So, the decision was made to stay awake all night, my bus left sukhumvit road in Patayya at 5.45am, which meant realistically I had to leave the hostel at 5.15,so would need to be awake by at least 4.45 just so I wasn’t rushing and would forget something…..which has turned into an annoying habit lately! We decided to go back to the bar we went to after getting our tattoos the previous day, A quiet little place with more staff than customers (by staff I mean bar girls) we stayed in there till they shut at a little past 2am…I might have stayed a little longer while ash and moo made their way back to the hostel….I got back to the hostel at about 4.30 after a little extra curricular activities….
So, got to the ‘bus stop’ in plenty of time after a little bit of a hair raising motorbike journey there. This is when the fun started, there was no actual bus stop, well not that I could see, I wandered around and asked the people in the area where the big bus left from, they all pointed to the same place…. Well that’s good enough for me… I’ll wait there, or seemed the most appropriate place as well… 5.45 came with no sight of a bus, apart from the ones flying past…. At about 5.50 I look to the left, on a little side road about 50 mtrs from me, and big bus pulls away….. I swore very loudly, probably more than the once…. So, it does go from a side street…. I thankfully had a backup plan already thought out, get to the bus terminal and grab the next government sanctioned bus heading to the border. Hailed a motorcycle, and off we went, I got to the terminal bang on 6am, and made my way to the ticket office…. The sign said ” operating hours 6am–6pm, as it was now past 6 I started to ask for a ticket, only to get shushed by the woman behind her shield of plastiglass, then she shooed me away….. I have to say I was pissed, so I went to information and asked about a ticket ” booth 4 sir” yeah, I know this, but the moody bitch won’t serve me…. A few words shouted in thai and within about 2 mins I had my ticket…. Now I only had an hour and a half to wait……. Zzzzzzzzzz
Time passed, I bought some hotdog sausages in a bag… And the bus came, to cut a short story shorter, lots of stops, 6 hours…. I’m there….
3 of us got off the bus, but the two Americans didn’t want to talk to me, or even look in my direction…. First enough, I grabbed hold of the nearest motorcycle rider and shouted ” THE BORDER GOOD SIR” ok, I didn’t…. I asked how much, we haggled for about 20 seconds and then off we went… He tried to drop me off at the scam visa building but I was having none of it… ” straight to border ” he duley complied…
So started the queue from hell, 4 hours, in and out of midday heat… It was made easier to bare thou as I met Laura and Lorna, Aussie and German, really cool girls and I ended up sharing a taxi to Siem Reap with them… Laura, the Aussie talked so much random crap, it made the ride go much quicker 🙂
On the outskirts of Siem Reap, you are herded out of the taxi and shown to waiting Tuk Tuks, these guys are part of the fare, but you are expected to tip or hire them for the next day… I let the German guy that shared the Tuk Tuk with me take care of that lol…. Finally I got to my hostel, I had been a long tiresome journey, but like all journeys it was worth experiencing…. Although I won’t be doing the same trip again anytime soon 😉
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