Last night the night watchman at our guest house said if we wanted a pickup to Siem Reap in the morning, he could arrange it for us. He was very polite and spoke good English, and we trusted him. Dave and I talked it over and decided to do it. It would cost US$4 for each bike and US$5 for each of us to ride up front in the a/c cab of the pickup.

So this morning we got up and packed and were ready at 7:30 for the pickup. When we went out front the night watchman said he found a bus instead, and the price would be the same. Dave thought that sounded like too much according to an American we met at the train station, but we said OK. A few minutes later when we came out again, he apologized and said the bus had gone to re-fuel. Then he disappeared on his motorbike. Later he came back, apologized, said the bus had decided to go another way and that he had arranged for a pickup to come get us right now and take us to Siem Reap. When the old Nissan extended cab pickup pulled up a couple of minutes later, it was packed with about 25 people in back and had five adults and three infants in the cab. The night watchman said I should ride up front and Dave would be in back, with the bikes tied on the very back, behind some speakers that were tied onto the open tailgate.

The prospect of over 100 km of what we experienced yesterday with none of it being paved made us take the pickup even though it looked scary and crazy. Dave has done this before in South America but I’ve never seen anything like this. I have to say, I had it easier than Dave. I sat in the back of the cab sharing a seat with two small men and a woman with a baby. It was sometimes air-conditioned and had some great Cambodian music playing from a tape. Dave, however, sat on a metal rail for three hours over hot, bumpy and dusty roads, sharing the back with as many as 28 people and stopping numerous times along the way to let off or take on more people and re-tying the cargo nearly every time.

Even though it was worse than riding, it took probably 1/3 or 1/4 of the time it would have taken to ride, and we arrived in Siem Reap about noon.