Snorting Asian on the bus, oh joy 8 hours listening to that?! "Ju pass him some tissues". Even when mentioning really loudly to Ju this was a disgusting habit he didn't get the hint. Headphones on I immersed myself in my music. I had a few days worth of blog writing to catch up on. Our journey from Siem Reap to Bangkok would take us over the border crossing. As you would expect the bus was cramped. There should be a competition or certificate of recognition for being able to write on a laptop in such conditions! Ju bless her had immersed herself in the iPod World - unfortunately she was to endure my broad shoulder for another long trip.

For some unknown reason we stopped off briefly after being on the road for two hours - perhaps to use the rest area or buy over priced food? We had been ready early that morning at 7am. Waiting patiently for the bus it was to be another 2 hours before we actually set off from Siem Reap to the border. 4 hours later and we were 10 minutes from the boarder - we'll that's 30 minutes if you include the fuel stop. Ushered across a roundabout with all our luggage we checked out of Cambodia. There was a short walk to the Thai boarder crossing where we waited for 1 hour to be processed. It was now 1.30pm... I couldn't see how we were going to get to Bangkok for 2pm which was the time roughly estimated to us by our hotel manager. Another short walk with heavy rucksacks we grouped outside another stall selling more food. There was a collection of small mini buses waiting - obviously these were our tourist chariots that would take us to Bangkok? No, we were loaded into a pick-up truck, cramped and hot, was this to be our ride to Bangkok - I hope not?! No, we stopped 10 minutes later outside another food venue. There was a larger collection of vans here with even more tourists looking more confused than me and Ju. Waiting in the blazing sun and feeling like Japanese prisoners of war we were ushered into a waiting mini van. Cramped and clearly too small for the average western frame, we huddled inside.

With my knees pushed into the chair in front I had no idea how long this journey was going to take? Whether it was 3 hours or 5 hours at least we didn't have the snorting Asian man on the bus with us. 40 minutes into the journey my bottom started to really ache due to sciatica. I was feeling quite hot and distressed as the air conditioning wasn't working and there wasn't any air flowing through the vehicle. I looked for a window but there weren't any built in to the vehicle. Most people were asleep or oblivious to the temperature - either that or they just sat there in a typical British manner to scared or polite to say anything. I though it best to ask for a window open. I got Ju to ask the passengers in front to open their window. Apparently they weren't the driver and couldn't do that. I started to get annoyed as I felt I was being treated no better than an animal. I told Ju to get them to open the window before I lost my temper. Ju could see I was getting stressed and angry. There was a large taxi driver covered in tattoos from Exeter in the seat in front of Ju. She woke him up and asked if he could open his window - he kindly did and a rush of air entered the vehicle. Enough at least to bring the cabin temperature down. I wasn't enjoying this journey at all. I felt pissed off that we were paying for such a s*** service. We came to the conclusion watching our drivers and guides pointing at people and ordering them around that we were simply cash cows to them. I felt like an extra in Tenko.

After 2 hours on the road Ju swapped seats with me. It felt good to have more leg room, still not enough by our standards, but enough to keep me happy. The mini bus stopped briefly at a service station, enough time for us to grab a drink and a snack. The sun was now getting lower in the sky. The time was 5pm. We had been sitting next to a Croatian couple. They were very friendly and chatty despite my behaviour and moaning. They had asked to be dropped near the airport as they wanted to catch a flight that night. This was to be advantageous for us. When the bus stopped I suggested to Ju that we get off and find a hotel near the airport. We had an early flight which required us getting up at 3am! After frantically thinking on our feet we found a hotel, showered, changed and freshened up. I even managed to get a quick haircut. The time was now 7.30pm, and we were both agitated by the days experience. I didn't think the day could get much worse, however our mattress in the room was the worst mattress we had ever slept on, not to mention planes flying overhead and loud music pumping out the club next door. I guess you'll get a bad day travelling and this was one of them!