A Border By Bus: Pakse, Laos to Kratie, Cambodia

The bus that took us to the border.  Behind, is the area we filled in our Visa paperwork

When Allan and I first began planning this trip, our biggest concern was the border crossing from Laos into Cambodia.

Yes, I know, crazy to be worried about a bus trip BUT the reason for our worry was the lack of information surrounding this.  For some reason, you can google "guesthouses" in the most remote areas of the world and find results but the most information on the border crossing bus trip was "Don't worry about it.  Everything works out!"

And they're right, but maybe not the way you think.

In Pakse you can buy a bus ticket anywhere really.  For our trip we choose a travel company and paid $20 USD each.  Yes, I'm sure that some people pay less and that's fine but this gave us two things:  One, a minibus ride to the edge of the border and two, a bus ride to Kratie after the border.  And yes, you will be transferring buses for sure.

The morning after the long bus trip.  The view from the top floor of the guesthouse.

Minibuses either pick you up from your guesthouse/hotel or you can walk to the travel company.  We chose the latter as it was across the street.  We jumped in the minibus at 8 am and spent the next 35 minutes picking up other people making the same or a similar journey.  (This minibus was also doing a drop off to Don Det and Don Khong.) After loading everyone in, we drove for about three hours and turned off the main road and came to a bus hub where all the people going to Cambodia (just me and Allan at this point) get off.  Then, we were herded to a man accepting our bus passes to Kratie and were told to wait.  And we did wait, for about 30 minutes.

Kratie, Cambodia.  Waiting for the next minibus to take us to Phnom Penh

At this point a different man showed up, along with a bus full of other people going to Cambodia, and he assisted us in filling out the visa application and such.  He also explained that if we paid the $30 USD each to him, that he would go into the border himself and obtain Visas for everyone, instead of us having to haggle with the border guards ourselves.  We said absolutely yes to this and gave him the $60 as well as our passports.

Then, we waited for another 30 minutes.

More people came, more paperwork was filled out and finally, we jumped aboard an old smaller bus that would be taking us to the border only.  Everyone gets in, we're seated, and about half way to the border, the bus breaks down.  The driver performs a miracle and with the help of all the boys push starting the bus, we were back on our way to the border.  About 15 minutes later, we're there.

Everyone gets their luggage/backpacks and got off the bus.  The man assisting us with obtaining the Visa (still has all our passports) walked away to the border and said he will be back in about 20 minutes.  We were then told to walk, with bags in hand, across the border as you're not allowed to be transported over.  We walk to the other side and wait, again.

Ants that bite.  We actually end up eating ants like this in Phnom Penh as part of an ant stew

An hour and a half later, we get out passports from the man who was helping us all and a bus has shown up to take us on the next leg of the journey.  Unfortunately, as is common practise, too many tickets have been sold and people are now sitting in the aisles but we're all on board and making the trek.

The roads from the border to Kratie are some of the worst roads we've ever encountered.  The potholes were so bad that everyone aboard the bus was bouncing away and some people were getting very sick.  Then, after driving about an hour, the bus breaks down.

Mekong River fishing boat

If this were Canada, we'd have been waiting for a long time for another bus to come BUT it was almost like they were prepared for this, about 45 minutes later a bus came and we all grabbed our luggage and moved to the next bus.  10 minutes later we're on the bumpy road again.

There was one quick dinner stop along the way and after 12 hours, we arrived in Kratie unscathed.  (The journey was originally quoted as taking 6 hours.)  But we made it!!

Regardless of time it took, the system worked and everyone who originally said "Don't worry about it.  Everything will work out" was absolutely right.