The border with Thailand about 15km from my house recently opened for one day, so I shuttled my wife, kids, and in-laws to Thmor Da for a crossing.

😷 Pre-COVID Land Border Reopens 🛃

     The border crossing with Laem Klat, Thailand, has been closed every since my wife and I moved here roughly two years ago. "Here" is Steung Kach in Pursat Province, Cambodia, by the way, adjacent to Trat Province over in Thailand. Once upon a time in a pre-COVID world, this border crossing was open for crossings by local residents from both sides of the border, but it was never an international crossing.

     In April of last year an announcement was made that this border would re-open as an international crossing, and it was so close to happening that Governor of Pursat Province came and made a big speech about it, a date was set for the opening, etc. Well, fast forward to now, Cambodia has a new Prime Minister, Thailand has gone through some changes as well, and the deal is no longer on the table despite the Chinese having already built a casino and an entire mini economy based around the casino on this very border.

🎰 Abandoned Casinos 🎲

     There are actually two casinos on this border, and one of them you can see in the above photo. This is the Khmer casino, but it's been shuttered for at least a year because it's main source of income was pre-COVID Thai gamblers using the local border crossing located at the end of the driveway to this monstrosity. The Khmer casino stayed open for awhile after COVID, but wasn't able to survive on Khmer gamblers alone, and the Chinese only gamble in Chinese casinos, so it's future was pretty grim.

     With only one day to react, we heard a rumor that the border was going to open for only one day because of a beach festival on the Thai side. This was pretty exciting, especially because even though we live right next to the sea, a roughly 1 km wide strip of Thailand prevents us from access to it due to imaginary lines known as borders, and of course bureaucracy too.

🚐🚗 Khmer-avan 🚙🛻

     I was 99% sure I wasn't go to be allowed to cross the border, but I went anyways because everyone kept insisting I go and that I'd be allowed to enter Thailand. I honestly went along just to make everyone not feel sad for me and also to shoot some pics of the caravan crossing over without me in tow. I brought my passport along that strangely enough has a valid Thai visa in in because of a mandatory international crossing I had to perform only a week prior to this.

     I parked my tuk-tuk a few kilometers from the border at a friend's house, then we combined our passengers in hopes the Cambodian and Thai border guards would let him drive over the border despite not having insurance, a driver's license, or even a valid ID. To my surprise the guards said he was good to go, so I rejoiced that my wife and kids would finally be able to see what's on the other side of the imaginary lines that we stupid humans use to divide ourselves and prevent global citizenship.

     I am pretty friendly with all the guards because I often bring guests to this gate to take selfies, and once we even walked across and met Thai soldiers hung out for an hour and came back. I didn't get to see much then except that Thailand has green mowed grass, soldiers that lace their boots tight and tuck their shirts in, smooth multiple lane highways, high voltage power lines, and many other signs of modernity.

🛻 Yota', Permission Granted 🛃

     The guard that took us across back then had once lived in S. Korea and visited the N. Korea border. He said the difference between both sides of the border here is about the same, at least as far as poverty and development goes. Okay, back to the present, I hopped out of the truck and snapped some pics of the truck before running over and doublechecking with the guards that I wouldn't be allowed to join the Cambodian convoy.

     The guards were a bit bummed to tell me the Thai government only invited Cambodians to be a part of this beach festival and crossing. I had already known this would be the outcome, but I just wanted to do the formalities to make my wife, kids, friends, and in-laws feel better. I walked back to the truck and pretended to be surprised that I was denied access to Thailand. My convoy of Cambodian homies seemed relieved to see me get denied access in a sense, mostly because if I hadn't gone along, they all would've believed I could've joined them and was simply being anti-social.

     Well, what can I say, at least I speak fluent Khmer and have the cell phone numbers of many border guards here, haha. One day I aim to be the first non-Cambodian or Thai to officially cross this border for a non-emergency. If you want to see how awesome the beach adventure was you'll have to read my wife @sreypov's or my oldest daughter @srey-yuu's blog posts. This day ended with me functioning as a humble tuk-tuk driver, so I hired a soldier to give me a moto ride back to my tuk-tuk where I began the one-hour drive back home. Border FAIL yo'

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