After breakfast Chok drives us to Chanthaburi where we get on a minibus to Trat city (THB 70/person), then continue on another minibus (THB 120/person) to Hat Lek, the Thai-Cambodian border.
On the bus to Trat, a daydream comes about a similarly well-organised country as Thailand but soon we have to face the Cambodian reality. After a half-hour negotiation at the border with a very pushy agent organizing a bus to Sihanoukville (our next stop) we leave behind this nervous and shouting tout. We find two moto drivers to cross the river and arrive to a dusty bus station of Koh Khong, the Cambodian side of the border. Yo can enjoy the next episode of Negotiations during the moto fare: the driver of Atti tries to increase the price two times during the 10-minute trip but Atti remains rock solid in his attitude and we make it for 160 baht (2 of us).
This coming episode is called 'the Sihanoukville bus scam. 2 guys sitting at a desk selling tickets. They say the price is 600 baht, we try to lower it to 400. After a while we walk away, a couple of minutes later the moto drivers ride after us saying "400 baht OK". We walk back, wait for the bus, after an hour we give up waiting and ask for the money back, thinking we stay in town for the night and try again in the morning. No luck, the people start to point at each other and none takes responsibility. Finally a guy arrives with an air filter, installs it, we depart. After 3 hours on a bumpy road, another bus comes from the opposite direction. We stop by the road to change for the other vehicle. Tourists hurry across the busy road with their backpacks to jump on the next bus which is already full, so we end up sitting between the rows of chairs on 10 cm-tall plastic stools, arriving late evening to town.
We take a walk in Sihanoukville, have some dinner and fall into bed in a homestay, at USD 5 for a room.
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