The Bus That Took Forever

This is a tale of real human spirit.. I hope you're prepared.

To make the journey from Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) to Siem Reap (Cambodia) we had to take a bus. Cambodia has no rail network and we were told the bus would take 10 hours. Being the seasoned travellers that we have now become we didn't think this would be too much of a major issue.
We woke up at 7:00am to catch our 7:30am bus. All was running smoothly, we had $40 for our visas and our iPods and phones were charged to the brim. We also had a packet of crisps each, just as a little journey snack.. These, however, had been demolished within the first two hours! It was fine though because we had a credit card and a few pounds worth of Vietnamese Dong.

Let the journey begin...

Hour One was spent rather chirpily, as you'd imagine. Hannah was obviously asleep within the first five minutes and I entertained myself by taking multiple pictures... Of myself!

Hour Two was spent crossing the border. A task that became somewhat bizarre with the bus conductor and his methods. Rather than trust us to go through immigration ourselves he took it upon himself to take our passports and call us forward when necessary. It was all much more complicated than I just made it sound but I won't bore you with the details! We also ate our crisps in hour two! This made it fun.

Hour Three was pretty standard
...

As was Hour Four

Hour Five, we were dumped in Phnom Penh and told to 'wait for new bus'. Excellent. An Australian woman travelling with her daughter approached us in an absolute state asking where we were and what was going on. We casually said we had no idea but were pretty sure something would come up soon enough! Her rather embarrassed daughter hushed, 'I told you mum, now calm down!' and we waited for 'new bus' surrounded by beggars and sellers and a couple of chickens, I seem to remember!
'New bus' soon arrived and we climbed on board for Hour Six.

Hour Six was not fun, we had got rather hot and sweaty waiting for 'new bus' and 'new bus' did not have great aircon. Needless to say, hour six was was very uncomfortable.

Hour Seven was where things started to drag. We weren't necessarily tired but groggy having been sat down for seven hours and we were rather hungry by this point so were looking forwards to the next stop where we could grab a bite to eat.

Hour Eight was devastating. We stopped, but soon realised that this stop and all future stops were not and would not be like service stations in the UK. They don't take visa. Or Vietnamese Dong come to that and we'd spent all our dollars on our visas. Realisation kicked in and I think a tear trickled down my face. For two girls who love food, not having food is a major issue for us!

Hour Nine felt like mile 25 of a marathon. We could smell the finish line but were still struggling to get there. The hunger pangs has set in but food was on the horizon so not was all good.

Hour Ten came... And went.

Hour Eleven, mr and mrs crankie set in. We were annoyed at the bus, annoyed at our tummies for making such a racket, annoyed at the fact our iPods and phones were beginning to run low and annoyed at mummy Australia who sat up every time there was a bump in the road (which is A LOT out here!)

Hour Twelve was game time. 'Whats your favourite' was our choice and I think it's safe to say we know each others favourite everything now!!

Hour Thirteen was hysteria. We sang, we danced, we laughed and all at absolutely nothing. I think I may have even had a hallucination at one point!

Hour Fourteen, yes that's FOURTEEN people!! We arrived.... To a hut.... And 12 half naked men. Good. I was totally chilled. Actually to be fair, I kind of was, my mind was preoccupied with the thought of food! The tuk tuk arranged by the hostel obviously wasn't waiting, given our four hour lateness but laying in the hut was a man with a piece of paper. He was basically the information desk for the bus station and called our hostel for us to summon a tuk tuk that wouldn't take us to a far away land!

Arriving at the hostel we did not feel the sweet sense of relief you'd expect. The air-con in our room was broken, and we were on the top floor. Hot is an understatement. And guess what else... They'd stopped serving food. 24 hours we went without eating a single thing, but it was definitely an experience..

I do hope you're not missing us too much!

Laters Taters

Two very hot and hungry travelling girls

Xxxxxxxx