Yesterday was a really long day of travel! We didn't have to leave the island until 11am, so this gave us a bit of time to finish packing and get some breakfast before we left.
We headed down to the beach where the boats leave from about 20 to 11 and there were already about 40 people waiting. When we left Siem Reap the guy at the minivan office who explained the border crossing to us had said not to bother with the 11am boat and now we could see why! However, the guy we booked our bus tickets with came down at just after 11, so we headed over to see him and ended up being on of the first on the boat!
Once we got to the mainland we had to walk up to the bus station and exchange our bus ticket for another one. It was then a wait until someone called out something which sounded like where we were going! Shane checked it was the right bus and we were lucky enough to be one of the last to get a seat! This finally left at 12.30 and arrived at Pakse just before 3. When we got off the bus we were taken to a different, bigger and nicer bus! A couple of girls who had been on the kayak trip with us the day before were also on this bus and headed to Thakek as well which made us feel better about being in the right place! It wasn't long until this bus headed off and we settled in with our iPods for the journey. About 3 hours in our bus was pulled over by some official looking people to be searched. They were pulling over any large vehicle so we figured it wouldn't be too long. When the third person came to the back of the bus and shone his torch around we realised that they were actually looking for something. I hadn't given it much thought but we had chosen our seats as they had put in different ones that have much more leg room. It turns out this was because the floor in that leg room could be lifted off to get into a secret space! They had also noticed a hollow bit at the back and ripped out some of the bus to check this out. About an hour later once they were happy with what they had found they let us go, only for us to be pulled over multiple more times but not for quite as long. Depending on who you asked we were due to arrive in Thakek between 7 and 9pm, but it was actually almost midnight by the time we reached the bus station. Grateful that we had somewhere booked, as it was cold and we were tired, we headed over to a group of tuk tuks and agreed to the first price they gave us. Instead of taking us straight there though, he drove around the bus station until he had crammed as many people as he could into the back! Finally we headed off, dropping off the girls who we had met on the bus first and hen heading to where we had booked where the other couple on the tuk tuk were also staying.
At about 1am we were in our room and ready to go to sleep! It is one of the strangest places we have stayed though! The room has loads of random and mismatched furniture, including two disgusting pink armchairs! It has everything we need though and will be fine for our base whilst in Thakek.
Today we started with a bit of a lie in and then went for a walk along the river, where you can see Thailand over on the other side!
We are hoping to book a trip to the Kong Lor caves for tomorrow as that's what we are here to see, but there doesn't seem to be much around! Hopefully with a bit more walking we will be able to find somewhere!