We went back to Chiang Mai via the VIP bus and 762 turns road which made the eggs and coffee churn, but it finally settled down about hour 2 of the 3 hour journey. It dropped us right at the train station thankfully and we found some snacks for the 6 hr train ride and a quick meal before we boarded. We were both excited for the train journey as it was a first go at the ‘sleeper’ variety train ride for both of us. We found our berths, an upper and a lower, and found we had in store for us a pretty comfortable area for our 14 hr ride down to Bangkok. A/C, sheets, a little mattress, and pillow.
The train arrived in Bangkok at 7am, the biggest city we had dealt with thus far and we planned on staying near the train station for ease of getting back out of the city, but it was nowhere near the ‘typical Bangkok’ that every other tourist and backpacker sees. Hardly any tourists unless they are using the train station, definitely local food stands with no menu’s, and if they did exist it was printed all in Thai. The guest house we were staying in was supposed to be hard to fine, but turns out it wasn’t we just MADE it hard to find. We started out wandering in the direction and found an alley with the same name as the road the guest house was on but we quickly realized it was not an alley frequented by backpackers or travelers of any kind. After many turns and many more confused faces from locals going about their day in the back allies, some finally started saying guest house with a quizzical tone and pointed us back towards what was the main road. A very friendly and fluent English speaking woman guided us all the way there and much to our embarrassment it was just about 100m down from the crossing we took from the train station. DOH!
Matt and I have done very well taking turns navigating, equally succeeding as well as screwing up the directions and getting us lost. Matt seems to get his bearings in cities better, so I usually end up trusting him on arrival, but so far I’ve been better with the changing currency and keeping all the zero’s straight. In Bali, 1,000,000 rupiah was $100US and Matt ended up losing a couple 100,000 rupiah likely from getting mixed up with the zeros and not counting back the changed be got back. It is quite hard and since our currency keeps changing every 10-15 days, it gets even more confusing.
Our guest house was a wonderful mother and son duo, who were some of the nicest people and insisted that the best breakfast was just around the corner, a traditional Thai breakfast of rice soup. “You see my son, he eat everyday, grow big and strong, you eat, you grow big and strong!” Though I want to grow big and strong someday, the prospect of eating hot soup when we were dripping with sweat at 8am wasn’t appealing so instead we found a hotel with a fruit salad and some ice coffee. Although 30min later it came right back up after taking my anti-malarial doxycycline. They say to take it with food, as I found out quickly in Sydney is very true when I had to make a vomit run from taking it on an empty stomach before breakfast. Apparently doxycycline needs carbohydrates in the form of toast or pastry cuz it didn’t like yoghurt and fruit. I was really sad to waste that good fruit and its never fun to worship the porcelain goddess.
In only planned on staying in Bangkok for a few days, but after just one day of sightseeing the main temples and the Grand Palace and dealing with the con artist tuk-tuk drivers, we had had quite enough. Matt ended up getting a good deal on a suit but this is how it works in Bangkok: The tuk-tuk drivers get a kick back from the tailor shops to bring tourists to their shops, so your ride is really cheap as long as you accept stopping at 2 stores and wasting 10-15 min while the middle eastern run shops try to sell you a handmade suit or dress from them. By the end of the day I was pretty sure that this is where the middle east launders all their oil money. We’re still questioning if the suit Matt paid for will actually show up in the post and if it will fit him and not fall apart after the first wearing.
I had had enough of the heat and trying to find the city bus we were told to get back to our guest house from the palace area, so I gave into getting a tuk-tuk driver saying he’d take us for 10 baht ($0.33US) but we had to stop at a really sketchy tailor shop where Matt had to pretend to want to buy a suit but then decline for us to get home. I had bartered down from 2 stops to 1 but it was still extremely frustrating. I was nearly about to play ‘the bitchy girlfriend’ card for us to get out of the shop, but Matt gave the queue to leave first. When asked if I wanted a custom dress made I just told the guy I was a gardener and didn’t need any fancy dresses. Before we could leave both the salesman, desperate for a sale, and the owner of the shop followed us out to the tuk-tuk still trying to talk poor Matt into another suit. Finally on our way home, I thanked Matt for putting up with the harassment to get us home.
