South East Asia Day 6

April 2008

It was an early morning start as we took the bus from the hotel in Bangkok to the Thailand/Cambodian boarder. The 3 hour bus trip went rather quickly though, and I guess considering the bus was comfortable, climate controlled and in good shape it's not surprising.

After clearing both sides of the boarders, and going through no mans land we finally got on the bus to take us on the "Dancing Road". This trip was definitely not as comfortable, the bus was old and there was no climate control, but I have to say we saw the true Cambodia in that 4 hour bus trip. Most people catch the plane from Bangkok to Siam Reap due to the state of the roads and the difficulties at the boarder, they pay exhorbitant prices due to Thai Airlines bribing the Cambodia government not to fix the road, and they miss out on seeing the rest of the countryside.

We checked in to our hotel, the wonderful Freedom Hotel (I highly recommend it), before going for a group dinner at Khmer Kitchen.

We finished off the night looking around the night market set up for tourists, and I still regret not buying a set of black and white photos of the temples.

South East Asia Day 5

April 2008

After a bit of a sleep in we decided to head off to the Grand Palace, getting distracted by the Marble Temple along the way.

The Grand Palace has a dress code (covered legs and shoulders for both male and females), but don't be too worried if you don't have appropriate attire as it can be borrowed at the entrance.

We then went to see the Reclining Buddha, this impressed me the most, the size of their feet!

That evening we met with our Intrepid Tour group for the week and enjoyed a spectacular Thai dinner in one of the markets. Who said it's not safe to eat off the street?

South East Asia Day 4

April 2008

Today we headed off on our full day trip to the River Kwai. It was an instrumental part of WWII history and now a prime tourist location. We visited the WWII museum, the bridge, the war cemetery, then taking the train.

We had a floating buffet lunch before visiting some local waterfalls.

In the afternoon we visited the famous Buddhist Monastery and their wildlife refuge. Even getting up close and personal with the tigers in their care.

After a long, hot bus ride back to Bangkok we enjoyed a late dinner in Chinatown.

South East Asia Day 3

April 2008

I had visited Thailand in 2001, visiting Phuket only, so this was a new location for myself and DH. I was a bit disappointed with the traffic, obviously those who think Bangkok's traffic is hectic have never been to Beijing or Ho Chi Minh City!

When we arrived in Bangkok we made our way to the taxi rank, where we were asked where our destination was, given a slip of paper and directed to a taxi. This slip is apparently used to help reduce the chances of a rouge taxi driver ripping you off, and we had no issue with our friendly cabby.

Once we checked into our hotel The Grande Ville (which was ok, but I think we could have found better for the same price), the we headed down via Tuk Tuk to the Pat Pong Road markets, grabbing dinner along the way. Not being much into shopping, we were happy to look around and enjoy our first Thai dinner (yummo!). The Tuk Tuk ride was hairy to say the least, but all part of the Bangkok experience.