The start of a mammoth bus journey to
Bangkok from siem reap. Another bright start but who's counting. Taxi is an hour late to pick me up. Classic. Arrive at the bus station and it's slightly more organised compared to previous trips and I do in fact have a seat reservation. So 7 hours next to a little old man with a terrible cough who just loved to cough up his phlegm into a tissue, look at it for a while and then put it into his pocket until the next episode. However, he did give me sweets during the journey so I did forgive him! The journey had the added bonus of having a Cambodian comedy DVD blaring down the bus and truthfully, did not laugh once! So after another exciting trip, us white people are chucked off the bus, given a sticker and sent on our merry way, backpacks and all. Exit Cambodia queue was fine, maybe 30 mins and they had a very fancy fingerprint device which excited me! It's the first time anyone has taken my finger prints so I hope they use them well. about a mile walk to the Thai border and I thank my lucky stars that we sneak past a huge crowd of Thai/Cambodian people faffing around with passports and forms. Unluckily, we white people must wait until all locals go through immigration. So 400 Cambodians, 200 Thais and 3 hours later, the 10 white people are processed! Not racist I'm sure...
So after a rather long wait we finally get through and find a little mini bus that will take us to Bangkok. Rather uneventful except for the Frenchman that was promised a toilet break 2 hours into the journey. Not given one. And climbed over all the seats in the bus to sit beside the driver and demand that he pulls over. Noone was complaining, and we had a quick loo and fried chicken break before back on board promising only 30minuts left of the journey. 3 hours later, several wrong turns in Bangkok, stand still traffic, people bailing the bus in favour of walking; I also bail in the direction of Khao San road!
Drawn by the bright lights, hoards of people and the sound of drum and bass I eventually find my hostel. Wash. Dress and head out for drinks with the Auz boys. And with them they bring a bunch of people from their hostel. A few drinks, a few heads shaved into Mohawks, a few Christmas hats, a few vodka buckets, a Thai festival and a dance in gullivers travels and Christmas eve was done and dusted!
Next day, I move hostels and await jonnys arrival!! A few hours later than expected a pale and jet lagged Jonny rocks up. Too tired to venture into Bangkok I let sleeping dogs lie and have a christmas day spring roll lunch, meet the boys from the other hostel, a wander through the festival again, a suit fitting and arrange a Christmas dinner for everyone. Drag Jonny out of bed, and we go for our Christmas day curry, 3 x 3litre beer taps and then we all go to khoa San road. A blur of excitement including- more buckets, an ear piercing, a tuk tuk race, ping pong, and once again end the night in gullivers travels = a great, if not unorthodox Christmas day!
The next day was a later start than usual, Jonathan of course hungover so I go exploring around the markets and see the end of the festival, before meeting the lovely Tobon Perez's for a walk and dinner in Silom. Some sightseeing, a very accurate diagnosis, a lovely dinner, an amazing live band with a singer with an incredibly high pitched voice, cocktails, more ping pong and I tuk tuk back to khoa San!
The next day, Jonny is slightly recovered and we go on a sightseeing tuk tuk to see the giant golden budda, grand palace & emerald budda - complete with rented 'appropriate' clothing which included large elephant printed trousers, flowery shirts and full length skirts. Delightful. Back to khoa San for again more buckets and some
karaoke as we prepare for our last day in Bangkok. I know! Let's stay up all night for our flight in the morning? Great idea. Luckily it was only necessary until 4am until the taxi came to take us to the airport, but with hindsight into the journey coming... A terrible idea!