Bangkok to Cambodia- crossing the border

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20th Jan 08- Stepping out into central Bangkok suburbia there are Tuk Tuks, Taxis, cars, bikes and motorbikes crowding the narrow side street. The place stinks! It smells like souridge, only it ios not. Anna has been here 4 days now waiting for my arrival and she said to me "This is nothing yet, so get used to it"...
We catch a cab to Chatuchak market. 140 k per hour down the highway in a taxi we were there in no time. Wiping the light sweat off my forehead and releasing my fingernails from the seat, i pay the driver 140Baht.
A mixture of rodents, reptiles, birds and mamals cages and uncaged crowd the maze of lanes. Scorpians, Aligators, mice, dogs, birds, bunnys, and fish share the same space. And as grousome as it sounds so do the food stalls only inches away! I think ill skip eating street food.
I did a lot of looking but no purchasing. Didnt want to lug stuff around 3 other countries with me.
22nd Jan- First ride in a Tuk Tuk. Anna feeling dubious about it was not easily convinced it was such a bright idea, mainly because the lonely planet states the drivers try to rip tourists off. Despite the truth in the matter and expecting to be dragged into a custom suit making shop (so the tuk tuk driver benefits from a free tank of gas if we purchase an item) I weighed it up and gave Anna no choice but to step in, sit down and enjoy a spontanious ride to see the sitting Buddha. Monks in orange robes wondered peacefuly while limbless beggers sat (guessing they are refugees of Cambodia and Vietnam war) and others took the advantage to sell wads of cages birds for 100B. The idea is to set the birds free and it will bring good luck.
23rd Jan- Organising visas for Vietnam was our mission. We decidied to do the Cambodian Visa at the border as we pass through.
24th- Coffee with my cousin Ivan in the early morning is our formed habit it seems. We walk 10 mins throught the crowded back streets. It is the locals with their streets stalls (food, clothes, sewing machinests, jewelery, music etc) that turns the city into one big village.
Watpho Temple is an amazing place, much cheaper to see than the Grand Palace too.
25th- The day I thought I was leaving the city to Cambodia but our bus was full and so we had to wait another day. In exchange for the hassle caused Anna and I were given a complimentry cruize up the river and back in a boat to ourselves. I bought some bread off a guy in a canoe floating past us and i fed it to the cat fish.
25th- Anna and I were Picked up from our doorstep, we were taken to the bus, and waved goodbye. Naieve to what exactly I was about to embark I relaxed in my reclining leather chair, faced the air con towards my face and made friends with an interesting Indian fella on my left. 37 minutes later; sitting on the edge of my chair, clutching tightly onto Annas left knee and the Indian fellas right knee. Gob-smacked by the Thai driving style on the open highway. It was like i was in a playstation car ralley game. Sitting in the central seat in the row directly behind the driver didnt help calm me (best view). I was sweating myself to a post mid life crisis.
Thailand road rules summed up; drive where there is room...
Concrete jungles, city smog, and the stench of rotton whatever turned into lustrous banana plantations, the odd cloud of bushfire smoke, and lungfuls of fresh O2 I've been longing for in my Bangkok dreams.
And the scenery was forever changing (as it does) but so much so it exchanged a van-full of laughing excited mixed cultured people into a silent tin can. I remember hearing the clutch pedals squeaking, I also remember feeling the chilling aura...
INTERLUDE-
Waiting in line for the ATM machine in Aranya Prathet on the Thai/Cambodia border, two round dark button eyes painted on a beautiful brown face shone up at me beneath a rainbow umbrella. Her smile was as gorgeous as her eyes. Her smile made me laugh but her skinny arms and legs made my insides dry. So I let her play her begging tricks and I enjoyed the walk with her to customs under her shaded rainbow umbrella. When she held her hand out I gave her a big juicy apple. She could not believe her luck. Her grattitude gave me the warm fuzzies :o)
OK so back to the story-
You pay for a Thai massage, a Cambodian one comes for free with a bus ride. A dirt road full of pot holes lay perpetually before us. Infact it is prefferable and fair to label it an array of pot-holes in a road-shaped form. And that was the joy that filled the air in the bus. It was when we drove past an accident scene so slowly that killed it. We all saw faced of dissaray crowding a dead Cambodian local. His body so young, still fresh. Contorted backwards and sideways. Mouth open. Eyes open. Our mouthes were shut. Ans so we learnt that Cambodian drivers had much to learn. Personally, I can't decide what is better, pothole villa, or highway madness. It's all suicide if you're asking me. Buuuuuut yuno what can I do. Im in Cambodia now playing by their rules, and Anna and I made it to Siam Rep in one piece. But the van didn't...
