By the way thanks for all the comments. I have published them all. To read them just go to the day you made the comment.
So, this was our last day in Thailand. It has gone far too quickly. We have really enjoyed our drive through this wonderful friendly country. Now, all we had left, was a 450kms drive south-east from Bangkok to our next stop, Koh Kong a gambling resort just inside Cambodia.
We had Raza Fakhr as our passenger. His brother Ahmad went with Richard Smith in Car 24 and Ahmad’s son, Darvish, went with the car from Oman, Car 2. We left Bangkok at just after 7.30am and immediately got caught up in the city’s horrendous traffic. Fortunately we only had a few blocks to negotiate before we were on the expressway heading east. The expressways in Bangkok are impressive structures, running for miles elevated above the houses and local roads. It took us only an hour before we were out into the countryside. We had lovely long straight roads leading to the hills of south-eastern Thailand. For part of the route we went through forests where wild elephants roam. We hoped to see some, but we were unlucky.
Following Bert & Stefan in their Toyota pick-up truck.
We then turned off the main road for a short (12kms) section of dirt road going through wonderful green hills. We came up behind one of the group hidden in the dust.
It turned out to be Tom and Rosalie Gatsonides in their blue and white FJ Toyota. 
We passed them when Tom stopped to take some photos. It was a good section of dirt road, though not very challenging.We arrived at the Thai/Cambodia border at about 2pm. HERO, as usual, had their local tourist guides from Diethelm Travel on hand to help us through the various stages of leaving one county and entering another. Passports, visas and car carnets all had to be stamped and approved before we could move on into Cambodia. As we were one of the first to arrive at the border we cleared within 45 minutes and drove on to our hotel which was just 800 metres from the border. Those behind us had to queue to get their papers stamped, which was when I took this photo.
One fact I must mention is the change from driving on the left in Thailand to the right in Cambodia. It was quite strange having to change from one side of the road to the other as I drove through the border. Apart from the few days we spend in Thailand later on in the tour, we will be on the right hand side of the road.
The Koh Kong resort has been built to attract Thais to the casino, though it appeared we were virtually the only people staying at the 500 room hotel! The hotel, though modern, reminded me very much of hotels in other communist countries I have visited. The bar had very few bottles on display and the shelves in the coffee shop were all bare.
After we arrived we learnt that one of our group had not been allowed out of Thailand as there were problems with the stamping of the carnet. We will learn more tomorrow, but knowing how HERO have sorted out problems like this in the past, it is more than likely that the crew and car will catch us up, if not in Cambodia, then when we return to northern Thailand in a few days.
There was time to have a swim in the pool and then in the evening we celebrated Bob Howell’s birthday. A cake was brought onto the stage in our dining hall, and as we sang Happy Birthday, Bob blew out the candles. Shortly after, Paul Wignall took to the stage to give us a screamingly funny Yorkshire version of Elvis Presley’s ‘Are you Lonesome tonight’. It was a pity I didn’t have my video with me to record it.
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