Just a few notes so far on bus rides in southeast asia.
pretty much essential for any backpacker with a tight budget or the cash conscious. you could probably fly to most places but does the half day it'll save you in time make it worth the significantly larger amount of money you'd spend? i think the one flight i am buying within south east asia will be from saigon in vietnam to bangkok in thailand for two reasons:
a: passing through the cambodian border is a pain.
b: if you fly into thailand rather than travel by land, you are granted a full month visa instead of 2 weeks.
another advantage of bussing is sometimes you get the overnight bus. this is actually good because it takes away one major daily expenditure. the accomodations! you're out of your guest house and on a bus overnight. paying a bus ticket aswell as a day at a guesthouse can be taxing on your budget. although the bus certainly does not stand up to the comfort of a nice bed with a decent bathroom! usually you'll get a movie to watch on the bus to help alleviate yourself of the thought of uncomfortable seats.
we actually had a bus breakdown on us in cambodia, leaving sihanoukville to the thai border. i think a fan belt snapped or something of the sort. the 40 or so fellow travellers all littered the side of the highway and started chain smoking, conversing or reading books. i was just happy to be out of sihanoukville, to be honest. i spent my time on the road kicking rocks and inspecting large flattened centipedes on the pavement.
one major pain with the discount bus services is the unforeseeable amount of bus changeovers you will have. our first bus we ever took from bangkok to ko lanta was the long standing champion of the most changeovers. one big bus to a taxi bus to a pickup truck to another taxi bus to another pick up truck until we finally arrived. the cambodian trip from sihanoukville to bangkok was one big bus, to another big bus to a taxi bus which traded us to another taxi bus, to another... and possibly one more, i can't recall. the i think from there it was the home stretch.
some bus tickets give you designated seat numbers and i prefer that to the chaos of everybody trying to give their bags to the bag man so they can rush on the bus and snag the best seats. landon and i have been separated by this before... she ended up with a flatuent old man and i was beside an old japanese woman who buried herself under 3 blankets and just looked like a pile of dirty laundry beside me. i kind of wished she was because then i could have slept on her.
anyways, i believe this concludes my bus entry. hope it gives you a bit of an insight on my travels!
hi oma!
