"And now you in...CAMBODIA"

4:30 am - metered taxi to Hua Lumphong train station, Bangkok.
5:50 am - slow, 3rd class train to Aranya Prathet, eastern border of Thailand.
8:20 am - scary bugs fly in the window of metal train car, Gina sleeps through this apocalyptic act and pays with a bite under her right eye.
12:00 pm- tuk-tuk ride to Poipet (border crossing). Driver takes us to a "travel agency". (To talk to a scam operation.) JoAnne gets pissed. "We go. To Poipet. RIGHT. NOW."
12:16 pm -Immigration.
12:38 pm -Conman follows Gina and JoAnne as they walk the .5 mile to Cambodia. Girls ignore him, but apparently funniness is part of his schtick. "And now....you in....CAMBODIA!'' He remarks to them as though there were crossing the Mississippi into Illinois or something.
12:49 pm - Fake police officer tries to take Gina's passport after passing the first immigration booth. JoAnne, still pissed: "Let me see your badge. You're not the real police, She doesn't have to show you her passport. Let us go." Conman thinks it's funny that JoAnne is pissed and cracks a smile. Let's us go.
1:15 pm - JoAnne and Gina almost don't get past the second checkpoint, as their righteous indignation seeps over onto the REAL police who get angry that we don't believe them. After explaining, humbly, the scams JoAnne and Gina have been through, they finally surrender departure/arrival cards and the girls stand in line.
1:20 pm - Gina has applied for entrance to Cambodia on her Dutch passport - but she exited Thailand on her American passport. Confusions ensues.
1:30 pm - But they make it through.
1:40 pm - Find a french couple to share a taxi ride to Siem Riep. From the border, this is only 170 km...but the road is so degraded that it takes 4 hours. JoAnne and Gina hit their heads on the roof of the sedan as it hits large potholes every couple of minutes.
1:41 pm - Dust everywhere.
3:16 pm - See a small child sitting in the road.
4:10 pm - Lots of school children on bikes.
4:30 pm - People bathing in mud in ditches.
6:00 pm - Siem Riep. Finally. Go to the most budget guesthouse they could find, but it's pretty scary.
6:11 pm - a tuk-tuk to a more localized part of town. All good guesthouses are full, but they manage to find something a little more upscale just for the night.
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm - Gina and JoAnne go find unidentifiable food at the market, take it back to their room and watch movies, exhausted, but enjoyed their streetside rice pudding and fermented pickles.