Pulling Carts/Wagons Across The Border

At the border area of Poipet Cambodia and Aranyapthet Thailand there is a lot of trading and the transportation of goods between countries, the products are shipped via wagons pulled by hand. When the carts and wagons go back and forth between Cambodia and Thailand they are often hauled by groups of men. Usually there is one person up front pulling (horse like) and multiple people pushing from behind. The whole scene looks like some kind of ancient Egyptian slave labor pyramid building type thing (it's like they are hauling blocks of stone while being whipped). The carts are old, often made of wood, the men who pull them have to work hard to keep everything moving forward especially when the carts are loaded down and over flowing with goods (overloaded actually).

I have been told in the past that the reason they have to physically haul wagons like this across the border was because if you used a vehicle there were extra customs fees but if you dragged things across by hand in a large wagon then you did not have to pay those fees. The other obvious reason is most of the people who do this are very poor and cannot afford a car/truck for transporting goods, doing it by hand is their only option.


I shot a few flash night time shots of people hauling wagons back across the border before it closed at 8pm. In the future I might try doing a series of portraits on this subject.