Hua Hin to Bangkok and on to Cambodia
(Click above photo to see album).
Hua Hin to Bangkok
We left Hua Hin at midday and arrived at the Pinnacle Hotel in Bangkok around 4 p.m. After checking in, Toby and I set off for Lumpini Stadium across the road, one of the two top Muay Thai (kickboxing) stadiums in Thailand - the other one being Ratchadamnoen. Lumpini stadium has lots of shops selling kickboxing gear and I toyed with the idea of getting a small pair of gloves for Toby and a boxing/kick pad to teach him some Muay Thai in preparation for the British schools. Toby seems interested in learning at least. At the stadium there are lots of touts trying to sell tickets to foreigners, with ring-side seats for $60 and standing at the back $30 (ten times less for locals).
Lumpini Park nearby has an impressive array of public exercise machines. Perhaps even more impressive was that most of them were in use, with lots of people running around the outer path despite the traffic, pollution and noise just outside. Just before six, Toby was playing on the swings and the blaring radio speaker suddenly became louder. A police man standing about 10 meters away looked directly at me. Realizing that everybody was standing and the national anthem was being played, I hurried to my feet quickly and Toby, oblivious, shouted at me from the swing to come give him an extra push.
Thailand to Cambodia
The Pinnacle hotel allows free storage of our luggage, so after we got back from eating at the local night market, we packed and took down five bags for storage, making sure to keep passport photos of each of us for the Cambodian visas.
After waking at 4:30 a.m., frantically getting ready, we took a taxi to Hualam Phong train station, getting there at 5:15 a.m. Buying the tickets was a breeze as there was no queue and we bought some bakery items for breakfast before boarding the train. It was already at the platform though it wasn’t due to leave for another 45 minutes. This all third class train has seats that are first come first served, which was the reason for our early arrival. We sat in the same row as a young British couple traveling around the world. My preference would have been to sit in the same row as some Thais and hopefully engage in conversation or perhaps some hand waving, but experience had shown Thais quite reticent.
The train finally left and we were lucky in that we had four of the six available seats to ourselves. The British couple put their bags and feet on their two spare seats but as the train stopped at different stations, the carriage filled up. Inevitably, a large lady squished into the row where the kids were sitting and then quickly proceeded to take up half of it. Ethan was watching DVDs at this point but noticed the sudden lack of available room and proceeded to have a small breakdown. Somehow I managed to convey to the lady that she not fold her leg up on to the seat. For the rest of her journey she glared at us (see photos), although perhaps that was just her regular expression, I’m not sure. Other than this little episode, the train journey was quite pleasant. There was an absence of air conditioning, but the rush of air from the open windows, even in the strong morning heat, was enough to keep us all cool through the journey. People kept coming past with food and water, and we bought some green mango to eat (very good for settling stomach discomfort by the way). A deranged Thai man offered the boys some fried things from a plastic bag he was holding and despite Carmen’s pleas not to take it, the boys were content to eat whatever it was (see photo). He then sat in an adjacent seat and stared at them while they ate, and then left us about five minutes later.
Surprisingly, the train toilets were not too smelly or dirty, although of the squat variety. The country side was fairly green, flat and unchanging all the way to Aranyaprathet.
Although we had read information on the internet about traveling from BKK to Siem Reap, we had some trepidation with regard to crossing the Thai-Cambodian border. We had some reason to be wary. After we were dropped off by tuk tuk, as close to the border crossing as we were allowed to go, a mangave us some forms to fill out, ostensibly for the Cambodian visa. The forms looked appropriate and we were able to use them later for Cambodian immigration, but as we were filling them out, the helpful person told us this was the official place to get the Cambodian Visas. This didn’t seem right, so we continued on in the heat, walking a few hundred yards on until another man indicated we needed to go back to an official looking building to get our Cambodian visas. This time the setup was more convincing: gates separating men from women and then rows of seats to sit and wait for the visas to be processed (“about 20 minutes”). Several people were waiting for visas and touts urged us to fill out the forms. I almost gave in but then saw a small sign indicating they were a travel agency. We marched on, carrying our bags and walking under the hot sun, while the touts kept waving us back. At this point there was still uncertainty as the other tourists we encountered in the Thai immigration departure lines already had theirs. Not until we crossed over from no-man’s land did we know for sure that we were in the right place. Even then we were almost taken for a ride as the Cambodian visa officials requested an additional amount for express processing. We pointed to the sign which clearly said $20 for a Cambodian visa, but paid a little extra anyway. A smart Englishman arrived with ostensibly nothing but a twenty dollar bill and five ones, claiming it was all he had and would wait in the non-express queue for his Cambodian visa.
On the way to the Cambodian visa processing office, we were approached by somebody who claimed to have a taxi to take us directly to Siem Reap. After about six hours journeying, this sounded tempting and his price of 1,200 Baht reasonable. We agreed to it and he told us he would wait for us on the outside in the car. When we finally emerged from our third half hour queue and form-filling session known as Cambodian immigration, we ran a new gauntlet of people telling us to put our bags down and wait to take a bus to the transport terminal. Taking the bus was part of our intended plan, as it had spelled out in the internet instructions for crossing the border, so we were unsure whether we were doing the right thing taking a taxi directly. On getting to the taxi, the middle man who had guided us turned us over to the driver, whom I asked to open the trunk. Luckily we were travelling light -- having left most of our luggage in the hotel in Bangkok -- as the trunk was completely full. That meant four of us had to sit in the back or I pile in with bags in the front. We weren’t happy about this and successfully got him to lower the price a little to compensate. It was a squashy two and a half hours to Siem Reap but we were glad to have taken this means of transport, especially when we sped by the waiting taxis at the transport terminal ten kilometers further on.
Our driver didn’t know where the Kool Hotel was, any more than we did, so we got a free tour of downtown while he searched and called his friend to find out where it was. We were greeted by the hotel staff with plates of fruit, lemongrass tea and a very refreshing “lemongrass drop” towel. After checking into our room, I took the boys swimming in the small pool in the back, as much to cool ourselves as to clean off the dirt and grime we’d accumulated from the train ride; we did shower before hand, but there’s nothing like cleaning yourself in an over-chlorinated pool to feel really clean. We arrived at 3:30 p.m., so the trip had taken nine and a half hours. The plane plus immigration and transfers would have taken about six, so not too bad.
That evening we took the free shuttle to the night market and ate at some of the street food stands popular with the backpacker tourist crowd. The boys had their usual grilled chicken and bowl of noodles, while Carmen and I tried to order the authentic Khmer food but I think it was really more Thai in flavor. Subsequent nights we found an excellent place called the Khmer kitchen which served excellent fried rolls and Khmer curry, which contains lots of sweet potato and coconut milk.