👩🌾 Slo-Mo Gardening & 🛃 A Brief Illegal Entry Into Thailand
I've been quite busy this week, but I managed to snap a few pics, smash them together, and call it a post for your possible enjoyment.
Rainy Season On The Way 🌧️
We've had a guest staying with the past few days, an old friend I haven't seen for many years, so the last few days I've been conversating and cooking a lot. This has left me with little time for a blog post, but I've done my best to keep ASEAN Hive trodding along. We recently drove to the Thai border to see if there was any news about the upcoming international border crossing. Much to our surprise the soldiers told us the border will open on April 1st, but then proceeded to go under the gate and invite us to come along.
We had never been allowed before to enter the in-between countries zone, and it was quite interesting, and as we talked the soldiers took us all the way to the Thai gate where there were Thai soldiers with machine guns. I was shocked when the soldiers took us under the gate and we walked a 100 meters into Thailand where we saw a 4-lane highway and high-voltage powerlines. Even though we weren't able to communicate with the Thai soldiers, I was surprised how relaxed they were about a few foreigners and some Cambodian soldiers entering their country through a closed border crossing without visas.
Border Opening Soon 🛃
I didn't take any pictures because I knew it was a sensitive issue and not technically legal, but it was quite exciting to casually enter another country without paperwork and then walk back across the border. After arriving home the rainy season seemed to follow us, and we've received the first bits of rain in many months, and perhaps soon Pov won't have to manually water the garden. When I noticed her watering the garden, I asked to play with the hose for the awesome GIF thumbnail you saw at the beginning of this post.
In less than two weeks busloads of international tourists will be passing by our house daily, so it's a very exciting time. Unfortunately our property isn't fully ready for guests, but within a few months I hope we'll be able to begin advertising and hosting overnight stays. The new border crossing will also increase the value of our land greatly in case we need to sell it one day for a move abroad or in order to repay the loan that got us this land. That's all for now, stay tuned for April when we till take a trip to Thailand for some shopping and to potentially see the ocean.....
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What an amazing juxtaposition of the innocent water gif (agree, it's pretty cool too), and the story about the machine guns on the border, and guards inviting each other over, not to mention civilians including a foreigner!!! How bizarre!
Only yesterday I was strolling through the city and I happened to pass by the Berlin wall memorial, with pieces of it left standing, others indicated by steel rods you could walk between, while most of it is kept in memory by a line drawn on the pavement, running across the city. But at the memorial site they had photos and brief life summaries of the people who were murdered trying to cross.
Yes, I am back in Germany. The reason has to do with precisely the same kind of heavily guarded border, namely that of the United States, which I am trying to cross - preferably more than just once a year. A long story, but I feel it is the same story so many of us share, including you.
It was a strange experience, and I was surprised because usually the Thai police and soldiers take their jobs more seriously than their Cambodian counterparts. Their little outpost was much cleaner and their grass manicured professionally. Also they had their berets on perfectly, their boots laced tight, and even their shirts tucked in, so it was doubly entertaining to see them laughing and talking about us, not at all concerned we had entered illegally and were basically just loitering and exchanging stories for 30 minutes.
Funny you mention Berlin, one of the Cambodian guards had lived in South Korea many years, and he compared the difference when crossing over like going from North Korea to South Korea. I haven't seen a modern 4-lane highway and high-voltage power lines for ages. Well, like you, we hope to one day cross the USA border when it's legal and possible for us all to go as a family united. If it's never possible, at least we have carved out an interesting life here in Cambodia.
That's right: may the day come sooner rather than later, when we can cross borders between countries like how we cross between time zones. Not only that, but being able to stay on whichever side for as long as we want, work or study what we want, marry who we want, and in general live our life the way we want, all over the world.
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I'm not aware of the rules regarding border crossing between Cambodia and Thailand, but in Suriname and French Guyana, there's some sort of unofficial unspoken "agreement". Because some Maroon villagers at the border have close familial ties with those at the French Guyanese border, the villagers cross without having a visa.
That's why we've also entered French Guyana till Saint Laurent (city at the bordering Suriname) without having a visa. We weren't able to travel further though and only went to buy some groceries.
Hope you get enough guests soon, because we know how hard ya'll have worked. The progress is evident.
