End of an Asia.....

30th July - 3rd August 2012

We left Cambodia on Monday 30th July to do a land transfer to Thailand. This is a notorious land border crossing with stories of widespread scams and corruption - and that is just by the border officials before the locals get involved! Needless to say I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing but we gotten some good advice from fellow Irish travellers Kate and Dave who had only done this a few days before and they gave us directions and said just keep our heads down and it'll be fine. Literally we had to keep our heads down - making eye contact with officials is a recipe for disaster! We got a taxi (2 hour journey cost $25 in a taxi and the bus was $22 so it was a no brainer) to the Cambodian border town of Poipet. Poipet is a hellhole, as most of these border towns are, but this was particularly dirty and smelly place. After walking the 0.5km across the border my flipflops and legs were literally destroyed in mud!!
As part of the whole keeping our heads down, not making eye contact thing we didn't get any photos but here is one from google images.

The whole border crossing went surprisingly smoothly and we didn't need to grease any palms to get out of Cambodia so I call that a victory! We then got a bus from Arany Prathet (town in Thai side of the border) to Bangkok. This journey of course took much longer than expected so once again we were grateful for the tub of peanut butter that has saved our skins more than once in the last few weeks.

Finally we arrived in Bangkok at 5pm having set off at 8am that morning. As is par for the course out here the journey was only about 400km but took most of the day!

If anyone has seen the way Asians travel you will know they don't pack bags like you or me....The majority we have seen will be carrying at least 5 or 6 different shopping bags or boxes; none of them will be very big and all will be stuffed to capacity. You will rarely see them actually use a suitcase and never a rucksack. Basically if you can carry everything you are bringing in two hands you're not bringing enough - the more little bags, requiring at least two trips, the better!  We have seen all sorts being transported over the last few weeks from kilos of rice to boxes of oranges to 20 bunches of flowers etc and these are just the things we can identify! Also every second person will be carrying a brand new rice cooker (which incidentally will be my first purchase when I get home!), I am convinced the manufacturers of rice cookers are deliberately making them faulty so they will be replaced every few weeks as there is no other reason for people to be carrying them everywhere you look from down the street to trains, planes and buses! Anyways this is all great craic watching them walking around carrying all this crap and trying to spot the most bizarre thing they are transporting until......my bag came out of the bus cargo soaked! On the bus journey we had hit all 4 seasons weather-wise, including some torrential rain, so we were hoping it was just rainwater as we were getting a little wet while sitting on the bus.  But, alas it was not to be, when i opened my bag after we got to the hotel it was covered in some unidentifiable brown liquid! So after washing every stitch I owned in Siem Reap, everything had to be brought to another laundrette in Bangkok!

Then there was the small matter of Percy to be dealt with. After much persuasion, Ronan finally decided he needed to go to the doctor and deal with the parasite that has taken up residence in his intestine (who we affectionately named Percy). So off to find a doctor as soon as we landed in Bangkok. He got some tablets and is now fine. This is really common in travellers through South East Asia and not a big deal at all. Betcha no one would have bet that Ronan would be the one growing a new addition to the family!!

That pretty much summed up our first day in Bangkok and despite all of the above we both instantly liked it! Bangkok is pretty unique in that it is much more civilised than other parts of Asia we have been to but still retains the fun, crazy element. Like they have rules of the road - cars stop at traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, they all go the same way around roundabouts and motorcycles drive on the road not the footpaths. But it's still not normal or boring and everywhere you look something a little crazy will be happening! We thought we could no longer be surprised by the oddities but Bangkok still had a few tricks up its' sleeve!

The following day we just went wandering around the city and finding our bearings. We ended up in Chinatown where there were loads of crazy things to be seen but the pram full of dogs dressed in faux diamond collars and little outfits, coupled with the fact it looked as if they were sedated, definitely took the biscuit!

Afterwards we went to the cinema again to see Batman as Ronan had being dying to see it. It was strange having to stand for their national anthem and slideshow about the king before the film started - you can actually be arrested for disrespecting the king by not standing!

The next day was Wednesday 1st August and we spent this day doing more sightseeing including getting a water taxi to look around the city and going around the royal palace. We tried to go in as it does look really impressive but we were wearing inappropriate clothing - pants need to cover your ankles and shoulders must be covered - you can borrow clothes but they had just run out and we couldn't be bothered waiting an hour. We resolved to get up early the following day and dress properly, after all we couldn't leave Bangkok without seeing one of their major tourist sights could we?!

Palace saying what you are allowed to wear

That evening we were meeting Kate and Dave from Cork for dinner. A casual, civilised dinner would follow we were sure! The restaurant had bottles of wine for €32 but also let you bring your own for €7 corkage, so with a shop right next door so it was inevitable that we would be the really classy BYOB people! The second bottle was started at 10pm so should have realised then how it would end up! By coincidence Kate's uncle happened to be in town for a night on business so when they eventually kicked us out of the restaurant we went to a pub where they were meeting up. It's only afterwards that I thought of how we must have been after 2 bottles of wine and 2 mojitos and him just off a plane, whoops! When the pub kicked us out it was back to the residents bar for a nightcap! The four of us decided to walk back to our respective hotels, the memories are hazy but I do recall walking past large groups of lady boys roaring 'Cailin fear' (our code for lady boys) and other various loud musings about the lives of prostitutes (in front of said prostitutes!)....hmmm how we made it back to our hotels safely is beyond me aswell after that performance! Think we got home around 4.30am so needless to say that early morning palace visit never happened, whoops!

Not surprisingly on Thursday I was in a heap and just slept! Poor Ronan was starving and eventually decided to wake me at 1.40pm with a plan to sort me out - 10min walk in fresh air ending with a McDonalds! I was feeling a little better after a huge chicken nugget meal but not fit for too much so we ended up spending the day wandering around a deadly shopping centre called Terminal 21 with different floors themed in different countries!

San Francisco floor in Terminal 21

Istanbul floor in Terminal 21

We met Kate and Dave again and just chilled out with them for the afternoon before they left for airport and we headed up to the night market. God if I thought things around where we were was seedy the area around the night market was unbelievable! It's in the actual red light district and it was just the most disgusting, sleazy place I have ever experienced. We made a quick exit as it genuinely didn't feel safe.

Friday 3rd August was our last day in Asia as we were flying to Sydney that evening. After checking out of hotel we spent the day eating and shopping for souvenirs between the MBK Centre which is basically a huge indoor market and  back to Terminal 21 before heading out to the airport.

So Long Asia!! It's being the most fun, amazing, crazy fantastic time ever! Ronan will be doing an Asian round-up entry - coming soon!