Travel Trouble

We thought this bus ride back to Phnom Penh would be the best out of all as there were only 14 people and they were all foreigners. So we felt safe and spacious.
I had two seats to myself and tried to settle into sleep. For some reason I couldn't, the bus was not comfortable at all.

We arrived at the Vietnamese border at 3:30am and for some reason the bus parked and switched their engine off. Eventually we all started waking up wondering what the hell we were doing. The bus driver was snoring behind me, another assistant was fast asleep and another worker was sleeping in the front sleep.

What the hell were we doing? We woke one of them up and they told us that the border was open at 5am. That was nearly 2 hours away! Why did we leave at 12:30am then? I would rather eat or do stuff in Saigon then sit in a bus and wait.

Because they switched the bus off the air started to get stuffy so we asked one of them to let us out outside for some air. It felt good. Then we realised that we had just sacrificed our bodies to an army of mosquitos. If you just waved your hand in the air you would feel like 10 hit your hand. It was crazy.

We rushed back into the bus but realised that our bus was also infested in these little mongrels. We felt them whizzing in our ear and they bit me everywhere! I had like 9 consecutive bite marks on my wrist. And heaps on my thighs! Ugh! We killed it and it was FULL OF MY BLOOD!

5 am came past and we still weren't doing anything. The bus was getting restless. We were meant to be back in Phnom Penh by 6am! They told us that the border actually opened at 6am now.

We finally got through to the Vietnamese border, then went through the Cambodian immigration. I went through customs then Michael and I were at immigration control. The lieutenant guy had been smiling at me since I walked into their building. He told Michael to hurry up and go through and the guy held onto my passport smiling at me.

He goes "ooh Australeee!" and read through my passport going "ooohhh!" Then he closed my passport and goes, "You are a very pretty girl!"
I said thank you and went to grab my passport but he just held onto it grinning, reluctant to let it go.

I was like ERRRR…. hahahha but it was funny! He looked completely smitten. Oh and at the Cambodian border Michael and I realised that we had a really good looking guy on our bus. Like no joke, he looked like a baby Ryan Gosling.
Lady Boy Fail

I stood there with my jaw dropped open just going, "Holy shit he looks like Gosling, holy moly holy moly."

Michael and Carlos stood there going, "That is one good looking guy, and tall too."
It was funny! I had been checking out chicks with them the entire trip and this was the first time we checked out a dude together.

We learned that he was Canadian but that was about it. We all got back on the bus and had a breakfast stop. I had a tummy ache so I just had bread. Another passenger came and sat with Michael and I. He was from Israel and was traveling places alone but visiting friends at different destinations. His stories were pretty interesting. Sometimes I think I'd like to backpack and sometimes I think I wouldn't.

I'd definitely want a traveling partner that I would never get sick of! Raphael was his name and I made him constantly speak Hebrew. It sounds pretty cool!

We finally arrived at Phnom Penh at 10:30 - meaning we were on the bloody bus for about 10 hours when it was meant to be 5 or 6. Our plan was to sleep in the morning, pack then get on our planes but we had to cut the sleep out.

Amongst the hustle of tuk-tuk drivers trying to hassle us. The Canadian baby Ryan Gosling flashed me the most handsome smile and checked me out. I just stood there gawking like a nerd and did not do anything. The boys were like go and talk to him!!!! But he was just way too handsome. Oh well, I'm going to marry the real thing anyway, jokes jokes………………………

We caught the tuk-tuk home and straight away packed our bags. Hong took us out to eat our last yummy lunch in Cambodia then drove us to the airport. I was sad to leave Cambodia, I definitely want to come back again!

Hong was the greatest host as well and I don't know how to thank him! I gave him a long hug because that was all I could do to show my appreciation!

All of us were so drained, we had less than 2 hours sleep and we were all getting restless, delirious and headaches. We caught the first plane to Bangkok, it took 50 minutes but immigration took 2 hours. They really should invest in more workers.

Luckily our second plane to Phuket got delayed by an hour, so it was a comfortable in-between time. We didn't think that immigration at Bangkok would take so long. We were playing stupid slapping games, balancing a stick game, eye spy games, arm wrestles etc.

We ate dinner. I chose McDonalds so I could get free wi-fi. Carlos did the same but also had another dinner from a Japanese joint. My flight to Phuket was pretty good. I had 3 seats to myself and I sprawled out and purred to sleep.

We booked a tour at Phuket airport so we could get a free taxi ride home (we were going to have to book a tour anyway). It was pretty cheap even though its the high season as the Bangkok flooding had deterred tourists.

Our taxi driver this time only took 30 minutes instead of an hour. I love fast drivers. We were so sick of traveling and wasn't looking forward to another hour of being in a car. We got to the hotel at about 11:30pm. This meant that we had traveled for about 23 hours straight and within that time we were in 4 cities - Saigon, Phnom Penh, Bangkok and Phuket. Crazy huh?

But our minds had gone to putty, we had showers then instantly knocked out. Once again, the three stooges are sharing a bed. At Hong's place the pull out bed was made out of foam, and the bed was so massive we all comfortably slept in it together. This hotel's bed was the same, spare bed equals shit and proper bed screamed dream time. Of course I'm wedged in the middle of the two piggies to separate testosterone overload.