After a quick breakfast, we were soon picked up by one of the tuk tuk drivers that we had got to know during our stay and we were speeding towards Sihanoukville bus station. We were feeling very emotional on this little journey, knowing that we were finally leaving Cambodia for good, a place we had grown to love. We said goodbye to our driver and quickly boarded our bus, before we knew it we were heading out of Sihanoukville, feeling very sad and emotional.
The four hour journey passed very quickly and we were soon at the border town of Koh Kong. We were handed our Thai arrival cards to fill out and soon we were heading towards the border, hoping for a smoother exit than the entry we had. It was all very civilized, we grabbed our luggage, quickly had our exit visa stamped in Cambodia, crossed no mans land and soon we were in Thailand again. It was a nice feeling not to be paying any visa fees this time!
Our ticket included transport all the way to a town called Trat, so we had to wait for a bus or van at the border, we weren't quite sure at this point. We were a little confused as to where to wait or for what we were waiting for, so we asked some Thais (who seemed to be arranging the transport) what exactly to do. We were told quite bluntly, just to wait. All very helpful, it was so much clearer now! It was a particularly hot day and thankfully we managed to find ourselves a small spot in the shade to wait. We waited and we waited... We tried asking several times as to when our transport was going to arrive, but again we were told just to wait! Our frustration levels were growing high, as one by one, everyone else seemed to be getting onto buses and minivans, no one seemed to be going to Trat apart from us. After a very hot 2 hours of waiting we eventually gave up 'just waiting' and told the Thais that we would be getting on the minivan to Koh Chang and that they could drop us off en route! Thankfully, but in a very offhanded manner, they agreed. This was a great welcome back to Thailand!
So after a very hot 90 minute drive, as the aircon didn't appear to work, we were dropped off at our accomodation, the SA Hotel. This was only going to be an overnight stopover on our way to Hua Hin the following day, so we decided to go with one of the two bigger hotels in Trat. So after our 8 hour journey, our first impression of the hotel was not a positive one, it looked a little run down from the outside, but hey, appearances can be very deceptive.
We checked in and headed up to our room, unfortunately our expectations were a little let down. It wasn't a bad room on the whole, just not very comfortable, it almost resembled a very sparse dentists waiting room, all white and chrome and very bare looking!
We didn't want to really hang around in our room and as we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we decided to head out early for some dinner. On our previous stay in Trat we found a very nice restaurant serving great Thai food, so no surprises, we headed straight there! We had been looking forward to eating here again, so we ordered our favourites, a Thai seafood salad and a chicken and chili dish. Somehow the chef managed to get the order wrong and served us breaded prawns instead! When we told then this, they moaned and finally gave us the dishes we ordered, although we do think they made the dishes extra spicy just to annoy us! It seemed that they had a new, grumpy chef and unfortunately the food was a real let down.
After eating we decided to head to Basar Garden to see Noi, who we'd befriended on our last stay in Trat. It was no disappointment here, she remembered us from all those weeks and months ago and gave us a very warm welcome, even remembering where we had been off travelling to. After a few beers and a good catch up, we were given a bunch of bananas to take for our journey the following day. We said our goodbyes to Noi and headed off back to our waiting room.
After a decent nights sleep and a quick breakfast we were on the back of a sangathaew heading towards Trat bus station for another marathon day of buses to get us to Hua Hin.
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