It is definitely not like that hear. There is no backtrack into Thailand that Thai guards turn a blind eye to. However, Thailand needs factory workers from Cambodia, and they would prefer to have illegal immigrants over registered foreign workers with visas because they can kick them out of the country without pay whenever they want.
On the border with Thailand there is usually a system though where Cambodians can cross over with ID only during the day for shopping and other things, but they must return before 6pm or they become an illegal alien. My wife is in the process of getting a new ID card so that she can cross like this once the border opens. For me though, I will have to get stamps and full-page passport visas each time I cross, so it's likely I will fill my passport with visas long before it expires. It would probably be cheaper and wiser to get a one-year Thai tourist visa for myself, but first I'll have to research it a bit and see if I am eligible.
It really baffles me reading this and I keep asking myself why the animosity between these Asian countries. Yes, they differ in some ways, but still.... I should really learn more about the history of the Asian continent.
Ok, is it cheaper to shop there or because it's closer for you guys or maybe can't find certain items in Cambodia?
The 1-year-visa will also keep your passport from getting over stamped, because getting a new one for u is also a long process, no?
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Interesting how loose the border guard is. Imagine if this is north Korea 🤣
Ok. Finger crossed on the opening. I also believe it may bring together with other trouble when the foreigners pouring in, such as bunch of Chinese rich fag started pulling out dirt from your neighbouring soil.
Aside all that, these pictures of Pov seems like an enlarged version of monkey B 🤣
I am still surprised how relaxed the Thai guards were about us trespassing, especially considering the Cambodian guards were wearing a mix of street clothes and camouflage, while the Thais had their boots laced to tight and their shirts tucked in so tight I would imagine it's hard to breathe. Things will certainly change soon, probably not overnight, but I imagine Thai tourists will begin to explore beyond the casino and eventually western tourists will venture further in, perhaps all the way to our place.
You're right, more and more with time I can see my wife's characteristics in our children.
naughty naughty entering Thailand without permission. I think a lot of people that live in these areas do this on a regular basis. That sounds like a pretty exciting adventure to be hanging out with friendly dudes with machine guns though.
There are definitely plenty of roads that run right across the border with little demarcation, but I have never seen any on the Thai side. I have definitely seen plenty on Vietnamese side where even the no-go in between zones often have several people living in them, causing me to wonder what nationality they have. Soon we'll be shopping in Trat like modern humans, and we will feel much less isolated here.
It's a good sir @justinparke that you loved to rain in your place not like ours that we overthink when the rainy seasons start. I missed having a vegetables in our side we can't plant anymore and need to buy all the stuff needed
Except for three months each year we have more than enough water, but it is difficult to grow here because the soil is almost pure clay. I think it will take us a long time to work organic material and roots into the clay to begin making it a suitable medium for gardening.
In here, we experienced extremely heat because of the summer. Every month of March to May, summer season hit our country.
Here that time of year is very hot also, but it's often not that bad because there always clouds and rain to cool things down.
Youre place is very lucky, here in our country no rains happend and the land starting to crack.
Nice to hear some positive news. Cool to hear about the border crossing. You must have felt like a famous person ;<)
It was pretty weird, awkward, and fun all at the same time. I hope to get very friendly with guards on both sides because this border could one day be the place where keep extending my visa month-by-month instead of year-by-year.
by bribing guards with your or sreypov's awesome food? ;<)
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At first, I feel in love with your thumbnail, it looks so professional. I love your shots too
I love making GIFs in Shotcut, so much that I even purposefully shoot slo-mo videos for GIFs when I see something I feel would be interesting in slow motion. Anything with water splashing is always good, sort of the low-hanging fruit of the GIF world 😁🤣🙏👊
Wao, you must be really good in video production or are you an editor??
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ក្លាយជាអ្នកចំការហើយប្អូនស្រីរបស់ខ្ញុំ សូមអោយបារមីនៅទីនោះថែរក្សាប្អូននិងក្រុមគ្រួសារ
Some day I hope, but now we are so busy with construction and preparing the land for guests. I hope you come visit again soon sister.
where I even excess rain. And I'm very happy
Now the rainy season is here, no more water pumping required. We can now survive on rainwater collection for the next 9 months.
Amen, God is indeed the most merciful, always gives grace to his people.
Yay! 🤗
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