Across the border !!

I knew it was going to be a bad day when I woke with the most dreadful hangover .... courtesy of Karl and Julie, our new best Aussie friends..... we had the pleasure of meeting this couple ( Winsor Davies and Bubbles De Vere ) in Siem Reap, where we strategically avoided them, having heard them going on and on at the pool to another couple...Imagine our joy at meeting them again in Phnom Pehn, at another hotel, where we were spoke at for hours on end about their trip, ( it was if they had discovered Ankor Wat themselves.).. boy were we pleased to leave them ..... so you can only even begin to think of the delight of hearing " Hey guys , how ya going ? " as we checked into Sihanoukville.... arrggghhhhh
Of course Julie and Karl make best friends with all staff and owners, Julie even played the guitar and sang to us every night... I would have rather been on a walking holiday in the Helmand province .. of course Brian thought it was very funny, with my face like thunder every time Julie and Karl, pulled their chairs over to join us at OUR table ... I then had to endure her wailing and torturing songs I used to love ...
Our last night there, and I was being very sensible, glass of wine at dinner, sensible food for long journey ... I don't know why I was dying the next day as I only had a few ... seriously... they have invited us to stay when we are in Oz... would rather be a guest of Gaddafi ....
So up and ready for 7am !!  bus picked us up, and we headed for the border ... very mountainous journey , with one road .. the rest inpenetrable jungle ... you can only imagine the refugees tying to escape to the Thai border and having to try and pick their way through this dense unhospitable place... We arrived at the border and as we got off the bus in the boiling heat our 'hostage situation' began .. locals were grabbing our bags and putting them in a wheelbarrow and running across the border with them, people shouting in your face  where you going ?, you want ticket . I help you fill in forms ... Brian and I had braced ourselves for it, and we grabbed our own bags and ignored everyone .. it was pandamonium ... we were made to wait in a queue for 40 mins in the heat with our rucks on !!! whilst one official stamped and checked visas.. we also had to have our fingerprints taken and a photo... to leave.... hilarious as the government would not even kow how many street children lived on the streets ....we then had to walk across a bridge into Thailand... more filling in forms, more waiting in sun,  unofficial looking officials wanting to 'help' , some travellers having their temperature taken then told they had malaria and having to buy anti malarials !!! all well dodgy ...
so we made it through, and this is where we were at the mercy of our captors... the interrogation started .."where you go ? you give me money i give you express ticket ( with last week date on ) I can get you all way to destination with your own seat ! ( we have had to share with 3/4people and a clutch of chickens )  it was absolutely roasting, I was really dying by now, no food , no water ... all there was to buy in this wild west of a border town run by pirates with blood shot eyes ... was pink cuddly toy monkeys that squeek when you push their tummy...now after the 'monkey island' incident where my husband was savagely attacked by a primate , I most certainly did not want one ...
So in the one monkey stall town, we had no choice but to wait , follow orders from our captors and pay our ransom! Eventually after 45 minutes of not knowing what was going on, and afraid to ask as if you were being 'difficult' they seemed to put other people on the bus before you ... we climbed into a mini bus, not sure where we were going,, didn't care by now... a mother and daughter got on as well , ( daughter had 6 toes ... weird ) she threw up on the bus .. which didn't help my situation.... but we were  on a bus ... or so I thought... 10 minutes later we were in a backstreet somewhere, ordered off and told to wait on a wooden plank in the boiling sun... the little girl clearly feeling better , squeaked that ruddy pink monkey in my overly sensitive ears for a sodding hour !!! I was beginning to wish I was back on 'monkey island' .. I was really dying by now, no food, no water .. I found a crumbled biscuit as the bottom of my bag and as I went to eat it I dropped it on the floor.... I actually picked it up.. Brian mentioned the 3 second rule.... (if its on the floor for longer leave it ) Don't worry Tina , I left it....Eventually we were ordered back on another mini bus , dropped at a bus station.. into a tut tut , 30 minutes later arrived at a rusty old ferry , waited for that ... limped aboard... 30 minutes later in another tut tut and 30 minutes later arrived at our lovely hotel in Koh Chang ... Man alive I was pleased our ordeal was over ....
Brian was amazing all day, tolerant, resilient, patient ... he could have really lost it, he has learnt a lot from these people .... What a day ...all we needed was a blindfold and a gun to the back of the head ... we got here, never doubted it , but did it have to be so traumatic, at the mercy of the middle man, we had no control, but didn't lose control....