Goodbye Cambodia, It Was Great

30th July 2008 - A fond farewell to Cambodia

It was border crossing day! Our hotel had booked us a car to take us to the border. The guy turned up in an oldish Toyota Camry - they all drive Camrys here - with a massive gas cylinder in the back. The 120-ish mile road to the Cambodia - Thailand border town of Poipet was under construction and had been for the last 3 years, due to finish in a year. It was in various degrees of completion, varying from seriously rutted to complete, but mostly dirt track. There were bridges being put in every mile or so, and the road made a sharp detour round each one. Our driver absolutely hacked it round these blind bends and I'm surprised we didn't hit anything coming the other way (or going our way come to think of it). Half way along a truck reversed into a car who should have known better than to try and squeeze through as the truck tried a 3 point turn. We passed pickup trucks with people sitting on the roof. They pay about 6 dollars, alot of money in Cambodia, to sit on a roof and hang on at speeds up to 70 kmh. I saw one guy (although it was only one) with a crash helmet on. I'm not sure what good that would do him if he got hurled off at 70Kmh. I suppose it’s the same theory as for motorbike riders but they’re not 6ft above the road.

The Cambodian Pick Up Truck Display Team out for a practice

We got to the border and jumped out of the car. We walked through the Cambodian exit point. We then seemed to be free to just roam along this road with no obvious sign posts to the Thailand entry point. It was very strange, the flags of both countries seemed to be everywhere and there was no clear ‘Cambodian side’ or ‘Thailand side’. Presumably they’re hoping people get lost in the casinos dotting the road. Jo got incredibly excited at the sight of vehicles moving over to the left hand side of the road due to the different sides they drive on in Thailand and Cambodia (right in Cambodia, left in Thailand.)

It was a shame to leave Cambodia. Cambodia is a beautiful country with many lovely beaches and islands. It has some fabulous sights in the shape of the temples of Angkor. A staggering history with the Khmer Rouge. And the people are brilliant, with a special mention to our tuk tuk driver round the temples who gave us the change from the money we gave him for lunch, when he could easily have pocketed it.

We got into Thailand no problem. On the other side, a tuk tuk driver took us to the train station, although she did treat us to a visit to the bus station first before realizing. The tuk tuks are different compared to Cambodia, here in Thailand they are more like small cars as opposed to Cambodia’s motorbikes with people trailer.

We then paid the princely sum of 1 dollar each to go the 6 hours by train to Bangkok. It started raining cats and dogs just as we got on. For some reason SE Asia have their own window closing system which is only known to them, so we struggled with the open window then a guard came to the rescue. Thai police with big smiles and guns walked through the train, but declined to see our proffered passports.

We rolled into Bangkok. It seemed like one big flyover. There were lots already and they were building some more just to make sure. They even build flyovers here solely for the purpose of enabling people to turn round on the dual carriageway.

31st July 2008 - The Urban Jungle

In the morning we booked onto a Bangkok cycling tour scheduled for the afternoon. I was very excited as we climbed onto our new bikes which were a serious upgrade from the Penny Farthings I was used to riding around. We were joined by two Dutch guys. One of them rode his bike very strangely, he was all over the place and I thought he was going to seriously scrape the walls on some of the narrow bits. I was convinced he was drunk. Later on, he nearly died twice when the back end of his bike came out on a slippery corner and then he nearly went under the wheels of a taxi.

We cycled through what can only be described as the tidy slum areas of Bangkok, their equivalent of the Chinese hutongs. It was fascinating, people living in such small areas, very few open spaces. And, on the whole, it was remarkably clean. We put the bikes on a boat and sailed across the river. A massive picture of the King of Thailand adorned a high rise building. They love the King here, his picture is absolutely everywhere. We got off the boat and into the Bangkok jungle. It seemed strange to be in a jungle so near to a major urban centre, although this particular jungle is well populated. We rode along a long pathway system that is elevated about 5ft above the jungle floor. It seemed cool until we had to get round the 90 degree turns and then you had to remember the guides advice about always looking ahead. Apparently people have fallen down there, and I thought that if I was some serious stunt biker I would have loved to jump off. But I’m not, so I didn’t. We stopped for some lunch in a clearing and the guide put about a bottle of lime juice in his plate of Thai food.

The elevated pathways through the Bangkok Jungle

Round the corner from the end of the ride and we stopped at a Thai Boxing gym that was had about 20 kids on its books. We milled around for a bit before a fat old guy with no shirt on and twisted teeth that were the obvious results of many a foot in the jaw opened the dusty gym up for us a bit. We were too early to see any of the kids knocking the stuffing out of each other.
After the bike ride, we made our way to the world famous (although I’d never heard of it) Ko San Road, aka Foreigner Street. On the way we had the shortest bus journey ever and Jo took part in Bangkok’s unofficial "Pump in the Park". So we took a bit of a long time getting there, but it was pretty underwhelming when we did, all gaudy neon lights and stalls selling t-shirts that seemed like a good idea at the time. We met a friend from the hotel who regaled us with tales of tuk tuk scams that everyone we were to meet in Bangkok had fallen victim to, then we all went for some dinner at a restaurant set up on a petrol station forecourt.

Pumping in the park