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Writer's pictureGunilla Jensen

Border crossings

I have crossed many land borders on this journey, and they are always interesting. Beyond the border lies a different country, and I always have a bit of culture shock, how different things are on the other side of the line.



I had thought that the Chinese border crossing was going to be one of the more challenging crossings, but it ended up being one of the easiest. I crossed with the pedestrians and received a lot of assistance both in and out of China, so I didn't have to negotiate difficult gates or have trouble with the paperwork.



Going through a border crossing with a bicycle is always a little challenging, because I don't belong with the pedestrians, and I don't belong with the cars. After I cross a land border, I loose internet access and I have no money, so the first two things I do are finding an ATM and getting a new local Sim card. Following, I need a new flag to fly from my bicycle.



The longest time it took to cross a border was five and a half hours. It was the border between UAE and Saudi Arabia. My brother and I were travelling by bus from Dubai to Riyadh. We arrived at the border at 7.45pm and were through immigration on both sides a couple of hours later. Then, all bus passengers were ordered to take all their belongings off the bus for x-ray, and we were split into separate waiting rooms for men and women. The bus we came on was then very thoroughly searched, while we waited for a few hours. I ended up helping another woman with a toddler and a baby, so she could feed her children, while her husband was in the other waiting room. It was 1.15am, five and a half hour later and in the middle of the night when all was complete, and we were back on the bus heading for Riyadh.



The smallest border crossing was between Cambodia and Vietnam. Paulina and I had been travelling down a deserted road by the Mekong River for 25km, when we came to the Sông Tiền border crossing. A uniformed guard asked us if we had cleared Cambodian immigration? It turned out the office was 2km back in Cambodia (photo below), so we rode back into Cambodia. The Cambodian immigration officer thoroughly inspected our passports and Vietnamese Visas and stamped us out of Cambodia. On the other side, a young Vietnamese uniformed guard was sitting in the shade under a tree. His English was quite good, and he was clearly happy with some company, so we chatted for 10 minutes. He then grabbed our passports and sorted out the paperwork, while we rested in the shade under the tree.



It took me one hour to get into the European Union from Turkey. There have been many problems with illegal immigrants, political tensions and animosity between Turkey and Greece. Military was actively keeping an eye on each other on both sides, and there were some road closures. Denmark joined the EU when I was young, and I have been on family holiday twice to Greece growing up. I had a little cry, as I cycled across the border and saw the Greek and the EU flag. I have cycled 10,000 challenging but amazing kilometres from New Zealand to the Europe.

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