Exciting bus ride to the border crossing

Our border crossing from Vietnam to Cambodia is even worth a little extra entry!

Since the weather was still reported to be rainy for the next few days, we decided to skip the island of Phu Quoc and travel directly to Cambodia. The thought "We will see enough beautiful islands" was my only consolation!

Together with Chiara and Marvin, we booked a bus for the early morning. This time it was only a small bus and we already noticed that something was wrong when we got on. A woman apparently had her phone stolen (she had briefly left the bus and when she returned her phone was gone). At first, she remained relatively calm and only searched the entire bus. Then her anger increased more and more and she started screaming hysterically throughout the bus. We and the other 7 passengers on the bus were eventually endlessly annoyed and by now the whole bus was screaming in Vietnamese. Of course, we didn't understand a word and even the earplugs in my ears couldn't block out the screaming. Then the good drive began. Since there were hardly any people on the bus, we all sat on individual seats to have more space. Finally, the still screaming woman sat down on the back seat right behind me, next to another man. Suddenly, I was afraid that she suspected one of us because we didn't understand what she was saying. Had we landed in the madhouse again? Does something annoying have to happen on every bus ride?

And have I already mentioned how much I hate taking the bus in Asia???

After the situation initially seemed to calm down briefly, it escalated. The man on the back seat apparently really stole her phone and now the screaming came from all sides of the bus. The woman pulled on the man's jacket, but he made no move to return the phone. Instead, he jumped up, whirled the woman around, and they had a real fight right on my seat. I held my breath and for the first time on the trip, I felt real panic and had a pulse of 200. What if he pulls out a weapon now? How can I help the woman without getting involved and getting beaten up too? We were all frozen. She tore apart his entire jacket, the man pushed the woman to the ground and wanted to flee from the bus. Luckily for us, there was a police station nearby where the bus was headed. The policemen who lazily and sleepily stumbled to our bus didn't have much interest in the whole drama, but they took both of them to the station and after a short half-hour without the two screamers, we could finally continue.

In all the excitement, I had completely forgotten about the panic for the upcoming border crossing and by now I didn't care anymore. Fortunately, we were able to go through the checkpoint this time without any hassle and we were already in Cambodia!

And I'm already curious about what awaits us on our next bus ride...