Well, we were all set to go off to Cambodia today, but have hit our first real stumbling block of the trip. We got up at 6:30am and left the hotel an hour later to start our epic trip to the border. It was going to be easy (until we got over the border): taxi to Mo Chit bus station, then an air conditioned bus to Aranthaya (made up spelling), and a tuk tuk to the border crossing. We fell at the first hurdle though. Our research had said we could get a taxi for about 90Baht, however when we asked the first taxi he said he wouldn't do it for less than 400Baht! Ok that is less than a fiver, but with the possibility of having to pay US$60 to get from the Cambodian border to Siem Reap, our destination, we were trying to save money. Plus, we thought we should be able to get a taxi for 90Baht. We tried a few other taxis. Some hadn't heard of Mo Chit Station and others just refused. We didn't get an offer better than 350Baht, despite trying to compromise at 150Baht. So we decided to go in search of bus 512, which was meant to go to Mo Chit Station. This bus does not appear to exist and upon asking a local he said the 44 and 49 go to Mo Chit, but looked slightl shocked that we were attempting to get across the border without a tour group. By this time it was 8:30am and we had pretty much no hope of catching the 9:30am bus, which was what we were aiming for so we definitely wouldn't get stuck in Poipet on the border.

Defeated and confused we headed back to the Tour Agents we'd visited on the first day (when we were looking for our hostel) and booked a bus to Siem Reap with them leaving tomorrow. We just hope we haven't been ripped off completely, and that we get there by 8pm like they said we should.

We then had to find a new hostel to stay in, as we'd checked out of ours. We refused the offers of the Tour Agents to find us somewhere and basically checked in at the first hostel we saw (after looking at the room first of course!)

We now have an extra day in Bangkok and haven't really achieved much with it, but after this morning we're just trying to "chillax".

The other saga of the last 24hours was when Zoe lost her phone. Returning to our hotel last night Zoe realised she couldn't find her phone. James called it a couple of times, once getting through to a Thai man who just said "hello?" lots. We decided that it was a lost cause, though we did consider trying to arrange a meet up with this man to get the phone. Instead we called O2 and cancelled the simcard. Twenty minutes later (if that), while packing for the trip to Cambodia that never happened, the "lost" phone turned up in a pouch, but with the SIM now cancelled it's fairly useless. No idea how we got through to a Thai man in Zoe's bag. Typically Zoe had put her valuables somewhere so safe not even she could remember where she had put them! At least she hasn't lost all her phone numbers or James' Dad's/Sister's phone.

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