The Long Journey Home
We were not especially to wake up at 6:30 but we wanted to get today’s travels out of the way and get back to Bangkok as early as possible.
As we waited outside for our minibus Tik got to sample a (presumably) typical Cambodian hotdog for 1,000 riel (10 baht). This was our main experience of traditional Cambodian food as the locals might eat. Not to my taste but fun to try once.
Our minivan arrived at 7:15 and dropped us off at a house-cum-bus-station until we left there on the most hideous coach imaginable at 8:00. This coach had no air-conditioning, the windows were so filty they might as well have been made of brick and graffiti on the seats dated as early as 1973. The bus was full to capacity, huge bags were packed inside the aisles and only a monkey could have clambered through there without twisting an ankle. It looked nothing at all like the brand-new modern coach advertised on the ticket. We did manage to get a few bumpy hours of sleep though.
We stopped for breakfast (cheese in french bread), and for lunch (fried rice and vegetables, tik had ‘Loklak - a cambodian meal of beef cubes in oyster sauce) and we arrived at PoiPet, the Cambodia-Thai border about 1:30.
The minivan back to Bangkok was significantly cleaner and more comfortable. We had a good chat with a German girl called Chris for much of the journey and were back home at 7:30 in the evening.
As great as our travel was, as ever, it’s great to be home again.