To add to the drama, our mini bus lost the muffler after bottoming out several times. Mooni, the bus driver dragged the metal sheeting over the rickety bidge and parked up on the side. I was terrified to get out. After all the horror stories I've been force fed about the killing fields, bombs that still have not been triggered, and people loosing kidneys through spiked drinks; standing on the side of the dirt track with a can of deodorant acting as pepper spray for emergency self defence seems quite the laugh, but went without questioning... It wasn't put to use ofcourse. A bit of strapping tape (actually a rag) and dust on the back, and we were away on 4 wheels once again within half an hour.
We stayed a total of three nights in Siam Rep. Highlights were renting bicycles and biking to the Angkor Temples. It was a late start after a nice sleep in but we had enough time before sunset to see some of the better Temples. I especially liked the one with all the roots growing over the stone structures.
The locals thought it was quite funny to see me biking along 'no hands' and next minute I had half a dozen kids following me on their bikes trying to do it too. At the Angkor Wat temple I bought a beautiful painting of the temple itself, painted with a spoon by a 16 yr old boy. It took 3 days to paint and it only cost me NZ$30 in the end (had to bargain). Now the issue is to post it. I have only been to one place and DHL asked US$60 to get it back to New Zealand, ouch! I'll look around a bit more...
I met a cheeky monkey, and I had a lot of fun taking photos of him lazing on the grass eating his bamboo. But then the little sod tried to swipe me with his claws and chased me down the field. He missed me by a hair, that cheeky little monkey!
Other great things we did in Siam Rep was to stop by in an Orphanage and play with the children for a few hours. I discovered through talking with a teacher there that all 60 children share 10 tooth-brushes between them. The tooth brushes are old. The bristles are brown and stick out everywhere. They do not have the luxury of toothpaste either. I had a spare brand new toothbrush I had just recieved from the hotel I stayed at so I donated it to them. Besides that, the children are very happy there and they are treated well. Their English is good and they are well educated and well fed. It is an Australian funded organisation and they are constantly improving. I feel priviliged to experience being there among them.
The following day We took a bus to Phnom Penh, the Capitol. It was a buzzing fast paced city and Bangkok now seems superior in comparison.
Anna got a bad tummy bug and has had to stay near a loo for a few days. I met some other travellers and hung out with one of them for a day while anna stayed back at the hostel. Paul and I walked around PP to see the National Museum and then the Royal Palace. He has read a lot about Buddhism, Hurray Chrishener (cant spell) and Hindu, and so he filled me in on a few details whilst looking at all the hand chisseled statues. #11 Happy guest house was the coolest hostel around. We all realy enjoyed it there and the backpackers we met were fantastic. We stayed up all night playing a German card game and drinking Ankor Beer. Our last day in PP we went to S21 (an old school transformed into the Khumer Rouge secret headquarters for gathering information from Cambodian intelectuals and/or any one that was against Pol Pot. They gathered this information through imprisonment and torture; that in most cases ended in lethal tragedy). Then we Tuk-Tuked our way to the killing fields. This is a mass of graves that still remain in its almost original state. Which leaves me gob-smacked by the fact I am actually allowed to walk down the same paths that these Khumers walked upon. And as I am eves dropping the tour guids conversation with the French lady a few meters away (free info!) I look downto the ground in order to not make eye contact with the tour guide, only to discover the path I walk on bares the bones and clothing of these innocent ghosts. And what a FRIGHT I get! This memorial sight lacks the funding required to preserve their important history, but I am sure that in a few yeard from now this area will be fenced off and people will be there to look only. A white tower in the middle holds 80,000 skulls from the victims of the 1975-79 Khumer war. The more I read about Cambodia the more I discover just how much this Country still lies on thin Ice with this current terrifying goverment sytem that is only masked from the truth beneath. I actually look forward to Vietnam now...

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Photos

crossing the border to Cambodia
this is where we are...

Fish anyone?
Looks artistic, smells terrible!

A lady washes
in the heart of Siam Rep

Broken down
fixing the muffler

bikers
In Cambodia

climbing trees
Lumphini park, Bangkok

a machinist
fixing Ivans pants 6.30am at her side street stall backstreets of Bangkok city

Comments

[Katheen]

Ivan
How about a picture of Ivan???

[Benny G]

I like the monkey... ;-P
Haha he chased you.. like the bee on the beach in able tasman, that would have been a classic funny sight!