'Worse than India'

Why is it every time I mention that I plan to go to India people quirk their head and twist their eyebrows out of shape?

It's starting to make me feel like I'm missing out on a big secret.

Everytime I tell someone, I pull my head back, waiting and expecting that nose-scruncher of a face. I have to fight an impulse to peak behind their back, as if it could reveal the secret.

India, in my mind, is not all that exotic. A popular, well-travelled destination, the country doesn't even seem like a full-fledged adventure.

But my opinion of and yearning to go may stem from an encounter I had with a German couple during a solo trek through Southeast Asia.

Crossing the border from Thailand to Cambodia via public transport instead of the tourist preferred tour buses, I bumped into them as I was exiting the bus.

It was the first part of a multi-vehicle, multi-hour journey across the chaotic no-man's-land that is the border.

I was clutching directions handwritten from a website on how to make it safely across. The German woman was just clutching her husband. They had no idea how to get across.

They decided to tag along with me and my list.

After the bus, we grabbed a tuktuk to get to the border where we walked, eyes gaping at the flow of impoverished humanity. Fending off touts (they weren't even deflected when I spoke Japanese to fool them... they spoke that too), we paid the police more than legally required to enter.

Then crossed the border to stand in our next line to get stamped for entry.

After that the fun began.

We flagged down one of dozens of white Toyota Camry taxis (98 per cent of the vehicles in Cambodia are Camrys).

Hours and hours were spent dodging crater-like potholes in the muddy roads. Larger vehicles showed their right of way by bullying toward you until you pulled off to the side.

Then as semis and buses waited on either side of a partially broken bridge (caving in on the north side), our taxi sped across.

The German woman began to cry, bawl on her husband's shoulder.

'This is worse than India!' she sobbed.

I was shocked. And I wanted to go.