Soooo on Saturday our 'girly trip' to get a Business Visa began. Myself along with a few other volunteers took a 2 1/2hr taxi ride to the Thai border, Poipet....The same route that I will be cycling in a few weeks time, although today I think I will be a bit more comfortable! So with our ice coffee mixed with a shazza (a cheeky bit of alchohol) of caramel vodka, we were off! We stayed in 'no-mans land' (between Cambodia and Thailand) at a hotel called Casino.. And yes the hotel was FULL of casinos! This is because on no-mans land nothing's really illegal. It was a lovely room and we all had a great night gambling and making the most of free drinks...we couldnt go wrong.

It was an early start the next day and to my horror i was beginning to feel sick....think i had eaten somthing bad. Imodium was needed...but I didnt have any with me (learnt from my mistake) so I sailed on not allowing it to destroy my day. We then crossed over the boarder to Thailand, it was such a thrill, to think we had reached another country in 2 hours, and Thailand at that. We had heard that there was a new Tescos that had just been built so we went on the look out for it by tuk tuk. After 4 hours in Tescos looking at chicken feet and other delights, we thought it was time to go shopping in the famous market. By the end of it we were laiden with many things for ABC's and Rice..mission accomplished!

The day was coming to an end and we were due to get picked up by the same taxi as before....little did I know however that I was about to have a weird few expereinces.......

Applying for my business visa was easier than at the airport (they finally gave me the right one!) however the customer service was interesting..... So I got called to collect my passport and the officer who gave it to me suddenly asked 'do you have a boyfriend'...with queues of people behind and to the side of me and knowing how I collected my visa before I new this wasnt a standard question...I looked at him strangely.... 'erm yes' I replied....'you are married him?'( great English)....I knew this was weird 'erm why do you ask?' by this point I had my hand on my passport trying to get it off of him. 'You marry me'? (don't panic Will ha) he responded. 'Can i just have my passport please?' and as I grabbed it and turned away he whispered 'I love you'!...red faced, shocked and horrified that an officer had proposed to me I made a quick exit whilst the other girls planned the wedding!

We then waited for our taxi to turn up... knew this wouldn't be a painless task....we phoned him and he told us to take a tuk tuk to certain place and he'll pick us up, which is what I remember him saying when he dropped us off....... an hour later at the place he sent us to (which wasnt the nicest) with kiddies begging for money, he still hadn't arrived and now wasn't picking up his phone. Two hours later we thought we would ask for another taxi for $30, they agreed but when it turned up they wanted $80! We decided at this point that walking back to the border and taking a taxi from there was easier, so will the man from the $80 dollar taxi now chasing us, getting out and then shouting at us, we tried to ignore him, passing very interesting things on the way (one of which was a huge dog and a little dog attached by the big ones you know what due to his excitement..it was horrid) By the time we made it back to the border the taxi driver who was chasing us had informed all the other taxi drivers not let us in their cars...even the police said 'that taxi' pointing at his....we certainly weren't about to get in a loony's car who would probably take us to the unknown...so we went back to the hotel and sorted out what we were going to do over dinner. Nine margaritas later we booked into the hotel for one more night.....Girly weekend! Forgetting about the whole mess we decided to gamble and drink and 'shazza' it up (yes they were quite happy about us pouring our own alcohol in their drinks!). With our table slowly filling up with gamblers we took a liking to the 'Okay Cheers' game (say it and drink everytime someone wins chips on roulette).

Tescos, market, marriage proposal, a scam followed by me getting sick.... certainly an unforgettable weekend.

x