Taxi, Tuk-Tuk, Bus and Train!!!!!!

Hello!
I am back in Siem Reap, Sarah and I made it to Pai, Thailand and then our 2nd night there Sarah got sick and so we came home. None the less we still had a very interesting adventure. I guess I should start at the beginning so that would be at the “Taxi stand”. The “stand” is a random parking lot with Toyota Camrys and drivers and tuk -tuk drivers all trying to “help” each other find customers so the driver who takes the people pays the whoever helped. Thankfully Lara was with us at this point, and she was able to negotiate a very good price for us. So we threw our bags in the trunk and off we flew. I have written about the roads before. They are very bumpy and on some it really makes me think of the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, except there are more possibilities cuz you are not on a track.
While on our way Sarah and I decided that we could make a really cool video game where while you are driving you have to dodge Cows, Dogs and other cars cuz they either stand in the middle of the road or come at you on the wrong side of the road.
Since our driver was in a hurry to get to the border town, we had a grand time bouncing around. The only thing keeping us out of each others laps was our hands grasping the seat with white knuckles. That bumper sticker you often see in the states took on a whole new meaning, you know the one that says “ Get in, sit down, hold on and shut up” well the shut up part is not needed cuz you are speechless as soon as you take off. I wish I could find a way to share with you what it was really like cuz as I reread this it just doesn’t do it justice. SO we got to the Thai Boarder in 3 hours and 23 min which is quite fast when you consider the condition of the road. We strapped on our backpacks and went to get stamped out of Cambodia, where we found out that Sarah had been scammed coming into the country. They said that they sold her a 3 month visa and charged her for a 3M but they gave her a stamp that was only good for one month so she had a 5 dollar fine for every day that she was here over that first month, thankfully we found this out now instead of finding out when she was going to leave in January.
After taking care of that, we started walking across the bridge to the Thai side where we waited in line only to be told that we had to fill out both the arrival and departure cards before they would process our passports. We were not the only ones, we found the papers and went to the tables to fill them out and the people who were in front of us were there, and soon the people who were behind us joined the crowd. So we had to stand in line again thankfully it wasn’t too bad of a line but that all changed when the lines stopped because the officers stopped the lines to change the T.V channel and then they couldn’t decide or agree on it and so after like 10 min of some people going through and other lines being completely stopped they found some Karaoke that they liked and then finally the line started to move, I was laughing SO HARD. I was in the line with the officer who controlled the remote.
So we got through and started to walk to where all the tuk-tuks are so we could hire one to the bus station. We were hounded by people asking what we were doing and where we were going so they could “help” us find transportation or a tour. Thankfully I had been warned about all these helpers and so avoided them (I had instructions from a web site called tales of Asia, they were very helpful) so as we pulled up to the station and this lady yells at our driver and he took us there before we were stopped she was asking if we were going to Bangkok which we were and so she wanted us to get on this bus cuz it was leaving so I was trying to ask questions like when would we get to Bangkok? How many stops it makes? and stuff like that as Sarah jumps on the bus. I figured this was not the government bus we wanted but the worst it would cost us was an extra half hour in stops to go with this other company (Lesson Learned: Don’t let people pressure you into anything) . We left at 12 and got to Bangkok at 5, It is only suppose to be 3and a half hours, It took 5. So they dropped us off at the bus station that is a long way from the city center where we had planned on staying. Then we got a Taxi, before we left Sarah had agreed to pay the high rate for the taxi of 450 baht which is about 14 dollars(this is really pricey for over here) the ride was suppose to take 10 min without traffic and 30 with. Well it took 2 hours, and he was trying to convince us to go to a guest house he knows that would be much closer and cheaper to get to. We told him no we already knew where we wanted to go and that we didn’t need another option. After about 10 min more I very firmly told him that we did not need or want to go to his guest house and that we told him where we wanted to go, we were paying him to take us there and that is what we wanted nothing more, nothing less.
Here guest houses pay the driver a little if they bring them customers (the GH that do this are not normally ones you would want to stay in) when we were getting out I got the bags as we handed him the money he said no 450 each to which I said no we agreed on 450 for both of us all the way here and that was all we were going to pay ( I had been warned about this also and had made the terms of the price clear and confirmed them twice before getting in the car) and then he started to call me names and so I stopped him told him that we had agreed on a price he could call me whatever he wanted but that was all the money we would pay him, he stared at me shocked as I quickly shut the door and walked away. Down the street with tons of people and where no cars were allowed. A I looked back on the days events, I wanted to laugh uncontrollably, and now thinking about it, I do.
I was very happy as we checked in to the hostel and walked up and down the street looking at all the different vendors and I got to try Pad Thai which is very yummy. One lady was just strolling down the street with her push wagon and when we ordered some she just stopped right there and started making it, fried up an egg and put some sauce and noodles and some spices and then she had lots of toppings to choose from. It was Amazing, we had only eaten PB and crackers and Oreos on the bus so we were really hungry. The Pad Thai was so fresh and yummy and hot MMMMMM and then we got fruit shakes (fruit shakes are the “Thing” over here, U get to pick the fruit) it was like 1.25 for dinner and dessert. Then walked around some more and listened to the live music and the we crashed and slept in till like 8:30 it was great!! The next morning we went to Starbucks which was a 2 min walk from our hostel door. Let me tell you how ridiculous it was that I felt like I could cry when I stepped in the door and smelled that coffee. You don’t realize how much you really enjoy something until you don’t have it anymore(OK, OK I AM ADDICTED), I felt at home which was great cuz I was having a really hard time with culture shock coming for Siem Reap to Bangkok(CRAZINESS) I was really jittery and really weird shocked that the roads were so good and that there were 7 elevens all over the place and stuff like that, and people, people, people everywhere. Sarah works at a Starbucks so she was really happy to be there, she just had the job for the summer but really loved it. So she felt like she was home too, it was a GREAT end to such a crazy day. More later, I will take a while to type the rest of the trip. Right now in Siem Reap we are having the Water Festival and they have boat races and stuff so I am kinda busy playing with friends. Thank you all so much for all your prayers, we needed them and I could tell they made a difference.