The minibus picked us up at 7.30 am ! We were very tired as we stayed in the bar till around 2am and only had a few hours sleep between us, but i thought it would be ok we could sleep on the bus- wrong there! It was the bumpiest ride in the world, i even got air a few times from my seat. I took us about 10 minutes to reach the ferry port and about an hours wait on the ferry. We got back on the bus and after about three hours we reached the border town of Poi Pet. Poi Pet is a very poor area compared to where he had been staying but is the key crossing point between Thailand and Cambodia. It is also very popular as a gambling destination as gambling is illegal in Thailand.
We got dropped off at a Visa office/ restaurant and had to fill some forms in for our Cambodian Visa which cost 1200 baht each around £25 each. We waited for about half an hour then got back onto the bus to reach the border which took about 5 minutes.
Here we were met by two Cambodian men who helped us through the check points. He talked to us about the right things to do whilst in 'his' country. He told us to take out Thai Baht from the ATM and change them later in Cambodian Riel. We went through passport control and had some issues as they wouldnt let adam through- i think the woman was confused as we had a double entry thailand visa and thought we had overstayed! Then we had to fill out a form saying we hadnt been ill?! Great stuff.
We finally reached the bus station, i think it was about 2pm at this point. We got onto a bus which took us to another bus station! Here is where we were advised to change our money, but being here 2 days already hardly anyone uses Riel and everyone uses dollars so i think we were about fooled.
We got onto our final bus at about 230pm and adam pulled faces at kids! We were on the bus for about 3 hours which took us to Siem Reap. Near the end of the journey we pulled up at a little restaurant, were the driver conveniently washed the bus whilst we were asked if we wanted to buy food. We decided not to eat but bought a sprite, coke and small bottle of water. I asked how much and she said 60,000 riels, neither of us were sure but we just paid, since finding out it cost us £9!!!! it should of only cost about 1/2 pound around here, great scam!- Get foreigners to turn their money into Riel and then stop somewhere and charge the hell out of them. Its all in the fun of it though, and dont blame them the country is so poor.
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| Just some guys chilling |
We finally got dropped off and reached our hotel by Tuk Tuk, it was a very long journey taking about 12 hours but it was worth it!
Soph
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