We drove all niiiiiiiiiight...

---

...to get to boucs and leena

We got the 8am bus out of Cameron highlands to a place in Malaysia called Butterworth where we had to get the 2.20 train to Bangkok. When we originally booked the bus we knew we had about an hour to spare in Butterworth to give us leave way for delays... however, half an hour after pulling off the driver pulled into a garage due to leaking brakes or something so we had to wait there an hour to get them fixed. The driver couldnt speak english so there was no annoucuments. Good thing someone helped us out by explaining. Now me and Maz were concerened cos if we missed the train then we would have to spend the night in Bangkok and miss boucs and leenas first day : (

Half way in a town called Ipon we were told to transfer buses by another unhelpful and rude man... we just hoped we got on the right bus!

We did get to Butterworth with 20mins to spare but the lady behind the counter was on break for 15 minutes and advised us to use the time to go and get cash from the ATM ''around the corner''... so I ended up running through motorways in the hottest part of the day and in the 3rd bank managed to withdraw some money. By the time I got back to the counter I was sweating and panting like a freak. BUT we did book our ticket and get the train... HURRAY!!!!!

The train to Bangkok was an overnight sleeper train and it was so much fun. I felt like Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis/Jack Lemon in some like it hot. When we got on board there was already some woman in our seats/bed laying there with a man....hmmm. took us a while to realise he was the train driver from last nights journey and he was just kipping and would give us our seats back in a bit. Didnt like the sounds coming from the closed curtains though! Glad they changed the sheets!

After our dinner which was actually quite nice and substantial (or we were just starving at this point)! the train conductor made our beds for us and we slept like babies till the morning.

When we woke up there was a man sitting adjacent to us from Nottingham who came to Thailand on holiday 17yrs ago and never went back. He was really nice guy and it was lucky we met him cos we had to get to Mo Chit terminal for our next bus so he told us which one to get off at otherwise we wouldnt have known. He also happened to be going that way so we shared a cab which he paid for! How nice!!! I dont ever see that happening back home!

At the train station we caught the next bus going to Arantha Prayet and then a tuk tuk for the last 6km to the boarder. I've never been on a tuk tuk before and that was fun too. They actually go quite fast! Finally at the Thai boarder we put our rucksacks on our backs, passed through the check points and walked across into Cambodia which was so wicked! - we were now in Poipet. Theres a big bridge of sort with ''Kingdom of Cambodia'' written in huge writing. Everyone was telling us to becareful of our belongs as it quite reknown for theft and IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOT! Luckily Maz and I had bought an extra passport photo of ourselves just in case... and it came in very handy as we needed it for our Cambodia visas.

In Poipet there was no buses going to Phom Phen until the next morning which still meant missing boucs and leena so in the name of love we paid for a taxi to take us that night... AND OH MY GOD... The best way to describe how we felt in his car was like being in a Quentin Tarrantino movie. You know the scenes when theres people killing each other brutely but yet there is soothing, beautiful music in the background...that was us except we were in a car with a maniac, speeding between hundreds of motorbikes, overtaking cars and lorries with his thumb stuck on the horn whilst listening to the most calm, beautiful camodian music. WE SHAT OURSELVES. I know Dad always say something if you feel uncomfortable in someones car and I ALWAYS DO but this guy looked scary so we just put our stavro on and hoped for the best!

LUCKILY, soonish we were made to transfer car, not that his driver was much better. He also picked up an Australian guy and his nephew whose cambodian so it made us feel at ease a little and we both managed to sleep for a while until the guy stopped for dinner at some on the road - litterally restaurant. Me and Maz were starving and still sleepy so we got some rice and some 'pork'. However as we started waking up the smell hit me and the realisation it werent really pork... I started to feel a bit sick cos the sauce tasted irony like blood... Maz however - who never learns wanted to try more and got some other yukky stuffy.

The Australian/Cambodian guy expected us to reach Phom Phen at midnight but at high speed and only 2 stops - one for dinner and one for the boys to pee we got to Phom Phen at 9ish. We went straight to the hotel that Boucs and Leena had booked but they had no record of them and no room for that night so we went next door and crashed out in their little box room with no windows. They smell from 2 days travelling and that place we had just visited for dinner was so disgusting we threw our clothes into a cupboard and washed and washed and washed - then we slept like babies until the next morning at 6 when someone tried to come into our room (it was the wrong room)!

---