Bangkok to me is just a giant, dirty, corrupt city full of con artists. I was over it within 3 hours. Our attempt at finding supper that night had us walking all over trying to find somewhere for a sit down meal. That’s not really the local style, so just as we were about to join them and eat from the street vendors, we found a restaurant where we were the only customers. Neither of us being big city people, we decided to get the train to Cambodia the next day at 5am just to get out of Bangkok. I know we weren’t in the right area to see the fun side of Bangkok and I haven’t really given Bangkok a fair chance but we still just wanted to leave and I saw no reason to waste anymore precious time dealing with these scammers.
We boarded our third class train at 5am after finding some water and pastries for breakfast, on our way to the famous border crossing into Cambodia, fraught with stories of scams and warnings about fake visas and ‘side-trips’ to fake border crossings in the middle of rice paddies. We met several people on the train that had gone the easier route and gotten e-visa’s before getting to the border to bypass the ‘extra fees’ the officers try to make you pay but we decided to try our luck.
The first hiccup was getting from the train station to the border via tuk-tuk. “100baht, 100baht!” our driver called , still steep for the short journey but we gave in. We lied and said we already had visas so just to take us to the border, but he stopped at a ‘garage’ with signs touting ‘Welcome to Cambodia’ and ‘Tourist Visa Service of Cambodia’ and little men dressed in home-sewn uniforms that didn’t quite match. I insisted we already had visas and just take us too the border, after a few minutes of looking annoyed the fake uniformed fellows told our driver to drive on and we made it to the border. But not before he tried getting 100 baht per person, instead of total because we had cheated him out of his Fake Visa commission fee from the garage people. I told him he should have clarified the per person rate earlier and walked away.
At the border there is vague labeling of where to go and where to walk, but a bus driver trying to sell his bus to get a ride to Siem Reap showed us the way thinking we’d take his bus once we got our passports stamped. We joined up with a Scottish couple and a Spaniard that had come in on a corrupt bus and had to walk a kilometer to the border because they didn’t buy their buses Cambodian visa for $35US. We found our way through the Thai casinos in no-man’s land and finally found the visa building where we filled out the necessary paperwork and were asked to pay the $20US cash and also 100 baht fee ‘for a fast and no hassle’ visa. After our guide book specifically told us about this scam and signs on the Thailand side saying not to accept any extra fees for a visa, I was ready to deny the request. I gave him a big smile and bravely asked him if he was sure I had to pay more, and that I thought he was joking with me. He eventually smiled back and just took the US cash and told me to sit down and wait with the other. 100 Thai baht is just over $3US, affordable for me, but it was more the principle of the thing and the fact I was being conned. Most tourists, nervous enough going through a land crossing, will pay the nominal fee in the hopes of just getting through without a hassle. But again, that wasn’t the point. I decided to use my blonde hair and ‘charming smile’ I’ve been told I have, to get past the scam. I was just lucky it worked, for myself and Matt who was standing behind me.
Finally over the border, with our new visa and our entrance stamp, we found the ‘free shuttle’ that takes you to the bus terminal in the middle of nowhere so you are forced to get one of their taxi’s or buses to Siem Reap. One company has a monopoly on the taxi’s and buses, and they scare away any other taxi’s or buses that try to pick up tourists. Some people get suckered AT the border into a taxi working for that company to get to the terminal but our invaluable guide book warned us of that too. At the terminal we took the cheap, slow, bus offer and met two traveling couples also on their way to Siem Reap. On arrival we took their ‘free’ tuk-tuk included in our bus fare to find a guest house with one of the couples, Dean and Daisy, but after being asked for a tip from our free tuk-tuk we decided to stay at the first place he took us too. Quite exhausted from our adventure and ready for a cold shower we checked in then went into town with our new friends for dinner and several well deserved beers for $.50 a pop. Its cheaper to drink alcohol than anything else, even water sometimes.
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