The day of bad luck. The trip from Siem Reap to Bangkok

The 31 January can be officially be called a pretty bad day for the brave and handsome travellers from the north. It all began...
06:00, we woke up to take the 07:00 bus from our hotel to Bangkok. The trips works like this.
You take a bus from your hotel t the Thai-Cambodian border, walk over, and take another bus from the border to Bangkok. Shouldn't be so hard now should it?
Well, allow me to tell you more.
The bus finally arrived at our hotel not 07:00 but 07:30. Big deal? not really except for the fact that the so called bus is actually an old "civilian" marked minibus with no ac, no fans and by the time we pick up all the travellers into the bus, making the fate of sardines in a can to look like blissful heaven in comparison. Well, we drove around Siem Reap, picking up travellers and by the end of the morning, we were so cramped that in case of an emergency, there would be absolutly no way , NO WAY we would be getting out of the bus, let alone alive.
the bus left Siem Reap at about 09:00, taking us to what the bus driver attemted to convince us was a road. It was orginised dirt with lots of big holes in it. the 200 km took us 6 hours to drive, making the average speed 33km per hour. In comparision, the 300 km to Bangkok from the Thai border took 3,5 hours. In a nice AC bus.
Anyway. Moving on (slowly) we passed a couple of small villiages (and there was a cool monkey). You could really see the poverty but I was struck by how friendly people were to everyone (even when they weren't trying to sell something). The Khmers are really friendly people. More open then anything I've seen in Europe.
Well, about 15:00 we arrived at the border, did all the bureaucracy necessary to leave Cambodia and enter Thailand. And just as we passed the border, there was surprise number 2. There were so many travellers from Cambodia that they had to get another bus, and yours truly didn't of course make the first one. 2 hours later, just as me , Micke and our fellow travellers were considering an uprising, looting and murder, our bus arrived. after that we though, it was downhill. AC bus, nice and comfy and I actually got some sleep. Nice and smooth ride.
In Bangkok we had booked a room at Marco Polo guest house and I'll let the picture speak for itself. 5 sq meters, a bed with a mattras made of wood, a shower with cold water only and no toiletpaper what so ever. one had to do it th asian way: use a shower thingy for ones bum. But it was roof over our heads and that was what mattered. But I wouldn't recommend the place.
We had bad luck all the way from Siem Reap into this morning...
But today was a better day. Micke and I went shopping at Siam Paragon and Siam Centre. Great places . I wish I could afford the stuff they were selling. After we returned from our windowshopping spree, we payed for the trekking in Chiangmai and the diving at Koh Tao. The dude at Buddhaview who arranged all of the diving and trekking was really ncie and friendly. We're leaving in 1 hour. I hope all is well in Europe.
Yours truly.
Martin