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Published: July 27th 2006
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Grand Palace 1
The Grand Palace complex in Bangkok We spent 4 days on Koh Samui, followed by a few days in Bangkok, before we headed off into Cambodia & Laos for two weeks.
THAILAND (part 1)
We had a "fun" 15 transfer from Penang to Koh Samui:
(i) the ticket for our "minibus shuttle from Georgetown to Koh Samui" was actually a ticket for three minibuses - ie. 3 changes, with waits of up to 2 hours in between!
(ii) on arriving in Surat Thani we were told that we had to pay an extra 200 baht each to make the 4pm ferry, as we had arrived "late" (hardly our fault when we are not driving!) and had "just missed" the next minibus. (The alternative was waiting for 6pm ferry, and arriving on Koh Samui after dark, which we were not keen on given we had been on the road for 10 hours already). But on paying the extra cash to the cheeky b****rds, they miraculously produced a minibus out of nowhere that was able to take us to catch the earlier ferry - amazing, eh!!!
We then spent 4 days on Koh Samui, enjoying relaxing by pool and on the (Chaweng / Chaweng Noi) beaches.
Grand Palace 2
At the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok Helen also indulged in a number of massages - you can't really go wrong when a full Thai massage costs just £3-4 per hour!!
Next we caught the overnight (sleeper) train from Surat Thani to Bangkok, and spent a few days exploring Bangkok - we visited the main sites (like the Temple of Dawn, the Reclining Buddha, Jim Thompson's House & the fabulous Grand Palace), haggled at the night markets around Pat Pong and tested the various transport options (tuk-tuk, taxi, ferry boat and Skytrain) to try & avoid the smoggy Bangkok traffic jams. We then caught a short-hop flight with Bangkok Airways over to Cambodia.
CAMBODIA
We spent 3 days exploring around Siem Reap. We 'splashed out' on our own tour tour guide and taxi driver to take us around and they were both excellent company. We visited all of the large Angkor temples (including Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom & Bayon) which date from the 11th to 13th centuries; and we discovered that best time to tour the main sites was between 12 and 2pm, as all of the coach tours have a "long lunch break" over that period!!! We also went out to see the
floating villages, where many of the poor Cambodians and illegal-immigrant Vietnamese have set-up entire communities on boats on the lake (eg: floating houses, floating schools, plus floating basketball court & shops!) - and seeing them move their property around on the water brings a whole new interpretation to the term "moving house"!!
We had 2 days in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, where the ongoing poverty and legacy of the 25 years of civil war in the country was more visible to us. We visited the main sites & markets in town, but the most memorable is a trip to Toul Sleng (the old 'S21' secret police centre), where the horrors of the 3-5 million deaths of Cambodians during Pol Pot's reign (1975-9) was brought home.
We have to admit that we did not splash out on the local food delicacies during our bus trip from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Although am sure that they were to the highest culinary quality, we did not fancy fried spiders or fried crickets as a mid-afternoon snack, no matter how much discounting was being offered by the hawkers as we got off the bus for a toilet break!!
LAOS
Drainage in Cambodia
Rain showers cause short-term driving hazards all over Siem Reap! Laos has an official tourist development policy, which is "not to become the next Thailand" - and it is holding true to that at the moment. (Then again, I guess that is not a bad motto for any country in the world to want to adopt!)
We stayed in Vientiane (the capital), followed by Vang Viang and the Luang Prabang. Vientiane was really a small town by western standards; there was not too much to see from a tourist perspective, but we found the spot where both locals and tourists gathered to hear live bands each evening (which had excellent atmosphere). We then caught the bus on to Vang Viang, which is really a small village of a place - we had a room overlooking the river & chilled out for a day after some upset stomaches, actually liking the fact that there was no tourist-y things to see in town!
After an 8 hour bus journey up & over the winding hill road, we stayed in Luang Prabang for 4 nights. We toured the various 'wats' (temples) in town, bought souvenirs at the markets and enjoyed the atmosphere of this 'French-colonial' style town. We also sampled
Floating village, Cambodia
Floating house in the floating village near Siem Reap. some of the best restaurants in town, which is easy when you can have dinner & wine at a top place for US$ 15 between you!! We had an interesting chat to one of the trainee buddhist monks at one of the outer wats too, which helped break the trend of 'stand-off-ish' looks that we had encountered to date from the monks we had passed.
For our final 2 days in Laos, we cruised down the Mekong River to Houyxai on a 'posh' slow boat, enjoying the fabulous scenery from the water and visisting some local villages. We then crossed the river and thereby went back into Thailand (as the final stretch of river that we cruised down had Laos on the right bank & Thailand on the left bank).
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