Phuket, Bangkok and Cambodia

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Annie - After Ben left Bangkok for Australia I decided to head on down to Phuket to spend the week while waiting for Scott to arrive on the 29th January. A little research told me that the buses heading south quite often have thefts from the baggage compartment. I decided to travel by bus anyway as it saved a heap of money. Although I did not have any problems with theft, however, I did have trouble with the trip itself. We arrived at Surat Thani around 5am, and had to wait till 6.30am for the bus to Phuket town. This was part of the plan, but once we hit 6.30am we were taken by tuk tuk to another station, where there were minibuses heading straight to the beaches for a further 300-500 baht right away. We had already paid 700 baht for the bus to Phuket town, so I was reluctant to pay more. We were told if we wanted to wait for the bus to Phuket (the one that we paid for and was due to leave at 6.30am) we would have to wait until 9.30am, two hours away! At this point it was 7am, and there were a couple that had been waiting since 5am for the Phuket town bus. In the end I reached Phuket town at around 3pm, 4 hours later than expected due to all the stuffing around, and seeing as I had been on buses since 7pm the night before I was knackered. I ended up heading to Karon beach with some girls I met along the way, and found some cheap accommodation one block from the sand, for only 400 baht a night at the Beshert.

After spending a few days at the beach I headed back into Phuket town to spend my remaining two days before Scott arrived. I checked out some nice restaurants, which were 1/3rd the price of the Karon cuisine, and checked out some hotels for when Scott arrived. I settled on the Ban Suwantawe, which is definitely the best valued place I have stayed at so far.

Scott arrived late on Friday 29th, and due to the time difference and long flight we decided to just cruise around Phuket town for the day, and have an early night as we were up at 4am the next day. I would recommend anyone coming to Phuket to stay in town at least one night rather than only staying at the beaches. The architecture in the old town is brilliant and the various galleries make for a great day out. That evening we also discovered one of the greatest eat in options in Thailand - MacDonald’s delivered! We spent the evening enjoying our dinner on the balcony 3 floors up from the luxuriously sized pool.

We flew out early the next day to Bangkok and spent our time checking out the weekend market. With 15000 stalls and over 200,000 visitors every weekend, it was definitely the king of all Thai markets! We then headed to the Siam Paragon for lunch. Siam Paragon is one of the bigger shopping centers in Bangkok, complete with Car displays on the second floor! We didn’t have time to check out the aquarium underneath, or catch a movie on the top floor, but we are going to be back there on the 8th so may catch a chance then.

We stayed in Phnom Penh after landing and headed straight to Siam Riep the following day early the next morning. We were planning to head to the temples the following day, so stayed the night at a hotel on the Angkor side of town. We met a lovely tuk tuk driver, Makan, who took us from the bus stop to our hotel, and we decided to see the temples with him the following day at 8am. We visited four temples in the ‘inner’ loop. Each temple was unique in its own way, so we didn’t come across a temple that was similar to one we had seen. Angkor Wat, the main temple, was impressive if only for its size! We couldn’t really comprehend how exactly it was built all those years ago. As we were walking along the elevated stone walkway to the main building we saw a white pony and a gentlemen in the shade of one of the tree’s. I have not been near horses for about 2 months so I was excited to go up for a pat. Apparently, rides were $5 for a go around the lake, and I could hardly say no with both Scott hastling me and the guy allowing me to ride solo, and not be led. I must admit, it was brilliant! My pony would not go faster than a walk (Scott was yelling at me to gallop, the guy had said I could when he saw I could ride) and was very reluctant to head off on the route (I am guessing he has probably done it 50 times a day for the last few years). However, when we circled the lake he picked up the pace a bit on the home stretch. The cowboy hat was definitely the best part of the ride . Bayon was definitely the favourite temple for us, it had hundreds of stone faces built into its structure all the way around. It was this temple that we managed to finally ride an elephant! We also bought a massive bunch of bananas to feed them for only $1.

Scotty - After our elephant ride we ventured around in the tuk tuk for around 10 minutes, before arriving at the hot air balloon viewing ride. This only cost $15 US each which was worth the 10-15 minute view of Angkor and the layout of the temple(s), the only downside was the air was a tad foggy but the view was still worth it. We retired to our hotel for a few hours and freshened up before making our way to Old Market, only a few minutes into Siem Reap. These markets were similar to Bangkok, but with a few more specialty stalls such as jewellery (much looked quite fake), shoes, bags and night gowns. I put my bartering skills to the test purchasing gifts for the family back home and managed to get most for nearly 40-50% less than the starting price for all items! Annie was very impressed.

