Time to go back to Bangkok (Cambodia -> Thailand)

So its time to go back to Thailand, I had managed to spend my $300 and was down to $1. Will and I left for Bangkok, our planned trip was via sea to Kong Khong which is a 4 hourish journey from Sihanoukville port. Its apparently the better way to get to Kong Khong particular when its wet season and the roads are bad between the two points. After my experience earlier getting to Siam Reap I was up for avoiding any dodgy roads.

We met Dominque from France who was also making her way up to Bangkok, had a bit of food (which was rank) and got on the boat. The other reason I wanted to go via boat was for the view, I thought I would be able to get some photos from the boats deck, oh but I was wrong. The boat is all enclosed and its not possible to get on the deck, so now we were stuck in a boat for 4 hours, with smelly a/c and Cambodian music TV .. superb! Fortunately I had my book, Colony by Ben Bova which is excellent and only taken me 10 years to read! (honest! - yeah and its because its written in big words!)

Dominque then proceeded to tell me all the places that she went to in Cambodia as we left, its always annoying when you miss something that sounds really good. Anyway in case any of you go apparently near Kampot (20km South East) is an old French holiday resort with an island nearby and it sounds amazing! The great thing is that its not in any travel guides (well not yet!).

Eventually we arrived in Kong Khong and walked up the rather percarious walkway back on to land. The next step was the border crossing with Cambodia and Thailand, we picked up a German bloke called Alex and after a bit of haggling and walking away jumped in a taxi for a 100 baht to the border. The guy was actually a nice fella and I gave him a bit of a tip.

We arrived at the border crossing, the touts trying to sell everything from tobacco to pens and then proceeded to wait to get our Visa's stamped. We waited and waited.... Then about 30mins later the couple before us left and I got my exit stamp.

Walking across the no-mans land we wandered into Thailand and filled out some more paperwork.

Its now I have a bit of a confession to make (this is to Lauren - sorry babes), back in Silhanoukville I lost my watch whilst having a drink or two. I hate not knowing the time and it had been doing my head in for the past 3-4 days - but thank you for Thai borders, you can buy all sorts of cr*p including fake watches so now I am the proud owner of a Casio Film Watch which advertises its Illuminator function but doesnt work... making it pretty impossible to read in the dark or with bad light. It does however have a dual time functionality and a analog clock which you can't set.

After my purchases we got a minibus to Trat, which I didnt realise was a 100km away. Finally we reached Trat, bought bus tickets to Bangkok and waited....

The journey to Bangkok was pretty uneventful and we arrived some 4 hours later at the north bus station in Bangkok. I then had a brainwave and decided to stay in a bit of luxury at the Room Reflections, which has got to be the coolest hotel I have been in (see the pics).