The beginning of the end

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Well well well, it's been a while since I gave news and the sad thing is the trip has now come to and end.

What did I do in the last bit?

- went to a memorable beach party in Sihanoukville
- met some fantastic new people, which totally enforced the point that the pleasure of travelling is also about the people you meet on the way
- managed to cross by land from Cambodia to Thailand. I thought I was going to be really roughing it, you know sitting for hours in a dusty boarder post, being questioned relentlessly by border officials ("Admit it!! Why is a Russian-French-Finnish agent travelling in this area in August 2007? You are hiding something! Let us Search your bags!"). But no, instead it was like a walk in the park: we all jumped into a mini bus with aircon, it drove us for a few hours - ok more like 6 or 7 hours and that was hard part of the trip, but it was really scenic because there are 4 river crossings on boats. Then we came to the border where these guys put all our stuff in a trolley so we did not have to carry them, and then the boarder officials were all really friendly. I did think our bus would get refused entrance by the Thai officials because we were all so ugly, covered in mud and hung over (that is what travelling in Cambodia does to you) but they seemed quite lax in their screening policy that day so fortunately we got in.
- was super surprised by the level of civilisation in Thailand, after being in more rustic Cambodia and Laos for so many weeks. There were pavements in the streets! Plastic rubbish containers! Beautiful cars! Clothes Shops!
- made a total fool of ourselves with my travel buddy Julie when we walked into what we thought was a travel agency to ask for information on train times. Turns out there were no train in the town we were, and turns out we had actually simply walked into someone's living room, not a travel agency!! (the mistake is easy to make as many people live with their living rooms just practically in the street).
- travelled up to Bangkok in a super posh bus where there was a little lady serving drinks and food (believe me such a level of service was amazing for people like us used to the less organised travel logistics of Cambodia).
- was certain to have caught malaria when I got a little bit sick in Bangkok. Turns out it was just a common cold due to air conditioning and too much night-swimming, but I promised myself never to Not take my malaria medication when travelling!
- bought every single handbag, t-shirt and DVD for sale in Bangkok (well it felt like that anyway given the weight of it all!).


I have now arrived in my new adoptive city of Hong Kong, watch this space for a full update of The New Life of Elisabeth in Asia.

Miss you all back home in Europe!!

Elisabeth

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Photos

Boat
Taking it easy on a boat trip to Ream National Park

Kids
Cute Cambodian kids, playing with their pet..

Sihanoukville party
With my travel buddy Julie at a beach party

Kao San Road
Standing in the mythical Kao San Road in Bangkok (you know in the Beach, it's the road where Leo Di Caprio had his guesthouse with the dead guy. We were much better at chosing a guest house).

Cooking class
Yes, I could not resist being in Thailand even if briefly, without going to a cooking class! As you can see this one was super hard work, getting quite physical with the chilli..