Cruzando la frontera de Laos a Camboya / Crossing the Lao-Cambodian border

Salimos de Don Khong en barco rumbo a Ban Nakasang, a 18km de la frontera con Camboya. Ya habíamos odio rumores de las dificultades de cruzar la frontera sin pagar varios impuestos revolucionarios.

Cuando llegamos nos encontramos a Talia y Ricky, con quienes pasamos unos días en la isla. Como ellxs viajan en moto, habíamos quedado en encontrarnos en Stung Treng, la primera población tras pasar la frontera. Resulta que no podían entrar en Camboya con sus motos de matrícula de Laos. Aparentemente esto solo se aplica a lxs extranjerxs, pues lxs naturales de Laos si pueden hacerlo.

Tras estar un rato con ellxs mientras intentaban vender las motos en la frontera, decidieron volverse a las islas en busca de comprador@s.

Cuando fuimos a que nos sellaran el pasaporte para salir de Laos, el listo de turno nos dijo que teníamos que pagar 2 dólares cada un@. Como no le pagamos no nos selló los pasaportes. Nos fuimos muy cabread@s al lado camboyano para pagar el visado de entrada. Oficialmente son 20 dólares, pero se han hecho un cartel y lo han plastificado en el que pone que son 25 dólares por persona (soborno incluido).

Sin embargo, cuando ya nos iban a sellar la entrada en Camboya, se percataron de que no nos habían sellado la salida de Laos, y nos hicieron volver.

De muy mala hostia regresamos al puesto laosiano. El guarda no estaba todavía en la ventanilla cuando Andrea empezó a llamarle de todo y a decirle que quería irse de su país. Insistió en los dos dólares hasta que Andrea, y después yo, empezamos a darle  puñetazos y patadas a la ventanilla mientras nos cagábamos en todo.

Parece que nuestros modales le hicieron entrar en razón y rápidamente nos selló los pasaportes y nos dejó irnos.

De vuelta en el lado camboyano nos sellaron sin problemas.

Todavía nos quedaban más de 65km para llegar a Stung Treng y el calor nos estaba matando. Empezamos a progresar con mejor ritmo al atardecer, parando en los pocos sitios que había a beber algo. Al menos en el norte de Camboya hemos visto que los pueblos son mucho más pobres, y carecen en su mayoría de electricidad. Enfrían las bebidas a la antigua: un cajón con hielo.

En uno de los puestos una señora se empeñaba en enseñarnos una hoja con una foto de la luna con una cara (photoshop puro y duro) diciéndonos que era su rey. Y es que el antiguo rey de Camboya (hace tiempo que abdicó en su hijo) murió en Pekín hace unas semanas. Esa noche vimos cómo la gente miraba a  la luna y saludaban inclinándose. Estaban convencidísimxs de que la cara del difunto rey se reflejaba en la luna.

Se nos hizo de noche a casi 20km de la ciudad, y no teníamos más remedio que seguir, falt@s de dinero y comida. Un motorista nos quiso echar una mano, y nos acompañó hasta Stung Treng dándonos luz con su faro. Tuvimos mucha suerte.

We left Don Khong by boat to Ban Nakasang, 18 kilometres away from the Cambodian border. We had read about the difficulties of crossing the border without paying revolutionary taxes.

When we arrived there we met Talia and Ricky, with whom we had spent some days in the island. Because they travelled by motorbike, we had planned to meet in Stung Treng, the first town after the border. But they couldn’t enter into Cambodia with their motorbikes with a Laotian license plate. Apparently, this only applies to foreigners, because the people from Laos can do it.

After staying with them while they tried to sell their motorbikes, they decided to go back to the islands looking for buyers.

When we went to get our passports stamped to leave Laos, the policeman on duty told us that we had to pay two dollars each. He didn’t stamp our passports because we weren’t going to pay. We left in an angry mood to the Cambodian border to pay the entry visa. Officially it is twenty dollars, but they had made a sign and plasticized it in which it is written that you have to pay twenty five dollars per person (bribe included).

However, when we were going to have the entry stamp for Cambodia they realized that we hadn’t left Laos officially and they made us go back.

Very pissed off we returned to the Laotian checkpoint. The guard wasn’t still in his window when Andrea started shouting, calling him everything she could and telling him that she wanted to leave his country. He even insisted one final time in having the two dollars, but Andrea started, and I quickly followed, hitting and kicking his window while we went mad.

It seems that he understood our manners and he changed his minds; he quickly stamped our passports so we could leave.

Back in the Cambodian side we were stamped without further problems.

We still had sixty five kilometres to go to reach Stung Treng and the heat was killing us. We started progressing at a better rhythm when the sun was coming down; stopping in the few places we could find to drink something. At least in the northern part of Cambodia that we’ve seen the villages are much poorer and they lack in their majority electricity. They cool the beverages with the old method: a big plastic box with ice.

In one of the stands a woman insisted in showing us a piece of paper with a picture of the moon with a face (pure photoshop) saying it was her king. The thing is that the previous Cambodian king (he abdicated on his son some years before) died in Beijing a few weeks ago. That night we saw how the people watched the moon and paid their tribute with a bow. They were totally convinced that the face of their mourned king was reflected in the moon.

We were twenty kilometres away from the city and it was already dark. Our only option was to continue, lacking food and money. A guy in a motorbike decided to help us, and he came with us until Stung Treng illuminating our way with his light. We were really lucky.