Our trip to the Cambodian border took just under 2.5 hours and we all left the bus with just our passports.....
Back on the bus about 15 minutes later and a few minutes to the Thai border. This was a bit more official and we had to take everything off the bus and queue to pass through. But still only took about 40 minutes and the intrepid foursome were all in Thailand!
Had to wait a few more minutes for all the passengers to get through but by mid-day we were all on board and zipping away toward Bangkok.
About 20 minutes later Kim had this look of absolute horror on her face, my goodness what's wrong? Turns out the army guys with machine guns and road spikes was a bit OTT and Kim thought it was a raid or something...NO they just wanted to board the bus and check us all out. Though we must have looked reasonably harmless we didn't pass the test completely because on came the drug dog and went up and down the bus aisle checking us again. Funny even when you know 100% that you have done nothing wrong you get a bit freaked so it was with great relief that the drug dog, the road spikes, the army guys and the machine guns receded in the rear vision mirror and we continued our journey.
Started to notice the landscape was changing, looked a bit more cared for and as we got closer to Bangkok the buildings looked more and more westernised. Arrived in Bangkok about an hour later than expected, around 4.30. First stop an ATM to get some Baht and then a taxi to the train station to see if our Internet train reservation had worked.....? No, but once again the lucky travellers were in luck, usually the train is full by this time of day but we got exactly what we wanted, 4 second class sleeper tickets to Surat Thani and a connecting bus to Phuket town for BHT980 each, around $40.
Had a couple of hours to wait so popped upstairs to a cafe bar to have a cold one and a snack.... NO it's Buddha day so no alcohol today! Ha, so the boys settled for iced coffee - should have got a photo! Then, the music started and everyone stood for the National Anthem to be played so being the good little travellers that we are we stood for the minute as well!
Boarded the train and thought we'd got the wrong carriage but it turns out Thai trains are quite different and the beds aren't in 4 bed rooms but along each side of the carriage, and during the day they are set up as seats and at night the attendants come around and fold them out, pull out mattresses and sheets etc and hey presto you have a lower and an upper bunk! The girls took the top ones as they were a bit narrower.
After a few games of cards and dice it was time to hit the sack and attempt to get some sleep which most of us did .....
Kim sleeping, until.......
Around 4am Kim thought she heard someone running to get off the train, she sat bolt upright in her bunk, jumped down and roused Russell rather loudly and told him to wake up, wake up we've gotta go.....Waaaaa? Says Russell everyone else is fast asleep.....Oooooops I think I've made a mistake.... Go back to sleep Russell!
Kim has had even more of an adventure than the rest of us today!
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