Wednesday 5th May - Siem Reap to Bangkok, overnight to Phuket

Rather than get the bus to the Thai border we booked a taxi because it's much quicker. At least two thirds of the road from Siem Reap to the border are just dirt tracks, broken up in places by massive crators. The track is wide enought for two vehicles but very, very bumpy. If a vehicle passes or is travelling in fromt of you visibility is reduced to nil because of all of the dust.
If it wasn't for the motorised vehicles (mainly mopeds) you'd be convinced you had gone back in time. Wooden houses are dotted along the track, each with a couple of pigs and cows running around outside. Each house has it's own little pond and hay stack. The hay stacks are like those you would see on a birthday card depicting an old harvesting scene.

Reached the border at 11.30am. We walk across the bridge to cross the boarder and when we reach the other side we are told we need to be on the other side, but we can't cross the road we have to go back across the bridge. Shame there aren't any signs at the beginning to tell you this. As usual it's very hot and the sweat is pouring off us by the time we get to passport control! Other than that the crossing is quite straight forward and 45 minutes after arriving we're on the minibus to Bangkok. A mini bus is just about to leave so we hop on and arrive in Bangkok just after 4pm. At 4.30 were on another minibus to the bus station to catch the VIP overnight sleeper to Phuket Island. While we are waiting for the coach we have a KFC. As we leave the heavens open and despite only a five minute walk we get soaked. Again no information was forthcoming on the procedure to be followed but it turns out you had to get in a scrum to get labels for your luggage (in the rain of course). Our ticket stated our bus to be Number 2. The bus we actually required was 929 11. We should have guessed! Anyway we get there eventually.
The 'assistant stewardess' keeps brushing against Derek's hairy legs and eventually plucks up the courage to pull the hairs! You don't see many hairy people in this part of the world so it was quiter a novelty for her.
The Matrix film is blaring out in Thai so we read for a couple of hours before settling down for the night, head rests inflated and we wrap up in the blankets provided. The next thing we know music is blaring out and the lights are on full. The locals have seats back in the upright position and are combing their hair. Are we here already we ask. We look at our watch and it's 1am. We've stopped at a roadside restaurant (along with all the other overnight coaches on the same or similar routes) for a belated midnight boiled rice snack which the locals seem to enjoy greatly. We gave it a miss. Half an hour later we're on our way again.