We then turned the corner and found ourselves in the heart of the backpacker district - Pub Street, which was absolutely amazing! There were people everywhere with lots of great restaurants at cheap rates with great food. We settled on a place called ‘Temple Club’ which had Annie and my name all over it - free pool tables, cheap drinks by the pitcher and a great mix of food styles. I ended up talking the waiter into making a pitcher of Southern Comfort and Coke for $12 US, which had at least 6 shots in it. We played some pool for awhile before a young Cambodian girl waiting for friends challenged me for a game, I was keen to exhibit some Aussie skills so accepted eagerly. She was surprisingly good, sinking 2 or 3 straight off the break, but I soon leveled out and became a close match. With 2 balls remaining and myself on the black, she sunk one of her balls before sinking the white in the same shot. The black was behind the break line, and needing to shoot forward I almost made the unthinkable rebound shot to cut it in but missed by a finger length! Her last ball was set up perfectly so it became an easy win for her, although she was very impressed at my attempt on the last shot so we both had a great night.

We headed back to Phnom Penh with no accommodation organized, so the trusty LP guidebook came in handy with the Scandinavian Hotel catching our eye, and what a catch it was! The rooms we’re a bit more expensive than previous ones, being $55, but the owner - an American called Eric, added to the atmosphere, happily telling us all the best places to eat in Phnom Penh and giving us a tour of the hotel. We settled on the Pacheron which had a great mixed menu of Khmer and Western food with great service and a meal for $22 US of 4 dishes plus drinks. After returning from dinner we decided to try the best part about the Scandinavian hotel - the shuffleboard area upstairs. This is an old French and English game involving a long solid granite table and special weights which you slide across the table and try to make them stop at different spots on the opposite end - with different points for different spots. We’ve been told females dominate this game with many boyfriends, husbands etc being run over by the counterparts, but this was entirely untrue in our case with Annie not winning a single game! Great fun though and all free for guests 

The next day was Annie’s birthday. Now turning 22 is not normally a big deal, but when your in a foreign country I refused to spend it sitting on a bus traveling somewhere and proceeded to take Annie on a great day out in Phnom Penh. And what better way to start than with a live shooting range! We caught a tuk tuk out to the range (about 15kms from town) where we were sat down by a Cambodian that spoke enough English to understand what we were saying/asked, and were presented with what looked like a Menu of different weapons we could use including Shotguns, AK-47’s, Snipers, M-16’s, Colt handguns, Grenade launchers, Rocket launchers and many others with their various prices attached. We both looked at each other when the grenade launcher page came through at $50 US, but after some confusion of telling us we could do it the Cambodian guy received a call telling him they had just run out of grenade launcher ammo. We were heartbroken. He was also trying to say each purchase had to be separate, but after we went quiet about there being no grenade launchers left he allowed us to have half go’s on a variety of weapons instead. So with pep back in our step we settled on the following and shared ammo: Ruger 22 Sniper Rifle 10 rounds for $30 US, M60 belt-fed machine gun 50 rounds $80 US, AK-47 100 rounds $80, Shotgun 5 rounds $30. Best birthday ever!

We then went to the Killing Fields in Choeung Ek, probably another 15 minute tuk tuk trip, and explored the tragic loss of life that occurred there only 30 years ago. This was definitely a worthwhile experience for me after studying the atrocities at Choeung Ek and the Indochine/Vietnam War periods during school. There was quite a lot of information available in numerous huts on the field and with some events being too disturbing to fathom they had actually occurred to other human beings. Not a trip I would recommend for young kids or those uninterested in historical events though as it was very quiet and respectful, needing to take shoes and hats off before entering any areas.

We have just checked into a fantastic hotel called The Pavilion, and headed out to the Tamarind Restaurant for dinner, of which we have heard nothing but good things. It was fantastic. Rooftop dinner, prompt service and half price cocktails ($2 US) until 7pm started a great night and fitting way to have spent Annie's birthday.

We are heading down to Sihanoukville today which should only take about 4 hours by bus. Plan to stay there for a few days before flying back to Bangkok. Til next time!

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