Mini-bus ride from Hell?

After 10 days or so on Don Khon, I was starting to get antsy and felt it was time to go. I now had a choice to make, either 1) slowly make my way across Cambodia, stopping at a few places here and there before going to Siem Reap, or 2) heading straight there. Both had their pros & cons:
1) shorter bus rides, seeing more of Cambodia, going at my own pace
2) finally getting to see the Temples of Ankor, which I've been looking forward to for a good while, traveling with someone and sharing the costs.
I decided on option 2, the main factor being my friend Silke was also heading there and it would be more fun to see the Temples with someone. The biggest 'con' for this option was a biggie for me, a 1.5 day mini-bus ride to get from Laos to Siem Reap. Uggh.

Let me give you a feel for transportation in this part of the world, by recalling for you the 9 part journey. Be patient, it's a long post. But trust me, the trip was even longer....

1. Boat from Don Know to the mainland at Ban Nakassang (about 30 minutes). A lovely journey in Papa's boat, on a gloriously sunny morning. Made the trip along with a French couple heading to Thailand and Hanna, a Dutch girl also heading to Siem Reap. This part of the journey was preceded by more laos-Laos and blessings. Not bad for 8 o'clock in the morning!
2. Mini-bus to the Cambodian border (about 1.5 hours). Hanna and I met up with Silke at the mainland departure point. A lot of people were there already, all heading to different places in Cambodia (the border, Stung Treng, Kampong Cham, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh). We were none to quickly randomly dispatched into different mini-buses. Nothing so sophisticated as filling up mini-buses based on the destination, just a mad dash to fill them all up. And to paint you a better picture, the mini-buses in this part of the world are a van-type vehicule that usuallyhas seats for 11 passengers plus the driver (3 rows of 3, plus 2 in the front seat). The tour companies usually like to jam in a few extra people where they can, but that day I was to witness a new level of being jammed. But back to my story: Once comfortably seated in our 3 person row, in come more people so that we end up sitting 4 per row. Oh well, at least it's not far to the border...
3. Crossing the border (1 hour or so). The mini-bus stopped by a shack on the side of the dirt road. To be fair, they seem to be working on a new road, so a few years from now it should be nice. But for now, it was bumpy going. After a painless exit from Laos, we walk 200m down the road to get to the Cambodian border. This is officially no-man's-land, since we are no longer in Laos but not yet in Cambodia. All went well on the Cambodian side as well, except that I was a bit pissed off to learn that I could have just gotten my visa here for 20$ cheaper and in 5 minutes, instead of 3 days.
4. Border to Stung Treng (about 2 hours). We grabbed our luggage that had been unceremoniously dumped from the mini-van on the Cambodian side of the border, pushed it atop a new mini-van and hit the road. We are still cramped 4 to a row, but the mini-buses are getting more decrepit it seems...
5. Ferry crossing at Stung Treng (around 1 hour). Get off the bus, grab you luggage, pack it into yet another mini-bus, then walk to the ferry. Cross the river by ferry, standing along side the mini-bus with the luggage as well as the mini-bus we arrived in, now quite empty. Why? Good question. I couldn't figure it out, and no one would really explain it to us. But I just kept repeating my new mantra: Just go with the flow baby.
6. Stung Treng to Kratie (2 hours). Now were starting to talk about being seriously cramped. Yet another different, older mini-bus, that is already half-filled with cargo of some sort. Obviously the driver has a sideline in the shipping business or something... We are packed in, starting with the skinny people first, who are loaded into the back row. Since I've yet to be in the priviledged category of the skinny people of this world, I am quite happily sitting my fat-self in the middle row, with only 2 other people, albeit not skinny ones. For once, I am happy that my fatness gets me an advantage! But wait! Now that there are 4 skinny people jammed into the last row and 1 not-so-skinny person left to jam into the mini-bus, guess where he ends up? Of course, with the other not-so-skinny people in the middle row. That, plus the cargo piled up at our feet and the skinny ladies trying to push even more of it forward, made for a truly enjoyable ride. Oh joy!
7. Kratie to Kampong Cham (3.5 hours that felt like a lifetime...). Now by this time, you may imagine that my happy-go-lucky, go-with-the-flow attitude is starting to wear thin. You'd be right. I am tired, smelly and cranky, but thankfully this is the last part of the journey for today. Deep breath. Almost there. As I stand there waiting for the next mini-bus to arrive (why do we have to change buses at each stop?), I am wondering what could be in store for us next. The horribly decrepit van pulls up and we start piling in. Hanna, Silke and 1 snag the coveted first row, since they don't always pile in a 4th person there. Too narrow because of the door. Once we're well and truly packed, we notice that a group of 5 Japanese that were traveling with us all day are still hanging around, yet to be seated in a mini-bus. The driver points them in the direction of our mini-bus and a mini-revolt ensues. There is no-effin-way that we are fitting in 5 more people, say the rest of us, already seated. No way. The driver nods, smiles, and shoves 3 people in anyways. The only place available is a little foot ledge at the back of the front seats, facing the first row where the girls and I are seated. 5 minutes of fitting the puzzle pieces together, and we are now seated with our legs intertwined with the Japanese. I am basically doing the 'lambada' with an older Japanese man. Once on the road, all 6 of us shift our legs around every hour or so, to get circulation flowing again. Can I just say: thank god for my iPod? I zone out to the music and try to meditate my way through it. Not easy. And the other amazing part? Once at our destination, I see that 2 people are climbing off the top of the mini-van! One Cambodian man and one Westerner. They spent the 3+ hour trip hanging out with the luggage up top!
8. Day 2: Taxi to the bus station (5 minutes). After a restful night's sleep, sharing a room with the girls, we are rudely awoken at 6:30 AM by the tour operator who had met us at our last stop last night. He knocked on our door to tell us that the bus is leaving an hour earlier, so we need to take a taxi ($$$) with him in 30 minutes at the latest. We get ready, haul ass and get into the 'taxi', which just happens to be his car. We get to the bus station only to learn that no, the bus does not leave an hour earlier than expected. The best we could figure is that he needed more time to do the taxi service for everyone, so he got us to leave an hour earlier. The more taxi service he could do, the more money he made. Gotta love capitalism, right?
9. Final leg: A real bus, from Kampong Cham to Siem Reap (around 7 hours). The least noteworthy part of the journey was the last one, where we simply took a public bus to get to Siem Reap. Comfortable bus, not overfull. What a joy! We even had some Cambodian entertainment on TV. I couldn't understand a thing, but the Cambodians seem to love it! It kind of reminded me of 'La Petite Vie' from home. Not the type of humour that is easily translated in foreign languages...