The Road to Bangkok

A picture of the Cambodian rubbish bin, this one painted white but most of them left in their natural black. Cleverly recycling all those old tyres, they are seen everywhere you go. And a shot, not too interesting, of a stop during our bus ride to Bangkok.

We are in Bangkok - not at a good time it seems. Britain, among other countries, has just advised against being here as the former Prime Minister, Thaksin (the one deemed fit to own a Premier Football Club) is stirring up his followers, calling on the police and army to disobey orders and has just got his family out of the country. A very large red t-shirted demonstration is underway and violence is feared (we are due to leave tomorrow).

We got here by bus, it took almost 12 hours and included a lot of hanging around in the heat at the border crossing, but in terms of discomfort was a doddle compared to some of our India trips. And it cost only 15 dollars each - a tenth of the airfare costs. We decided on coming straight to Thailand having reserved seats on a flight to Laos but having second thoughts - even on Vietnam Airlines it cost a lot and road travel from Siem Reap to the north of Laos was a challenge we were not prepared to meet. In fact a woman on the Bangkok coach had tried the land crossing only to be told she had to wait three days for a visa when she reached the Loas border.

Our trip was uneventful, nice in some ways to be travelling overland, it gives you time to look and think. We were surprised to find huge modern multi-story buildings at the border. Having got our exit stamp we trudged through no-mans land to discover that it contained three large casinos! Given that this was the most utilitarian crossing point imaginable, handling just a stream of trucks and trailers and backpackers, it seemed incongrous. Who on earth would turn up to gamble here? Oh and Tess and I managed to lose our bus group for a very worrying hour before discovering them again languishing by the immigration exit.

Our journey through Western Cambodia was across an extremely flat landscape, much as at Siem Reap, yellow with nothing growing until the rains come - a sort of Fens with coconuts although the green mango trees give a bit of an European look to parts. As we got into Thailand it gradually changed to green - they obviously have a lot more irrigation from the rivers.

We got to the outskirts of Bangkok as night fell. As we swept in along the elevanted highway we felt a little like peasants wondering at the immense billboards (bigger, higher and more brightly lit than any you have seen) and the scale of the multi-story buildings in the centre. Surely we have not been out in the sticks so long?

Brian

We have landed up at a hotel that seems to be run by a selection of very decorative young men and we are just round the corner from the big market, bar and all night party street Khoa San Road. Brian had to get some cash to pay for the hotel and at first couldn't see where it was because it was located in a van parked in the crowded street. We went for a walk and a look about us last night and it was very entertaining. There were endless t shirts, beads, bags, cd's and DVD's to buy and loads of bars offering 'VERY STRONG COCKTAILS' or 2 for 1 drinks etc and hoards of young people and a group of tourist police offering to be 'your first friend' some dressed in blow up uniforms and funny cartoon heads in the style of a Disney character, perhaps the one who wears that suit has done something bad in the previous week.

We were back at the hotel and in bed by 10 pm and I should think we were the only people in this part of town in our beds at that time. I woke a couple of times in the night to the distant thump of loud music, but our hotel seems to be quite quiet. It does offer breakfast till 12.00 mid-day though and one of the breakfasts offered is a cheese and ham sandwich, so it obviously caters for the party animal.

Tess