Siem Reap – Sihanoukville Night Bus

This bus was advertised as a sleeper bus; super comfy with a toilet, air-con and DVD player. And all for $18. Sounds nice doesn’t it? It wasn’t.

Let me set the mood…I had my first dose of the Cambodian Craps, there was no toilet on board and the air-con was set to sub zero. All I can say is THANK YOU to who ever invented Immodium!!

The beds were clearly made for South East Asians..which makes sense as we are in S.E Asia! However, these buses were predominantly used by backpackers. At first we viewed the super compact pods as cosy but, within the hour they were claustrophobic and my idea of hell! The two beds together were smaller then a single bed and had no partition. This wasn’t a problem for Dave and I, as we knew each other. However, that would be a really strange experience if you were squashed up with a stranger!!

We set off and within 10 minutes ALL of the lights were turned off. There were no personal lights above the beds, so fumbling around in the dark for your torch (which you didn’t think you’d be needing) just added to the experience. After all that’s what this was…an experience.

Every time  I attempted to nod off I’d be tossed towards the side of the bus. This journey was bumpy. Ridiculously bumpy. Dave’s description: “It’s like trying to fall asleep on a bouncy castle at peak time!”.

After 2 hours, a girl on the bus begged for a toilet stop. This ended up being on the side on the road. Taking advantage of the stop I decided to go for a wee. Mid flow, I looked up to realise that my white bum was glowing under the bus’ back lights and, I was being watched by a local lady and her daughter. They found it hilarious. My bladder didn’t find it as funny and decided to go shy. My wee stop was interrupted and ruined! Staying on topic…our next stop was scheduled at a makeshift service station with ‘proper toilets’. The little shacks at the bottom of the path looked ok from outside. However, the insides were grim. The floor was literally crawling and as I dropped my trousers to hover over the drop, something flew up and at me. I actually squealed. Pulling my trousers up as quickly as I could,I darted out of there. The other  passengers who were stood outside, just looked at me as if to stay “man up!”. Eventually, I did man up and ventured back in to another stall where this time, I was joined by a cricket. We exchanged pleasantries and then I left for the next blissful 7 hours on the bus.

Looking back on it now, the journey was quite funny but at the time…not so much. The bus even left me with a huge bruise on my hip where I was knocked about so much. Thankfully, we haven’t got another long journey like that for a while. Anyway, that’s been and gone now – 11 hours of my life I’m not getting back! Nor do I want them back!