The alarm went off at 5.45am. This had to be against the law in some countries; we had to figure out which ones and move there. We got ready while still half asleep and checked out of the hotel. We stumbled across the road to the baguette lady and ordered 3 with Laughing Cow cheese and 2 waters.

We sat on the steps of the hotel and hten Edd saw people putting their bags on the back of the bus. He got up to put our bags on and was told to stand aside and wait one minute. They were loading all the Vietnemese peoples bags and letting them on the bus first, the foreigners had to wait.

We then got on, but there was a Dutch woman already sitting in one of our seats. She explained that the seats her and her husband had been allocated did not have any leg room and he was really tall. I then explained that Edd was 6 ft 3 and these were our seats. Her squabble was with the tour company and the bad design of the bus, allocating yourself someone elses seats and making your problem theirs, was not the right way to go about it. She got up and my 6 ft 3 giraffe sat down.

After being delayed by the Dutch couple refusing to sit in the front because of minimal leg room and refusing to be split up, even though there were other seats they could sit on as an alternative, but not together, we set off for Cambodia.

We stopped at a smelly restaurant for breakfast, but the 3 of us had already eaten. We bought cold drinks (the Swiss girl had coffee) and watched the others munch away on their noodles for breakfast. We 'd discovered that we were on a bus with a tour group: some people, like us, were being dropped off in Phnom Pen and the rest were travelling around together for 3 days and then going back to HCMC. The group that were together ate breakfast in the smell, the rest of us got prepacked drinks in plastic bottles, just to be safe.

We arrived at the Vietnam border at 9.30am and one of the 'assistants' got out and handed a guard an empty water bottle with money inside. He then jumped back on and we carried on moving. The tour guide then announced that we had to take all our bags with us as we went through the border crossing 'to check' them. We grabbed our stuff and headed towards the queue for security; we'd handed our passports to the guide so he could sort our exit stamp out 'much quicker' more money handed over in water bottles, probably.

We dumped our stuff on the belt for the security X-ray and then walked through the person X-ray machine. We collected our bags on the other side and realised that there was no one sitting at the computer checking what was in our bags, nor was there an official standing at the people xrayer in case we beeped. What a joke. We then stood around and waited, for something to happen. The Swiss girl and I sat down as the wait felt like forwever, especially when no body told you anything.

Our guide came back with some of our passports and Edd and I got ours back with filled out entry cards for Cambodia. I hated filling them out, so the wait was worth it if htats what they were doing. We walked past long lines of people queuing and out the exit… we were now in no mans land.

The bus stopped and we put our bags back in the bottom of it. We were then driven a short distance to the Cambodian border and our guide checked our passports for our visas, while taking other poeoples passports to get their visas for them. Again, to get them 'quicker.'

Edd and I walked through the entry point and got stamped in. This was our 4th visa in 2 months and we were greet with a smile from the official. The only time we'd seen a Vietnamese person smile was when we asked them a question they didn't understand. We hoped that the people of Cambodia were friendlier than their eastern neighbours.

We climbed back on the bus and waited for the rest of the group to get their visas and go through the entry gate. I sat and watched a man with dwarfism walk around handing out slips of something to passers by, at one point, eyeballing a Vietnamese woman with no hint of subtlety. He then sat down in the shade and fidgeted with his bits of paper; a different Vietnamese woman walked past and put her plastic bag of rubbish on his head; she carried on walking without even as much as a backward glance. He stood up, looked around, wiped his hat and then threw the bag into the plants. I sat and hosed myself while I explained what had happened to Edd.

The bus left half an hour after it should have because of 'paperwork issues.' Edd translated this to: 'not enough bribe money.' We set off again at 12pm, stopping for a toilet break an hour later. We got 2 ice creams and munched on them as the bus set off for the last hour of our journey. It was reasonable and accurate to add 2 hours onto any bus journey you do. If they say it'll be 6 hours, you can put money and win on it being at least 7.5, probably 8.

We finally arrived in Phnom Pen, but instead of being dropped off at the tour companys office, we were dropped at a random restaurant miles away from anything. This was because they were running late and the people on tour still needed to do a city tour that afternoon, so if you weren't part of that, it was tough and you had to get off and figure your way out from there. They were really a professional bunch.

We hired a took took into the city centre which was quite far away from the no where we were off loaded at. We hadn't booked anywhere to stay and decided to have some lunch, link up to the restaurants wifi, and find places nearby. There was a western girl sitting at a table opposite from us and Edd asked her where she was staying; her reply was 'Okay Guest House' but she warned that there were a lot of stairs. We weren't to phased about this and the room rate was much cheaper than anything we'd found online up to that point, so decided to check it out.

After our lunch, which was quoted in US dollars, we made our way to the guest house. The Swiss girl and I went upstairs to check the rooms out and see if they were up to scratch, while Edd stayed downstairs with our bags and enquired about the Killing Fields, S-21 museum and a bus down to Otres Beach. The Swiss girl and I walked up the stairs, for which there were many, and checked out a few rooms. I selected a room on the 3rd floor (even though it was another flight of stairs to climb) as it was a corner room with a lot of windows and a large bathroom. (The others were the sit on the toilet and shower at the same time kind).

I went and fetched Edd and my bags downstairs and we made our way up the million stairs journey to our room for the next 2 nights. He was duly impressed with the room, as was I, and we unpacked our bits, had a shower and got our washing together. The Swiss girl went in search of a nail salon and Edd and I relaxed for a while on the bed, me blogging and him reading the news.
We left for dinner just after 7pm as we were meeting the Swiss girl at the night market and it was quite a walk there. We noticed lightening flashes in the distance and it started to thunder; Edd and I crossed the road to walk along the river and he pointed out the curtain of torrential rain headed our way. We quickly crossed back so we could seek cover under the roof of a restaurant and it hit with massive force. The local children, who were initially walking around trying to sell armbands hanging from a coat hanger, gave up in their efforts and traded them for some fun in the rain. One little boy, about 2 years old, ran around completely naked, while others got drenched in their clothes from that day. They squealed, sang and danced in the water that was draining off the roof like a waterfall. Edd took a few videos of them playing and we all sat and watched while we waited for the storm to pass. The Swiss girl was further down from us and enquired as to where we were going to meet her at the night market; Edd then asked her if she had not seen the recent weather change and she replied immediately saying it had only just hit, the night market was obviously not going to be on any more. We picked a corner restaurant, a few shops further down from the one we'd eaten at, at lunch, and she joined us for dinner.
The rained passed and we were able to walk back to the guesthouse in the cool night air; we crossed over the road and walked along the river like we had done earlier, having to dodge the large, newly formed puddles. It wasn't an early night for us, going to bed after 10pm, but we had a jam-packed day of touristy activities the next day and had to get up and be ready by 8am as we had a prebooked took took and were being collected for our excursion.