Catching the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and the 6 hour bus ride to Chiang Khong was pure luxury in comparison to our traverse back south and into Cambodia.
We decided to catch a bus from Chiang Khong directly to Bangkok Mo Chit bus terminal, which meant a 4pm departure and sad farewells to the girls where we had been staying for the past couple of months. 

Taking the windy backroads up north, through small villages in our semi sleeper bus that meandered along casually stopping through most of the night until the 6am arrival at Mo Chit. 

We did not have onward bus ticket into Cambodia, which to be honest, before this trip would have freaked me out. 

However, in our traveling spirit, we navigated the chaos of another busy bus terminal with signage in a foreign language just in time to get the last two tickets sat together for the 8am departure. 

 

 
As it would happen the seats were back row and if you have ever sat near the toilets on seats that don’t recline but have the levers to recline and those in front can recline, you can imagine how our weary bodies were feeling.

We have a huge benefit, as we are both vertically challenged, flexible and can fit into small spaces. I don’t know what tall or big people do or much older frail people….

We managed to keep the vomit down as the odours emanated from the toilet and the drunken couple from their wild night in Bangkok sat on the floor diving into the toilet every half an hour to share their previous nights alcohol with the bus toilet and it’s superlative flushing system.

Fortunately, the views and the friendly Spanish couple in front made the 9 hours more bearable.

  
Transferring through the border from Thailand at PolPet into Cambodia was a loose and strange affair.

The bus parked 6km away and offered us a special service for a small fee to get our visas processed. The catch, we pay in Thai baht and who knows what else. Anyhow not one taker on the bus was taking up the bus company on their special service. Maybe we had all read the same articles about these kind of scams….

We made our way through departure across the road and paid the $30 visa and 100baht processing fee and then after a bit of a queue at the entry into Cambodia immigration we were done and onboard our bus for the 1,5hours into Siem Reap.

It took us a whole 26 hours to make the journey constantly on the go and we could have taken the 1,5hour flight at a mere $80 each but imagine what we would have missed out on.