Due to Nige's heatstroke and the non-changeable flight from Siem Reap to Krabi we'd booked for the 18 of August, our time in Cambodia was more than halved, so we cut the first week off our itinerary and instead of traveling through through the south, we headed straight to the capital Phnom Penh, in the centre of the country. We had spent the night in Trat, a nice little town, still in Thailand but close to the border, after hearing that the Cambodian border town, Koh Kong, where we needed to sort out our onward journey, was a bit rough and ready. We had been assured that we could make it in time to get the daily 8am boat if we left Trat on the 6am bus, but by the time we'd got there, walked across the border, lined up and filled out the numerous forms need for our visa the boat was long gone! Koh Kong itself is about 15 minutes drive from the border. Luckily there were a few other travellers with us in the visa-office who we'd got chatting to, so when we walked over the border and were absolutely flooded with people offering us rides into town on their bikes, taxis, buses, etc, there was some comfort in numbers - we decided on a taxi-driver who promised to drop us at the bus-station in Koh Kong. He didn't. He dropped us at a guesthouse in Koh Kong that had a mini-bus service. Close, I guess. He insisted there was no bus station in Koh Kong, which we knew wasn't true, but the mini-bus looked okay and it seemed pretty easy, so we paid the US$15 each and set off on the Road From Hell, as it's called, to Phnom Penh. The unpaved road didn't exist until about 4 years ago when it was built the Thai army, apparently to gain access to and profit from the illegal logging of the thick Cambodia's forests, which has made a few local officials stupidly rich, and is depleting the forests at a rate of about 2% per year. Although something needs to be done before it's too late, it's very unlikely it will - the corruption in Cambodia is deep-rooted and obvious from the second you step foot in the country and are charged US$25 for the US$20 visa fee. The weird thing is how open and accepted it is. For example, they don't even pretend that the police don't make all their money from bribes - a local guy was telling us that a policeman's wage is US$20 a month, an amount far too small to support a family on, even in a country as poor as Cambodia. Anyway, back to the trip to Phnom Penh. The minibus was actually very comfortable (far more than the public bus, by all accounts, where you have to pay for 2 seats if you don't want 3 people in your 2-person seat!) but non-4x4 vehicles truly have NO business being on that road - in parts it was pure mud and large sections of it had been washed away completely by the heavy rain in the past few weeks! It was, however, spectacularly beautiful scenery and a lot more exciting than a boat! There are no bridges on the road yet, so at the four river-crossings, we had heaps of time to stretch our legs and sample some local treats (like, bananas surrounded in sticky-rice, wrapped in a banana leaf and barbequed - yummy!) as we waited our turn to be ferried across the river on sort of make-shift pontoons, powered by an outboard motor with a rotor on the end of a long bamboo pole! We arrived into the seething mass of bicycles, mopeds, cars and dust that is Phnom Penh as it was nearing nightfall. It became clear that our promised drop-off at the guesthouse of our choice was not going to eventuate as the bus stopped to pick up the company rep, who showed us all a flyer of a hotel on the opposite side of town from where we wanted to be and told us that this was the only drop-off point. All eight of us immediately kicked up a huge stink - telling him to stop immediately and even threatening to go to the police! He blankly ignored us all until I remembered I had their business card, which I showed him and uttered the magic words..."We will email Lonely Planet." The mini-bus screeched to a halt and we were let out, still miles from where we wanted to be, but far closer than we would have been! In Cambodia, the Lonely Planet has more power than the police, it would appear! The primary way to get around town in Phnom Penh is on the back of taxi-bikes. We were not at all keen, but we had no choice so we climbed onto the back of two bikes and sped off into the traffic. Many of the roads in Phnom Penh are still unpaved so you can imagine how scary it was bouncing along at top speed, no helmets and our huge backpacks on! We were very relieved to get to the Tat Guesthouse, have a cold shower, avwarm beer and relax on one of the hammocks on the deck overlooking this huge, dilapidated city.