Day 39 of The Big Adventure, according to Sarah. 

We woke up pretty late and lazed around our hotel until we had to check out. We were supposed to be getting the night bus that night so we had to wait until 6.45pm to get on. That gave us 7 hours to kill… 
Lauren was still feeling pretty sick and I told her we could just move the bus ticket again and stay another night but she was determined to get to Siem Reap. So we packed up our bags and went to sit in the Beach Road restaurant. I had a pineapple shake and Lauren had some water. After an hour or so Lauren was feeling hungry so she ordered a plate of plain steamed rice. But after a couple of mouthfuls it became clear that her system was still not ready. 

She managed to get half of it down but it left her feeling seriously nauseous for the rest of the day. 
I was reading some reviews about night buses between Sihanoukville and Siem Reap and it seemed to be horror story after horror story. Just a few months ago, one of the buses had flipped over and the driver had fled the scene without making sure everyone was ok! Lots of reports of staff stealing things from bags in the under compartment of the bus. 

I asked Lauren if this was really worth it, but she told me to stop reading and that we’d be fine. 

At that point, I’d realised I didn’t have a padlock for my bag so I set out on a mission to buy a padlock. I went from shop to shop pleading with everyone if they knew anywhere that might sell me a padlock. Having been to every shop in town and even a few hostels (worth a try) it seemed Sihanoukville did not sell padlocks.

Defeated I headed back to check if Lauren was ok and found her still feeling seriously nauseous. So I headed to the pharmacy and tried to explain what was wrong with Lauren and managed to get some anti-nausea pills and then I thought I’d have one last stab at finding a padlock and went to ask in a dive shop. She didn’t sell them either but just as I was leaving she called after me ‘Like this?’ Pointing at the padlock on her door. Yes just like that!

She lead me over to a little back alley with a stall in the wall selling crisps and the like, and she explained what I was after in Khmer to the stall owner and he magically produced a padlock! Thank god! 

I thanked them profusely and made my way back to Lauren. 

After an anti-nausea pill she seemed to perk up a bit so we made our way over the road to Monkey Republic, a backpacker bar, to wait for the rest of the time because that’s where the bus stopped. 
Finally 6.30pm arrived and we spied our bus pulling up at the curb. We dashed over the road to buy a couple of bottles of water and went to board our bus. We checked in at the front and the man told us we were forth on the left, bottom bunk. 

We had bought a ‘double bed’ on the night bus which turned out to be barely as wide as a single. 

We topped-to-toed and snuggled down under the fleecy blankets they provided. 

  

  

As we sat there we realised everyone around us was British. 

We sparked up a conversation with two girls from Derby, who were in the double across from us, and a couple from south London, who were in the bunk above us. 

We all had a little laugh about how this bus seemed to have come straight from England and that we’d never met so many Brits in one place before!
It was strangely comforting to hear the different British accents, especially the northern ones. There’s something so inherently friendly and trustworthy about the northern accent. Side note: I’ve heard they train the call centre staff in India to put on a Yorkshire accent because studies have shown it is the most likeable and comforting. So next time you think you’re chatting to Rob from Birmingham, it might actually be Rohit from Bangladesh. 
Turned out, we were all pretty scared about getting a night bus and after sharing some hear-say and horror stories about night buses, we all hunkered down to try and get some sleep. 

At midnight we pulled into the Phnom Penh bus station, where the two Derby girls got off (they were headed for Ho Chi Minh) and some locals boarded. 

I was desperate for a wee, but every time I tried to ask the driver if I could go to the toilet, he ignored me. In the end I made a dash for it into the bus station, hoping they would have western style toilets. No such luck. 

And Lauren had used all of the spare toilet roll when she was sick. 

So I grabbed a piece of cardboard and did what I had to do… Squat. 

I made my way back onto the bus to find an entire Cambodian family had moved into the bunk opposite: a man, his wife and their baby. 

Thankfully I had my iPod so I could listen to music to drown out the crying, but Lauren wasn’t quite so prepared…