October 8th 2008
We spent the day travelling by bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok. The Cambodian part of the journey was not the most pleasant - an old bus brought us along a dusty and rocky dirt road to the border. Windows were constantly being opened and closed to let air in or keep the dust out respectively. At one point, a local sat at the front of the bus made us jump when he unexpectedly flapped his arms and pointed at the windows. His warning came too late though as water from a passing spray machine splashed in through the gaps and those sat near the windows quickly learnt to become more vigilant in their window duties.
There were the usual formalities at the border. We checked out of Cambodia first and then walked about five minutes across what seemed like No Man's Land to the entrance gate for Thailand. There were no dodgy inexplicable fees this time which made a nice change. Once our passports had been stamped and visas attached, we changed onto a newer bus and the roads became tarmacked which made the last four hours of the journey much more bearable. It also made me think about how far Cambodia (and Laos) are behind Thailand in terms of things like infrastructure and transport services (which explains why, whilst still incredibly cheap, transport was more expensive than we were expecting it to be in both Cambodia and Laos - many places in these countries are still isolated from their neighbours and the rest of the world.)
We decided to get a guesthouse in the backpacking heart of Bangkok - near to Khao San Road - as it was an area we had not seen when we first stayed in Bangkok a couple of months ago. I was actually up for getting straight onto a night bus down to our next destination in the south to save on a night's accommodation and to get all the travelling done in one go but Robbie looked at me in horror when I suggested it so I knew I had to let the idea go. I guess ten hours on a bus is enough for one day and of course I recognised too that it would be nicer to sleep in a bed for a few hours even if we did have to be up at 4:30am for our next bus.
Nevertheless, curiosity, and the belief that I could rest on the beach when we got to our next destination, kept me from retiring with Robbie to our room so after depositing my rucksack I set off to see what all the drama about Khao San Road was about. I don't know if there was a higher police presence than normal around KSR that night but it didn't seem as sleazy as I imagined it to be from what other travellers reported. Sure, there were a few Lady Boys around, people calling out from the side of the road and girls in short skirts but most of the people were Westerners, sat drinking on low plastic stools, listening to live music and doing pretty much what I was doing - just soaking up the atmosphere. It was fascinating more than anything. Stalls of clothes sold the same t-shirts (funny on first sight, unoriginal by the time I passed the last stall) and the street buzzed with a mixture of languages as if people from an airport lounge were all on a night out together. One stall sold fake ID - anything from student ISIC cards and TEFL certificates to driving licences and university diplomas. I settled for a chicken pita bread and then wandered back to the guesthouse having had my eyes opened wide once again.
