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Published: November 8th 2010
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From Jomtien Beach we were travelling down to Chantaburi for the gems market and to get closer to the border to Cambodia. However, we couldn’t get a bus direct to Chantaburi from Jomtien so we caught a bus from the main road bus stop to Rayong before getting on a connecting bus to Chantaburi. Luckily we knew the guesthouse we were going to stay in so were able to ignore all the tuk tuk driver calls asking us where we going!
Chantaburi is a small traditional Thai town with very few tourists passing through. The only restaurants there are have their signs written in Thai and even the night food market was all in Thai and very little English was spoken, so after our 10 circuit around the market and before resorting to the local 7-11 we stopped at a stall that had noodles and shrimp displayed and looked at the photo. The lady serving looked a us and said ‘Pad Thai’? Hoorah! We had found a food we knew and liked and I could guarantee that I could eat it and it wouldn’t be too spicy! The following day we walked around Chantaburi in order to gain our bearings
and found some local markets and shops, it was a welcome break from all the tourist places we had been to see a place still traditional Thailand without its focus on western tourists. However, being a place without tourists there were no bars so we bought some drink from the local shop and had a drink the Thai way - with makeshit glasses! We went to the local park to see the statue of Taksin - an important King who saved the town from an invasion and kept Thailand together. However being Thailand the local park is a bit bigger than usual and had 3 lakes all with bridges across as well as outdoor fitness areas!!
We planned to go across the border from here and originally were planning to spend a couple of weeks in Cambodia to go to Angkor Wat and then the killing fields at Phnom Phen. We decided after reading all the horror stories of the crossing at Poi Pet to avoid it and do the much quieter crossing and Ban Pac guard to Pai lin. It sounded a much nicer crossing and we knew we could make our way up to Siem Reap and
then down to Phnom Phen from here. So the following day we left Chantaburi on a little minibus to the border. The crossing itself was simple really, we got accosted in no mans land by two motorbike drivers who would take us to Pai Lin so we hoped on for the short trip to get our Cambodian Visas. Once they were got we went to passport control who threw a bit of paper out the window at us and then shut it so not knowing what to do we walked away and got on the bikes - only for the little man to blow his whistle and call us back - not before I had got halfway up the road and men with guns had come out their boxes!! We went back and filled in the bit of paper we needed to, got stamped into Cambodia and off we went properly this time!! Half hour we arrived in Pai Lin and checked into a hotel. We didn’t really feel happy in the town so decided that cakes and cokes from the hotel foyer seemed like a good idea for dinner. Deciding not to leave the hotel as it felt that
all people wanted was your money, we thought better of travelling any further into Cambodia this time so the following morning we got the hotel to phone us a taxi and went back across the border - home to Thailand!! The dead women laying on the side of the road on the way to the border with everyone ignoring her really didn’t help us feel any better!
We couldn’t get a minibus back from the border so a guy who saw us looking confused in the car park offered us a lift (for cash) to take us to the nearest town so we could get a bus back to Chantaburi. We had to wait about a hour but eventually a small local bus (more of a Songhthaew) took us to Chantaburi. Arriving back in a familiar town in a familiar guesthouse was a nice feeling. As it was a weekend the gems market was on so we walked around that for a while. There were a lot of traders around that seemed to be trading in large quantities of gems. There were a few uncut gems around but we weren’t sure what we were looking at so didn’t think
buying anything was going to be a good idea.
The following day we decided to go back to Bangkok before travelling down the west coast for some beaches and relaxation. So we got a first class bus back to Bangkok- this was a really nice change from all the second class buses that we had taken recently!
Back in Bangkok we headed straight back for the Khao San Road where things were familiar - only planning to stay for one night maybe two we booked back into the same guesthouse as before and went for a walk. A relaxing few drinks at our ‘local’ restaurant helped us have a good nights sleep. Mark had decided that he wanted a new tattoo so we had 'one day' translated into Thai language. So new tattoo and a couple of nights in Bangkok we tried to get to the bus station that evening but due to a tuk tuk driver that took us to Chinatown instead of the South bus terminal and then another who took us to Mo Chit instead meant we had an expensive two and half hour ride around Bangkok. So back to the Khao San Road for
one more night we didn’t need!!
Eventually we were able to get a very nice overnight VIP bus to Krabi for beach and relaxation!!
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