My Journey Back To Thailand

After an emotional goodbye on Koh Rong I was now due to start my journey back to Thailand as I wanted to spend Christmas and New Year with Fai. My initial plan was to take the boat to Sihanoukville and jump on the first available bus to Phnom Pehn, stay one night then head to the Poipet border the following morning. I hadn't really thought through it that much and realised that if I was to take a bus to Phnom Pehn it would arrive near midnight which wasn't feasible or desirable. I changed my tentative plan and stayed one night at the Monkey Republic in Sihanoukville with two Swedish guys (Richard and William) I had met at the Elephant and who I took the boat back with. We shared a triple room which was fairly pricey at $24 but it was a delightful luxury from the previous three weeks, and the bed wasn't covered in sand; result!

I was feeling absolutely shattered as it was a pretty heavy last night on Koh Rong and all I felt like doing was sleeping, I played a few games of pool with a random German guy, had a couple of beers then went for a power nap until around 8.30PM when we headed off out. Our first stop was 'The Big Easy' next door, we met up with a lot of other people who had stayed at the Elephant too which was nice so we had a good group of us. They had an open mic night that night at the Big Easy and the resident Filipino who was playing was excellent, after a couple of Long Islands I was ready to perform and I think I surprised many people, I received a lot of praise from a lot of people after my short set. After an hour or so there we headed to Utopia which was much busier than the few weeks earlier when we went, they had a drum and bass DJ on but we only stayed for about half an hour before moving on to the Dolphin on the beach, again this was significantly busier than before, we also wondered to some of the other bars on the beach, got some free shots and played beer pong. It was actually a pretty decent night.

The following morning we checked out, Richard and William had a bus booked to Saigon, and I had a bus booked to Phnom Penh, it was a pretty easy ride and I even had the seat next to me unoccupied, I arrived in the early evening and grabbed a tuk tuk to Sunday Guesthouse where I booked a bus to Poipet for the following day. I wasn't really up for doing much whilst on my own in Phnom Penh but I did fancy an Indian curry, so I jumped in a tuk tuk to the riverside to a restaurant I already knew. I filled myself up, had a little walk along the river and jumped in a tuk tuk back to the guesthouse. Now I had stupidly forgot to grab one of the business cards for the guesthouse for the address so it took way longer to get back than it should have, I was very clear and asked him many times before we set off as to whether he knew where my guesthouse and he said "yes yes yes, I know, $3 ok" this was the same price I had paid any other driver so I thought he did know where he was going but oh no he did not. I knew basically it was in a certain general direction and he was going the opposite way, the journey depending on traffic should have been 10-15 minutes but this took closer to an hour, he stopped asking many other drivers where it was and none of them knew. I wondered if he was just scamming me to extend the journey for some more dollars but we agreed on a price and I wasn't paying more, to be honest though I don't think this was what he was doing, he just didn't have a clue. I was getting a little worried after a while as I wasn't sure if we would find it at all but I figured we would in the end, I also got to see more of Phnom Penh I hadn't seen but this reminded me even more about how serious poverty is in this country so left me feeling a bit sad. Finally we found the guesthouse, I voluntarily paid him a dollar more as it used a lot more of his gas, even though it was his fault a dollar to him is worth way more than a dollar to me.

The following morning I took to the Russian Market and Central Market as I had wanted to pick up some more shorts. I was specifically looking for the same pair of cotton Levi shorts that I had bought nearly a year before which were still going strong, I found the same stall (I cant believe I remembered the exact place) but unfortunately they no longer stocked this exact pair so I settled on a different pair of 'Levis' costing $6, I also picked up a couple of polos and a t shirt and headed back to guesthouse to catch my bus. The bus journey was again hassle free, the route was going through Battambang and I hadn't been this route before so it was good to travel on a new road, I think the journey took just under 8 hours in total which wasn't too bad. The bus was full mostly with Cambodians but there were about half a dozen foreigners who were heading to Battambang, it was here that almost everyone got off and then it was just me and 5 Cambodians left going to the border. They had a TV on the bus which for most of the journey was playing Khmer karaoke shows but for the final stint they played a movie which was in English with Khmer subtitles and vice versa in places. What I hadn't realised until the end of it was that it was actually an informative movie for Cambodians to explain the rights they have when working overseas. The movie was about a girl of 17 who faked an ID (as she had to be 21) to go and work in Malaysia as a house keeper where she was treated abysmally, she fled and ended up contacting the Embassy who safely returned her home. The agency who the girl worked for were acting illegally but the girls family had no idea their rights and what they could do, at the movie credits there was a very detailed explanation about what to know before working overseas and that you should not use false documents and if they knew anyone planning on doing this they should warn them about the possible dangers, it emphasised that they can always contact their embassy at any time if they were not safe. This was a good last impression of Cambodia, I had not expected this at all.

Upon arrival to the border I was hoping that it would be an easy cross and this it was, the easiest and quickest crossing in fact into any country I had ever done. I was the only person crossing the border as it was late and I stamped straight out of Cambodia and headed over to the Thai immigration where I was stamped straight into Thailand, the officer did make a comment that I looked nothing like my picture from when I was 16 with a big quiff (think Reece from Malcolm in the middle) my appearance to him now was of a grade 2 buzz cut and a beard, I just said sorry I cut my hair and that was sufficient. It was now just a short walk past the customs officer who was pretty much asleep in his chair then to the 7/11 where I would be greeted by Fai who came to pick me up. I was now back in Thailand, YAY!