Sunday 8 July
The day starts well - we are ready in good time for the 7 am coach which will take us to the Cambodian/Thai border town of Poi Pet. The coach has several people to pick up from different hotels, and doesn't actually leave Siem Reap until about 8 am, which is the official time of leaving anyway
On the coach we talk to a young Spaniard who is travelling alone; he's been doing volunary work, teaching English in an orphanage in Cambodia. We learn that he's had to pay for the privilege of working there. Not all the children in the orphanage are orphans; some have been left there by parents who can't afford to feed them. The young Spaniard tells us most of the children in this category do see their parents regularly.
We reach the Cambodian/Thai border at 11.30 am, which should give us plenty of time to catch the Bangkok train, which leaves at 1.45 pm, just across the border. We pass through the Cambodian controls fairly quickly, but just a few hundred yards away, the Thailand border control is a different matter. It seems that several coaches have arrived at the border at once, and the Thai officials just can't cope with number of people coming into their country. We queue for 2½ hours, and as each minute ticks by, our prospect of catching the Bangkok train fades further away. We know we won't make it now; we should have got an earlier coach to the border, but we didn't envisage this huge delay. Reg is really disappointed; I say it's just one of those things.
The coach we travelled on this morning apparently only goes as far as the border; those going on to Bangkok have to transfer to minibuses. We don't think we'll be able to travel with them, as they've already been allocated to their minibuses; we didn't get allocated because we said we were travelling by train.
So, when we eventually pass through the Thai border, and a young man asks us if we need transport to Bangkok, we say, yes please. He can find us places on a minibus; we say we have a lot of luggage, but he doesn't seem to think that this will be a problem. It's now 2.30 pm. What omit to ask the young man what time the minibus will be leaving for Bangkok; we assume it will go straight away. However, in order to make a profit, the tour operator has to make sure his driver has a full bus; we have to wait a further 1½ hours for there to be enough passengers.
It's a turns out to be a 5 hour trip, and the minibus is travelling at breakneck speed nearly all the way. We notice that the roads are like those in the West though; hugely better than the ones in Cambodia, so at least we have a relatively smooth journey. Also, Reg points out, they drive on the left; ie, the correct side of the road, in Reg's opinion! We stop at couple of times for comfort breaks, and by the time we arrive on the outskirts of the huge city of Bangkok (population 6 million), it's gone 9.00 pm. We've been travelling for 14 hours.
We filter through the myriad of roads and flyovers and spaghetti junctions which make up the sparkling night city of Bangkok. We're surprised that the traffic is slow and extremely busy, despite the lateness of the hour, and the fact that it's a Sunday. We're the last to be dropped off and we're grateful that we're being taken the whole way to our hostel, not to a bus station.
Our hostel is clean and modern and our room has everything we need. No kettle, or tea or coffee, but we have our own. The only drawback is that we are on the 4th floor. The staff help us with our luggage, but Reg doesn't think it fair to ask them to carry up my large, heavy suitcase, so he brings that. By the time we reach our room, we're both exhausted.
We order a pizza from the bar as we haven't eaten properly since breakfast. It's one of the worst we've ever had; I don't think pizzas are meant to be microwaved. A quick shower to refresh my sticky body, and I can't wait to get to bed; I fall asleep while Reg unwinds watching the Tour de France, on the TV in our room.
I sleep till 9 am the next day.
The day starts well - we are ready in good time for the 7 am coach which will take us to the Cambodian/Thai border town of Poi Pet. The coach has several people to pick up from different hotels, and doesn't actually leave Siem Reap until about 8 am, which is the official time of leaving anyway
On the coach we talk to a young Spaniard who is travelling alone; he's been doing volunary work, teaching English in an orphanage in Cambodia. We learn that he's had to pay for the privilege of working there. Not all the children in the orphanage are orphans; some have been left there by parents who can't afford to feed them. The young Spaniard tells us most of the children in this category do see their parents regularly.
We reach the Cambodian/Thai border at 11.30 am, which should give us plenty of time to catch the Bangkok train, which leaves at 1.45 pm, just across the border. We pass through the Cambodian controls fairly quickly, but just a few hundred yards away, the Thailand border control is a different matter. It seems that several coaches have arrived at the border at once, and the Thai officials just can't cope with number of people coming into their country. We queue for 2½ hours, and as each minute ticks by, our prospect of catching the Bangkok train fades further away. We know we won't make it now; we should have got an earlier coach to the border, but we didn't envisage this huge delay. Reg is really disappointed; I say it's just one of those things.
The coach we travelled on this morning apparently only goes as far as the border; those going on to Bangkok have to transfer to minibuses. We don't think we'll be able to travel with them, as they've already been allocated to their minibuses; we didn't get allocated because we said we were travelling by train.
So, when we eventually pass through the Thai border, and a young man asks us if we need transport to Bangkok, we say, yes please. He can find us places on a minibus; we say we have a lot of luggage, but he doesn't seem to think that this will be a problem. It's now 2.30 pm. What omit to ask the young man what time the minibus will be leaving for Bangkok; we assume it will go straight away. However, in order to make a profit, the tour operator has to make sure his driver has a full bus; we have to wait a further 1½ hours for there to be enough passengers.
It's a turns out to be a 5 hour trip, and the minibus is travelling at breakneck speed nearly all the way. We notice that the roads are like those in the West though; hugely better than the ones in Cambodia, so at least we have a relatively smooth journey. Also, Reg points out, they drive on the left; ie, the correct side of the road, in Reg's opinion! We stop at couple of times for comfort breaks, and by the time we arrive on the outskirts of the huge city of Bangkok (population 6 million), it's gone 9.00 pm. We've been travelling for 14 hours.
We filter through the myriad of roads and flyovers and spaghetti junctions which make up the sparkling night city of Bangkok. We're surprised that the traffic is slow and extremely busy, despite the lateness of the hour, and the fact that it's a Sunday. We're the last to be dropped off and we're grateful that we're being taken the whole way to our hostel, not to a bus station.
Our hostel is clean and modern and our room has everything we need. No kettle, or tea or coffee, but we have our own. The only drawback is that we are on the 4th floor. The staff help us with our luggage, but Reg doesn't think it fair to ask them to carry up my large, heavy suitcase, so he brings that. By the time we reach our room, we're both exhausted.
We order a pizza from the bar as we haven't eaten properly since breakfast. It's one of the worst we've ever had; I don't think pizzas are meant to be microwaved. A quick shower to refresh my sticky body, and I can't wait to get to bed; I fall asleep while Reg unwinds watching the Tour de France, on the TV in our room.
I sleep till 9 am the next day.
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