Frog ladies, tuk tuks, and a very happy pug

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Bangkok and Border guards

So after one night in Bangkok where the world is your osyster, the bars are temples but the pearls ain't free... Focusing on the pearls ain't freee bit we decided to head onwards, after scoping out the situation we decided upon one more night in Bangkok then off to Cambodia, winging the whole visa situation as everyone was telling us it would be about 5 days to get one.



So there we were with one more day to burn in a city where everyone is trying to sell you EVERYTHING. We started the day off with a light breakfast we learnt very quickly not to sit anywheres near the road as you will swarmed by the hundreds of frog ladies who I swear all look excatly the same, forcing you to look at their braclets and trinkets. It a funny thing really when you first arrive and are walking around you hear frog croaking everywhere, think it is rather beautiful until you realize it is the unforgiving call of the frog ladies.



After breakie it was off to do some sight seeing, after all the hustle and bustle we decide upon a stroll through the park, our new "friend" the Thai guy who is in charge of the tuk tuks by our guest house tells us good dea good price to the park, we agree 20 baht to the park. After a stop at the laughing budha which we didn't really want to go to and an unpleasant trip to a tailors (which we went to cause the tuk tuk driver gets gas coupon when he brings people in) although once inside were follow by a persistant sales guy but when he realized we weren't buying basically threw us out. Then our tuk tuk driver not only doubles the price of what we were orginally quoted he also tries to tell only taxis can go to the park. Not liking to get ripped off I told him to take us back and he wasn't getting any money, he sheepishly agreed.


So there we were right back where we started having killed only an hour, luckily there was a temple right by we decided to have a gander in. Once in the front gate I saw a tiny little siamese kitten lying by the framed religious artwork, not being able to help myself I was straight in petting the kitten, only to make it strech out and knock over some frames... Ooops, first sign maybe I should stay away from the animals here. Sign two was just around the corner when after admiring the beauty of the temple I was stopped in my tracks staring at a pug! Adrian offered to take my photo, so I squat down with the pug, who is overjoyed to see me and start petting the little guy. As I mentioned before hand Adrian might be "special needs" and could not for the love of him figure out how to work my camera. Meanwhile I am still petting the dog who to me looks like he is about to cough up a hair ball, and starting to scare me, then it turns to like his you know what and one of the little Thai ladies runs over laughing and pointing forcing me to look down to see that the dog was REALLY ENJOYING being pet. This cause Adrian and all the Thai people to burst out in laughter, I left hanging my head in shame. Vowing to stay away from any animals from now on!




That night was pretty mellow as we were up the next morning at 6 to catch our 7am bus. Once on out lovley air conned mini bus were set about our journey to Cambodia. It was all smooth riding till we got to Poi Pet (the border crossing) at which point they drop you at a travel office just far enough from the border and try to charge near double what it should cost for a visa, we had been warned about this and decided to venture on to the border. Once in we were sorted I mean only 2 hours or so to get through immigration, cause right now Thailand and Cambodia aren't excatly friends, but we got visas on arrival for a reasonable price. With a taxi waiting for us on the otherside we were set. This is where I tried, tried being the key word to understand Cambodia driving. From what I saw I am guessing you probably should be on the right side of the road, passing can happen anytime, even if there is someone in the oncoming lane, and honk your horn if anything or anyway gets in your way then it is their fault for not getting out of the way. Also was stumped by the use of blinkers, it seemed you used them when you felt like it even if you were planning on heading straight or turning the other direction. Once in Phnom Pehn we settled in for the night planning from the 10 30 am bus to Sihanoukville.

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