Our vision of the Siem Reap to Bangkok bus journey was a 2 hour snooze whilst speeding down smooth, straight roads to the border in a luxury coach, a seamless crossing followed by another 3 hours on another super-smooth, relaxing bus ride to deliver us well rested to Bangkok. This fantasy was to stay just that – the reality was somewhat different! Having been collected at 7:45am, after 5 minutes we were dropped off about 500m down the road to wait half an hour for a bigger bus. When said bus arrived, it looked like the last stop was in the ‘70’s - it was clean and the air con worked however so we were more than happy. We’d read that the road to the border had been recently improved so were expecting big things. Though it was markedly better than the dirt track that linked Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, I still don’t think this section of bumpy tarmac would be out of place on a World Rally stage! We arrived at the border a couple of hours later and commenced the ‘seamless’ border procedure - getting off our Cambodian bus and collecting our luggage, exchanging our tickets for a yellow sticker (!), lugging our bags to the Cambodian checkpoint then to the Thai checkpoint across the bizarre no mans land between the two containing a huge casino and scores of beggars and hawkers, finally emerging on the Thai side after about an hour! A half hour wait (for our mysterious man in a trilby hat to return to tell us where we went next) and a 15 minute trek in the midday sun was followed by a hairy 20 minute journey in the back of a pickup truck (8 of us with massive rucksacks in the back of an L200 van with the tail down – felt like we were going to war!), dropping us off at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. 2 hours and two delicious Pad Thais later, our minibus picked us up for the hair-raising 3 hour trip at what seemed like Warp 9 to Bangkok! We finally arrived at our hostel after nigh on 11 hours in transit, just about having enough energy in reserve to fend off the countless taxi driver and tuk tuk scams on the final leg! Our hostel – Lub D in the Silom district of Bangkok – was thankfully an oasis of calm after all that excitement a good night’s sleep was very welcome indeed!
Flying along in our jeep!
Queues of trucks going into Cambodia, plus our first proper Thai Tuk-Tuk (the Cambodian ones are basically motorbikes with a trailer)
On the speedy riverboat in Bangkok, en route to the hostel
One of the many Wats (temples) in Bangkok from the riverboat
Having crossed from Cambodia into Thailand, the difference in the level of affluence between the two is marked. Though there is poverty in rural parts of Eastern Thailand, the majority of people are much better off than their neighbours in Cambodia and the infrastructure seems much better, with big expressways linking the big cities and trains that are so safe they are actually allowed to carry passengers! Tourism is now a big earner in Thailand, though some of the Tuk-Tuk and taxi drivers seem hell-bent on scamming tourists to squeeze as much money out of them as they can! We’d read up on the numerous scams before getting to Thailand and thankfully avoided getting conned but there must be thousands of people that do! You are forever being told ‘The palace/temple/shopping centre is closed – I take you to one that’s open’ or being offered a whole day in a Tuk-Tuk for just 10 baht (where they take you to every shop/restaurant in Bangkok offering them commission as opposed to where you want to go)! One favourite was a taxi driver quoting 1000 baht (£20) for a 2 minute taxi ride – good try! There were more scary sounding and expensive scams in the late-night ‘entertainment establishments’ in the Patpong area near our hostel but as we weren’t brave enough to enter any we avoided these!!!
Our first full day in Bangkok involved a fair bit of indulgence in the Western comforts that we’d been without for what seemed like an eternity – namely fast food and masses of shops! We visited the humongous MBK centre – 7 floors of bargain shops where you can hone your bartering skills to a T! This centre would be impressive on its’ own, however it is only one of probably 20+ centres like this in Bangkok’s city centre alone! Bargain clothes were the order of the day as our limited backpack wardrobes were in need of refreshing!
MBK centre – like one of the temples of Angkor but dedicated to the god of shopping
Traffic everywhere, and the Skytrain towering above the gridlock!
We also took the opportunity to pop to the main railway station to book our onward leg to Koh Phangan island (for the essential Full Moon Party at the end of the month). The scams were in full effect here too – the official information desk helpfully providing us with all the information about the train times before leading us upstairs to an agent for their commission. After extracting the information we required from the agent, we headed back down the stairs and saved 600 baht by buying the same ticket from the ticket desk!!!
Hua Lamphong Station (or Humpalong as we nicknamed it)
Stilt houses on the stinky canal near the station!
