Love you long Thai-m - Siem Reap, Cambodia
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Sousdei readers
Here is the update you have all been waiting for ... Bangkok and Jeff's hangover.
But first...we had to get through a 10-hour journey from Koh Tao to reach Bangkok. The 1hr 30min boat journey passed quickly, and after a short stop at Chumporn pier, we continued for the remaining 8hrs by coach. The coach company kindly provided two (badly dubbed) films - Jack the Giant Slayer and Hansel & Gretal: witch hunters. Both movies were just as bad as each other, never getting that time back. We also had the pleasure of being seated near a large (unhealthy) Asian man, who snorted, sniffed, coughed and spluttered for the whole journey. Lovely.
When we finally arrived in Bangkok, we were met with rain. Buckets of it in fact. After a rather short walk and an easy search we found our hotel. In the space of 200 metres, Jeff had been offered 5 suits, 3 wooden frogs, and some lighters. Just what he was looking for. It was late evening when we arrived and we were completely shattered, so we decided to head to a pizza restaurant we had seen a few minutes before and scoffed them down before heading straight to bed (minus any suits / frogs / lighters). Crazy!
The next day we decided to venture around the tourist spots. First up was the Grand Palace. What we thought would be an easy walk to reach it, turned into a search in similar vein to our trip to find the front of the White House. We quickly realised how hot it was and things weren't helped when we walked to the end of a very, very long park where we found the only exit was in fact the entrance. Great. After a long walk back, and around the whole perimeter of the palace, we eventually entered. We were then faced with some difficult guards who did not like Becky's attire: despite her legs, ankles and shoulders being covered, they decided they weren't covered enough and she was to hire one of their horrendous nylon (prisoner) shirts. Cue unhappy Becky. After a little bit of people-watching, we realised there seemed to be a pattern to this rule; Thai or Asian - come on in, doesn't matter what you're wearing, Western - must hire clothes. Hmmm! Once we were through, the palace was very pretty and detailed, shame you're already in a bad mood by this point.
After the palace we walked back to our hotel, which was nicely situated parallel to Kho San road, the hub of tourist activity. Again, Jeff was asked he if would like a suit (many times!), and also tickets for what seemed like it was the National Ping Pong Championships. But we all know what they really are. Wink wink. Getting anywhere in Bangkok is a nightmare (the taxi drivers refuse to take you to one place unless you agree to go to 5 others too), so we gave up trying and sat down for a drink. This was at around half 2. 7 hours later, Becky was putting a passed out Jeffrey to bed. We would like to blame this on Shaun, a half-Brit-half-Yank who was on his own and struck up a conversation with us. Within a matter of hours, several litres of alcohol had been drunk, as well as one large scorpion eaten and two very rude (too rude to describe, *insert your phrase of choice here*) bracelets purchased. Oh dear. After Jeff and Shaun failed to find the ping pong show they so desired, they admitted defeat. Funny enough, Jeff woke up in the middle of the night with a headache, fancy that?!
The next day was Jeff's birthday - officially 26 years old! He would like to add, with no hangover! Becky asked him what he wanted to do that day, and the answer was "nothing". So we did nothing - spent the day chilling out, mooching around the stalls, and catching up on the X-Factor (yes, really). In the evening we went for a meal and Jeff got to Skype his famille. Becky also realised she had forgotten to give Jeff his family's birthday cards which had been hidden in her backpack for 4 months - oops! It was a quiet day, but we will celebrate Jeff's birthday properly on our return.
On Saturday, we left Bangkok and headed for Kanchanaburi. It became clear here how long we've been travelling for and how tired we are; we were faced with the choice of getting two tuktuks and a bus for less than a tenner in total, or a private taxi door-to-door for £50...yes, we went for the private taxi. Anyways, Kanchanaburi is a lovely little jungle town based on the river Kwai, which was heavily affected by Japanese occupation in WW2. We stayed for 3 nights, where we visited the infamous bridge over the river Kwai and the museum and cemetery associated with it. We hired bikes one day and ignored the heat to cycle around the area. We splashed out on a lush hotel, and spent our evenings looking out over the river and jungle surrounded by silence. Kanchanaburi is a popular place for a one day tour, so the bustling days would be replaced by practical seclusion in the evenings, giving us time to unwind and relax. Very nice!
After 3 nights, we got our private taxi back to Bangkok in preparation for a morning flight the following day. We were staying at the same hotel as before, who instantly recognised Becky (even though the booking was in Jeff's name - seems to have been the theme for most of the trip, bless him). On our last day in Bangkok, we continued to mooch around Kho San road, avoiding the constant offering of suits, table tennis championship shows, wooden frogs and elephants, lighters, tattoos, bracelets (got them already!), hats, anything really.
We are now in Cambodia, which we will be sure to tell you all about soon.
Until next time...
X x