Today we were up early to get a tuk tuk to the bus station at 7:30am. When we told him what we wanted to do, he tried diverting us to a private company, costing us valuable time. Luckily, when we were taken to the office we were too late. The tuk tuk then raced us 45minutes to the station. We got there with minutes to spare and a tuk tuk bill of 500thb. We grabbed our bus tickets (465thb) which would take us to Poipet, the border & jumped on the bus. This was the start of a very long journey.

Scam 1 - Buy a visa on the bus for double the price (Luckily we had read about this and said NO!)

Possible Scam 2 - Putting our bags on another bus to make room for 2 mopeds in the baggage compartment under the bus. When we refused to put our bags on another bus he put them in the aisle of the bus. (But not just ours, about 8 peoples)

When we arrived at the border we were told to get off, leaving our bags on the bus! We were told they would meet us at the other side. This panicked us at the thought of losing our bags - All our stuff is new!! haha! The 6 Cambodian's with their faces covered also worried us when getting off the bus! (It turns out it is just very hot and they are being very sensible!!)

Once off the bus we were told to walk over the border (No mans land - filled with people which looked like they were from back in Cambodian Cowboy times, pulling carts and chewing tobacco ... a very strange place. Luckily we got chatting to a girl from Oz who had done this 6 times so she became the leader of any English speakers but even she said she hated it each time and it was the worst border crossing. The first passport control was a breeze. We then found the second building that had no sign posts to it. Here we needed our visas. Scam 3 hit... Give them the 30USD for the visa but also a 100thb bribe! Not sure what the bribe was for as we had done the correct proceedures! We hung around for our little group so we were all safe, until 'The American'decided to take 'A Selfie' in immigration! This caused it's own problems - them checking her camera/bag! Then again outside, we don't think she got the wolf pack mentality that the rest of us had, causing her to be left behind in battle! The 3rd and final building was in sight, where we filled out the same form AGAIN! However this time they took our finger prints and photos, there will probably be a clone of us somewhere!!

Then the best thing happened.... we saw our driver with our bags! After an hr and a half wait for the rest of the bus to pass through immigration we set off on a 2.5hr drive to Siem Reap. On arrival our bags were put into a 'KIND' mans office while we got off; this man also offered everyone a free tuk tuk to their hostel.... yes whatever!! A free tuk tuk if you booked a full day with them tomorrow. Again we said no and asked to pay (3USD for 10mins) Extortionate we know but we didn't care! By this point it was dark & pulling up at a simple hostel wasn't the best. We put our bags in the room, grabbed anything important & headed out. After hearing many horror stories along the way we were very on edge. We had a wander around & finally stopped for food. We got talking to an American couple who were well travelled. They gave us some words of wisdom.... get some grapefruit extract to calm your stomach. Finally we headed back for what we thought would be a well earned rest.

PLAN 1 - We climbed into our mosquito repellent sleeping bags and zipped them around our heads. After 10mins we were pouring with sweat and had to get out.

PLAN 2 - turn on the fan on high.

PLAN 3 - Sleep with them unzipped but over us.

PLAN 4 - Stay awake all night with the light on! At this point we felt very homesick & questionned what we were doing!

PLAN 5 - STAY POSITIVE! Turn the light off and get back in the sleeping bag.

10mins later... PLAN 6 - Get out and get the single mosquito net. Here Matt's engineering skills were put to the test.... chairs, tie wraps, string... nothing worked.

PLAN 7 - Feeling even more sorry for ourselves we wrapped the mosquito net around ourselves, propped up with a big bag and all important things under our heads! Around 3am we drifted off, still with the light on!

C & M xx