typical means of transport

typical means of transport
Originally uploaded by Asia Trip2007.

I boarded the bus early the next morning to Suong, an hours drive away, where I then connected with another bus direct to Siem Reap.
On this bus I met a couple of interesting folks Larry from Arkansas (who had basically no accent what so ever so it was hard to tell he was american. He said he had been travelling most of his life from age 16 on. He said his Mother was an evangelical catholic and his dad was a pure hardcore redneck and he has no idea what happened but somewhere between 'dark side of the moon' and Woodstock, he relized he needed to leave home, on his own journey. He sort of looked like raffy with a long beard done into a braid, carried his guitar everywhere he went and wore Hindi style clothing all beautifully simple and of a light cotton) and Alon from Iseral (who was heading to Vietnam next and also lugged around his guitar with him). We talked about our experiences in Cambodia so far and had some laughs. But when I disemarked from Suong on towards Siem Reap, they continued on to Phnom Penh.
This photo was taken through the bus window (hence the slight cloudiness) in bus # 2. This is one of the very common ways to get where you want to go from smaller towns to main towns. You pay around 3-5 dollars more, to be squished into one of the 5 seats in the front cab, everyone else gets a spot in the back including animals, motorbikes, gasoline tanks and any number of other things. It's a bumpy journey I don't ever want to have to take, and haven't had to yet. The truck generally drives much slower than normal traffic (because it's so weighted down) but as people get off at their desinations it gets more dangerous for the remaining people, as the truck goes faster and there is more room to fall out, instead of the tight pack of bodies that seem to be a buffer over bumps.