-A-M-A.

I do cling to His promise that all things work together for God to them that love Him. So despite the late arrival of my authority to travel and our atras-abante, to book or not to book a plane going to Bangkok, it was as uneventful as it can be. Not.

The Cambodia-Thailand border was closed to visa runners starting September something. How wonderfully convenient that it coincided with the month we were going there. It had to do with the bombings that happened in Bangkok. Apparently, the bomber was able to bribe his way to Thailand through the Cambodian border. So were faced with the decision of either buying a flight to Bangkok OR going on a landtrip.

The latter sounds tempting. I'm all for adventures and unpredictable journeys. I had a companions anyway so safety wouldn't be much of an issue. But after searching online, I found out that it was a bloody long trip from Siem Reap-Vientiane-Bangkok. One blogger even said it took him 48 hours. So it was with much trepidation that we received the news.

Meanwhile, other sources told us that the border was open. So really, unless we reach the border personally and see for ourselves whether we would be rejected or admitted, I felt like we were in a limbo. But then, praying about it and leaving it all in His will made it easier.

The plane ticket would set us back 3,500Php more or less. I was thinking of making that deduction from my pasalubong budget already. Haha. I wouldn't be doing a lot of shopping since this really is a SHOESTRING budget travel. My conscience was pricked on the question of whether or not this was a purposeful travel. I had previously made the resolution not to travel on a mere whim or for the sake of traveling. It had to have meaning. Not really a soul searching thing because for me trips are vacations; it's a great way occasion to just kick off the proverbial tight shoe, and lounge with a good book and catch up on sleep. But that has never really happened to me. I do a lot of walking during my trips.


But our booking always had a glitch so we decided to stick with the original plan of entering via the Poi Pet border. We were taking our chance since we weren't visa runners anyway.


Soooo much of the pre-trip dramatics. Will be posting details of my Twin Country Amazing Race-Like Trip soon! This one was definitely for the books. My best and worst trip ... yet. Incredibly exhausting but exhilarating at the same time. Keep posted!