We went for a run in nearby Lumphini Park on the second day. This beautifully landscaped park was a welcoming open space in this hectic city, with ponds and fountains amongst the lush greenery. We later discovered that Lumphini Park was actually the centre of the Red Shirts’ encampment during the recent protests – other than the 5 soldiers patrolling the park on pink bicycles there was no trace of any of the troubles; incredible seeing as it was only a month or so ago. The only thing that we did notice was that one of Bangkok’s shopping malls – Zen World – had been completely gutted by fire during the riots that followed the military operation to disperse the camp. A few days later we were talking to a Canadian chap who lived in Bangkok about the protests – it was interesting to hear about how tense things were and that from the sounds of things the protesters were being funded by the ousted President. The British media seemed to portray the army as the aggressors whereas the locals seemed to side with the current government. Who knows what propaganda to believe?!
The devastated Zen World centre
Much like Cambodia, there are numerous Wat temples all over Bangkok. We did our best to conquer as many as we could in our time in Bangkok, however it’s easy to experience ‘temple overload’ and get ‘Wat-ted out’! I swear on one of our days in Bangkok we actually saw more gold Buddhas than people! Anyway, we saw the ‘largest indoor Buddha statue in a reclined position’ (quite a claim to fame) and the world’s largest solid gold Buddha! The latter had a fascinating story behind it – cast in the 13th century, it had been encased in stucco to protect it from theft by marauding Burmese invaders; it was only discovered as being solid gold underneath when someone moving it broke a bit off in the 1950’s! It weighs five and a half tonnes and at current prices would cost $140 million!!!
Big Buddha head
Big Buddha feet
Mog suffering from ‘temple overload’
Bling Buddha
We checked out the most impressive Bangkok tourist landmark on our penultimate day – the Grand Palace. This luxuriant collection of impressive buildings is a glittery display, especially in the midday sun! The rules of admission stipulated that everyone should have their shoulders and legs covered so we had to don our trousers and spend a sweltering few hours looking round the palace grounds –phew! Highlights included the somewhat holy Wat Phra Kaeo which contains the Jade Buddha (a tiny figure which is Thailand’s most important icon) and the enormous golden Phra Si Ratana Chedi which apparently houses a piece of Buddha’s chest bone! Another highlight were the Ramayana murals. These murals stretch 1km around the inner walls of the compound, depicting various stories of war and revenge including one particularly grizzly bit where someone gets decapitated (see photo below) – nice!
Royal Palace from the outside
A fair bit of gold and shiny mosaic
Phra Si Chatana Chedi
Even the murals are gold!
A big ruck
Unlucky chap loses head whilst flying through the air
Big miniature model of Angkor Wat
Spot the waving cameraman…
Rich makes a new friend
The Grand Palace
Fran makes a new friend too!
On the Friday evening, we went on one of the more ‘educational’ experiences from our wedding list (thanks Ross & Rachael). The Calypso Cabaret is a Bangkok institution and is famous for both its flamboyant performances and flamboyant performers! We arrived at the slightly jaded but grand 1980’s Asia Hotel at 8pm, descended into the basement ballroom, settled into our second row seats next to an elderly Chinese couple and ordered our free drink from the hostess. The compere soon appeared and announced the beginning of the show in English, Thai, Chinese and Japanese and the first performer appeared. The next hour and a bit was a sight to behold – singing, dancing, extravagant costumes, slapstick humour, splashes of vibrant colour everywhere and some slightly too revealing outfits all contributing to a captivating show. The underlying fact that all of the performers were born with an X and a Y chromosome was hard to comprehend quite a lot of the time – most of the performers had undergone some pretty major surgery if you get our drift?! Anyway, after the show you could meet the ‘girls’ on the way out so we took the opportunity to grab a quick photo with a few of them – check them out below! We had an excellent time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, even though it was a little bizarre to say the least!
Kylie wannabe at the front!
Geishas in full flow
Meet the girls!
On our last night in Bangkok we decided to have a couple of drinks before dinner; as we were pouring our second drink, a couple from our China trip (Mike & Claire) walked in to check into our hostel for the night (we’d bumped into them in Siem Reap as well)! We ended up going out for dinner and chatting into the early hours – good to have someone to natter to!
Enjoying a ‘bucket’ at our hostel!
Anyway, I’m writing this from our room in Kanchanaburi – a few hundred kilometres West of Bangkok, close to the border with Myanmar (Burma). I’ll fill you in on the train journey in the next post but in the meantime here’s a photo for all of my lovely colleagues back at Deya…
Fancy field managing this one next year anyone…?!
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