Today, we were picked up by a van at 7:20 am to be taken to a bus heading back to Bangkok. Other vans and tuk-tuks slowly brought people to the same bus, so we didn’t get moving until 8:45. It took us to the border. It stopped at the government run tourist bus area where we got a short ride to the border on another free bus. We had to exit Cambodia there. We also had to get another free visa for Thailand there. There were many tourists and it took nearly an hour.
On the Thai side we waited until another nine tourists got through and a new van brought us to a hotel to wait for the ‘big bus’. It was 2 o’clock by then so we ate. Eventually, all the other passengers arrived and we were shepherded onto the ‘big bus’. The air conditioning was pretty weak but it was fairly comfortable. We hit Bangkok at rush hour but then this city is in constant rush hour. It dropped us off in a different part of the city at 7:15. We had to take a tuk-tuk to the National Stadium Sky Train Station, so we could get to our hotel at Chong Nonsi. It was nice to get a shower after a little over 12 hours of travelling. It was a bit easier getting to Siem Reap on our own but today our tickets were only $7.50 each.
After checking in, we went out to a nice outside seafood restaurant for dinner. I will remember feeding a cat the ends of all my shrimps. I am happy to be eating anything this time here. My stomach was not up to ‘real food’ during the first days here.