Our pick up on Sunday morning is at 730 to take us into the centre of Siem Reap to pick up the bus to Thailand, once on board, we set off, and stop to pick up some more passengers opposite where we have been staying! It kinda sums up our experience of travelling in this part of the world, but hey, what can you do. The bus on the Cambodian side isnt that bad - not even half full (only Westerners) so plenty of space, but then the nice tarmac-ed road ends, and we're off road-ing, bouncing along dusty tracks reminiscing of the fun we had on busses in India. It does get better though, and we're back on smoother surfaces after an hour or so of bone-shaking. The border crossing is easy enough, and then we're shoe-horned into a mini-bus for the Thai part of the journey. Fortunately, Thailand has smart roads, and the driver doesnt hang around.
We're happy to be back in Bangkok, and a big city which feels familiar and comfortable - helped by the fact we've booked a better hotel which gets us a huge room, and enormous bed. A proper treat after the guest houses and hostels of Vietnam and Cambodia! There is also a great Thai restaurant nearby whose spicy beef salad blows our head off.
We've seen most of the sites, so enjoy pottering around Silom district where we are staying. Its baking hot, so any pottering is done slowly. In amongst all the tat for sale, we find a great hawker stall selling fishcakes for 30 baht, which makes a good lunch stop. We've now had all our favourite Thai foods, so can start again!
Each time we've been to Bangkok previously, we've gone to bed supperclub, so keep up that tradition. The food there is still fab, but its a Monday, so pretty quiet, and the bar is dead so it loses some of the atmosphere of a weekend. We dont hang around long after we finish, whereas previously we've stayed in the bar for hours. Or maybe we're just getting old!
Tuesday pans out similarly to Monday, we potter around, drop off some souvenirs to send home to avoid (hopefully) incurring excess baggage on AirAsia, catch a boat along the river and wander outside the Royal Palace and Wat Pho. We also meander through Khao San Road - which is awful! Backpacker hell full of Westerners wearing their luggage, drinking pints of beer, and generally making it feel like a Student Union bar. We're back at our local favourite restaurant for dinner (without head blowing spicy beef) and early to bed to watch Obama's inauguration on TV before getting up at dawn to fly down to Phuket and get back onto the beach.
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