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Published: February 11th 2009
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Lorraine on the train
Lorraine on the train falls mainly on the plain Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia - 10th January 2009
It started about 3.30 in the morning ... we got up and packed, and headed out from our Bangkok guest house looking for a taxi to get us to the station for 5am train. Brilliant - a taxi right outside, but seems his meter doesn't work and so it's a set price for the trip he tells us with a smile. Not a price we're willing to pay so we thank him kindly but say no. It's not even light yet and the scamming has already started...
Managed to get one that was willing to put their meter on so climbed in - by then we had picked up a couple of Germans wanting to head the same way so happy days all round.
The train was headed to Aranyaprathet, which is just before the border with Cambodia and we were all set for the 5 and a half hour journey on a hard wooden seat. Seemed good at the time for the price of just 50p each... The train journey turned out to be one of the best experiences so far as we saw some real Thai characters on
Niall on the train
Sunning the big face there - drunks wandering up and down, a nice old man who wanted to practice his English on us much to the amusement of all the other locals on there, and the cutest little children ever - plus beautiful countryside. So before we knew it we had reached our destination and everthing was swell.
We had heard a lot about this particular border crossing with Cambodia and how it was well known for the scams that went on so we were all prepared and simply willing them to BRING IT ON!
So next task was getting a tuk tuk to the actual border crossing 7kms away. Thanks to the prior research we knew it should be 60 to 80 BHT. Once off the train one guy said straight off he would take us for 50BHT. Result! Of course we knew it was too good to be true. Sure enough it was. 5 mins in and I see the sign for the border pointing straight ahead. We turn right. We pull up to some sort of shack and a group of guys come out with clipboards saying something about us needing to fill in forms for the visa. Something
Baby train
Cute baby on the train like that as I was too busy shouting at our driver to take us to the border NOW!!!!!!! This is what we had been waiting for and I was in no mood to be nice. Seemed to do the trick as our little driver looked terrified and turned round. The clipboard guys looked defeated. No flies on us.
Finally - once at the border we go through and visas stamped. At the other side is complete madness with everyman and his dog out to get some money off you. Only the tiny little girl who struggled to hold an umbrella over Niall to protect him from the midday sun got a dollar for her effort.
The last leg of the journey - getting to Siem Reap. Thankfully we've now teamed up with Frank and Sarah from Oz who were heading there too so we got a cab (it being the only way) together at a reasonable price after much much bartering. Another v memorable 5 hour journey especially when we went up on 2 wheels as we overtook a bus with another one coming towards us full speed. Quite a hairy one you can imagine. The fun and
games continued all the way but finally sorted at about 4 in the afternoon when we sat in Bar Street with a v cold beer.
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