Border Run to Cambodia

I must begin by apologising to my handful of loyal followers about being so late in adding this most recent post to my blog.  The only excuse I have is the same one most women use, " my kids were being a pain in the ass".  But I have had quite a busy week as well.  In my last post I mentioned we had to take a trip to the border of Cambodia and Thailand to renew our visas.  That awful and most painful trip happened on Tuesday, a day I will never get back, precious time spent sitting in a mini bus with a crying baby and no way of settling her down.  To add to my frustration we were not the only people on the bus, there was an American man, a German and another women who didn't speak a word for the entire trip so I do not know where she came from.  I was very aware that Lillie's screaming and crying was not only recking my trip but also the other people who were forced to sit through it.  I can only imagine what they would have been thinking, I would have been thinking the same thoughts had I been in their shoes.  Thankfully Lillie did scream herself into exhaustion and we managed to get a little bit of respite.  And to tell the truth, once she was quiet the ride was really very pleasant.  Judd was watching his DVD player (thankfully I thought to put it in my bag as the driver played only violent, action films full of blood and guns).  Every now and then I would turn to check on him and catch him watching our screen during a particular bloody scene, typical boy.  The seats in the bus were so comfortable, they were like leather armchairs, they reclined and swivelled, which made it easier to get to the kids who were sitting behind us.  The driver was typical of Thai drivers, he swerved in and out of traffic hit and exceeded the speed limit whenever the road was flat and smooth enough to make it safe and he loved lightly beeping his horn at every bike, dog or person who looked like they may get in his way.  I could have even had a sleep if Lillie didn't wake up from her nap so soon.

Once we got to the border we piled out of the bus and dragged the kids over to the immigration office which was a little row of windows with a Immigration Officer sitting behind.  We got our passports stamped for leaving the country (and narrowly avoided a HUGE fine for the kids overstaying their visas, phew).  We then had to walk about 20 meters over a bridge which spanned some very dodgy looking water full of rubbish with slum like shacks perched precariously on the edges.  We went straight to a little table and there we had to sit until the Cambodian Immigration Officer received our passports and issued us with a one day tourist visa for Cambodia.  Lillie decided this would be a great time to play in the mud. 
The Cambodian border was just a small glimpse of how poor and poverty stricken that country is.  The roads go from nicely paved on the Thai side to yellow mud, beat up shitty cars, smokey motorbikes and ramshackle shops selling heaps of crap.  I was warned about begging children but I only encountered 2 on my way to the toilet and since I left my purse in the bus I couldn't give her anything.  Speaking of the toilet, this was a first for me since arriving in Thailand 90 days ago.  It was the famous Squat toilet.  I have successfully avoided these so far but today I had no choice.  Unfortunately I was wearing long harem pants so I had to somehow pull the pants up so they didn't drag in the water puddles that covered the floor, then gather the rest of my pants together so I wouldn't pee on them while I perched in a very uncomfortable position over this ceramic bowl with footholds on either side.  Luckily I managed to put some tissues into my pocket before going in otherwise it would have made for a uncomfortable ride home.  Its times like these I wish I was born a man so I could pee standing up.
We then walked back over the bridge into Thailand, lined up again at the windows and received our visa stamps for another 90 days.  Once we hopped back onto the bus to head home there were lovely trays with our lunches waiting for us to eat in comfort and watch TV on the ride home.  This I would have enjoyed, however Lillie was not keen to get back into her car seat and decided to scream again.  After trying to calm her I finally gave up and ignored her and miraculously it worked and she fell asleep again.  Mind you I don't think the other passengers were at all happy about me letting her cry it out.
So 3 movies later we arrived back into Pattaya and our driver picked us up and took us home.  It honestly felt like we had been away on a 4 day long weekend trip and walking in our front door I had that lovely feeling of "GOD its so good to be home".  I haven't had that homely feeling since we have been here, and it was reassuring to know its attainable.

Now I have firmly told Marcus that I flat out refuse to do another border run and he needs to inform his employers that they need to pull their fingers out of their bums and get us our work visa before our 90 days run out again. 
The up side of all of this is that we both agree that we would like to take a few days off and have the kids looked after so we can go to Cambodia and visit it properly as tourists.  I couldn't do it with the children, it would be far too stressful.  But it is now on our "places to visit" list.