Border Crossing - an experience
This is the first-time experience for me to travel to Vietnam over
land through Phnom Den/Takeo - Tinh Bien/An Giang province border crossing. We
arrived the border around 12.15pm after our quick lunch in Cambodia side. Two
observations to share from each side of the border.
At Cambodia side where we stopped to have lunch, the restaurant also
housed a dental care clinic. We were quite curious of the small unit within but
didn’t say much. As we were having our lunch, one monk came in for a dental
check. That drew our attention. We then continued to observe but about three
minutes later, the monk left the dental unit with such a satisfied walk. We
were dead curious. How could a dental check-up be done in such a quick way! But
the so-called dentist also left and close his unit door nicely. This made us
have a closer look and first saw the certificate: There is no name of
enterprise registered which is fairly common in rural Cambodia. Once
accompanied a foreign friend on a rural trip, he exclaimed after an hour or so
that Cambodia does have many dental care. “What is the quality of the care
like?” he asked me. This get me to observe and I agree that we do have a lot of
‘dental care’.
Well, we could never really understood what the dental issues of
the monk but it was an interesting observation and our team did have a lot of
laugh observing the certificate.
Scenic view of An Giang at the border check-point.
Photo by
author.
After crossing the border into Vietnam side, it was really hot and
there was literally no trees or shade to sit under. We were not sure what to do
next as the appointment with our counterpart was at 1pm and it was just around
12.30pm. While we appeared undecided, few motordups guy came to us and asked if
we want to ride to town. We were debating whether or not to get to town. Three
motordup came around and negotiated; they asked 10,000R (2.5USD) each to get to
a 2Km town ahead. We bargain to 2$ they didn’t agreed. So we decided to wait and
have some soft drink (luckily there was a store there). The ‘leading’ motordup
guy curse under his breath for our bargain and for his decision not to take us
there for 2$. They still came around us and sat with us asking if we would
change our mind because it was really hot. We didn’t. and I order a lemon tea
for myself and my colleague. We enjoyed chit chat with the motordup guy and the
soft drink seller, learn a few basic vietnames to get us around such as ‘what
is water in Vietnamese? What is rice? How to say very delicious?’ and so on. As
we chatted away, we took few photos and then our minibus arrived and we bid
goodbye.
This experience leaves me a great message.
Human beings are great at communicating and trying to communicate to one
another; even though we didn’t speak a common language we could start learning
to each other, give smiles and say thank you for the time and company. When we
travel, it is very useful to smile, and try using a few local language terms
even though your pronunciation might not be as great. But believe it or not, it
was a fun experience of border crossing day.
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