Blogs from Aranya Prathet, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia

Advertisement

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet September 17th 2013

Después de los dos días de trekking por el norte de Tailandia, disfrutando del aire libre, nos han tocado un par de días de ruta, pero esta vez en tren, bus y furgo. La mayoría de la gente que sube hasta Chiang Mai, vuelve a Bangkok en avión. Es cierto que los precios son de risa, pero no sé.... vamos, sí que lo sé.... lo que pasa es que si en un viaje de veintitantos días, pillas 6 vuelos internos, eso parece más una gira promocional del nuevo disco de Crochet “Historias desde el gris” que un viaje mochilero. Y nosotros, como buenos gumiales que somos, nos chupamos una buena tirada de tren y demás. El primer tramo fue un tren nocturno que nos ha llevado desde Chiang Mai hasta Bangkok. Como debe ser! Ahí mezclados ... read more
Frontera Camboya
Templo Siem Reap
Camino de Siem Reap. Parece mentira, pero la furgo de delante nos pasó a todo gas, con todos los bultos ahí a medio caer...

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet April 3rd 2012

About to cross the border to cambodia so before i leave thailand i wanted to remind myself of the funny things/things i like about thailand when i first arrived i wondered why everyone sold clothes (loads of clothes outside on hangers). Im glad it clicked that this was how everyone hung out their washing Chang or Leo beer,very cheap Everyone is so friendly and willing to help. I love going to the less touristy places where everyone stares at you or trys some random phrases on you Bright coloured everything ie rubbish trucks,buses,Tuk Tuks I wish I had a mo ped as it would be much easier. Im still confused as to how you fit a whole family on them. More confused as to why people dont wear helmets.Quite enjoy being on the back of a ... read more

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet April 2nd 2012

Hi. Just a quick update. Currently staying in a guesthouse just by the border before we head into Cambodia. We travelled by mini bus from bangkok with other travellers but then parted ways before we did the border crossing. Basically there are just people that try and rip you off and rush you so you end up haning over passports,paying double etc. All part of the experience i guess but it does get slightly annoying when you are hot and tired and people are literally harrassing you. We have been doing a lot walking at the moment so hopefully by the time i return home i will be super fit and trimmed. We had a good few days in Bangkok with Fin who then had to make a quick departure as his alarm didnt go off ... read more

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet January 19th 2012

We had booked the earliest train for 5.55am which meant an early start. We planned an early night before but this didnt work out so we had to stay awake all night. We left the Nantra at about half 4 and got a taxi to the train station 30mins away. This cost about £3 and cost less than the 5minute journey we got at the start of the trip when we had mug wrote on our heads. We got our tickets for the six hour train journey for 48baht (£1.20) and sat on the last carraige. There was about 5 other backpackers and the rest were locals. We found a double seat next to the window and enjoyed the view of the Thai countryside for the 6hours with no problems. The rest of the border crossing ... read more
SDC11983
SDC11989
SDC11992

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet April 27th 2011

Our thailand visa is burning at both ends so unfortunatly I have to leave Ko Thao and make our way back to Bangkok, the city I love and hate with equal measure if that makes any sense, and get on our way to Cambodia. Our departure is made doubly difficult as the songran or as I can it Apocalypse waterfight is still going strong for several days on the mainland. While its great fun when you have a few beers down the neck its not quite as much fun when you have to navigate crowds of people drenching each other with a daypack across your chest and a rucksack on your back. Thankfully, I have a pretty girlfriend who is a far more inviting target to throw water at then me. Only about one in ten ... read more
Pack on the gear!

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet January 8th 2011

Introduction: As you may have guessed not all borders in South Asia are nice and easy. This can often be one of them. The only time i have done this crossing I did the Aranya Prethet to Poipet border which is the closest if you are going to or coming from Siem Reap. However if you are going towards Siep Reap you can easily come up against some issues. Common ones that I think wil cross people minds are below. First of all if you are coming from Thailand, as we did, you will be dropped of by the bus in Aranya Prethet. From there you will need to get a tuk-tuk out of town to the border which is about 5km away. I cant remember how much we paid but I would say never pay ... read more

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet May 1st 2010

This is one of the trips that have so many warning for different scams that you actually start to expect something to happen! I was’n in any hurry, so I decided to take morning (5.55am) train from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet. The train takes about 6 hours and there is only 3th class seat available. So I was at the train station little after 5am to get ticket and to find correct train. No problems, not so many people at the station yet. The train was OK, and few local people tried to talk with me with out success. No common language. There was on Spain/Japan couple that I met in a train and we decided to share tuk-tuk and taxi to Siem Reap. The view was not that special so taking a bus is an option ... read more
Open 'boom'
view from train

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet February 23rd 2009

I’ve had major connection issues in the last couple of days, so this blog is something of an amalgamation of what’s been going on in our second week at Klong Nam Sai School. One thing that has really struck us is how exhausting teaching is - we are teaching 2-3 hours a day (plus some time spent preparing) and typically finish up lying on our backs, in dire need of some kind of sports drink. Yet the teachers here, particularly the indomitable E, seem to have limitless reserves energy - perhaps this is something we need to cultivate (particularly Wiz with her career plans). That said, it is sweat-drippingly hot which is something we aren’t used to; maybe in the cooler climes of England the Thai teachers would freeze over while we’d happily go about our ... read more

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet February 16th 2009

Apologies for the gap between this and the last update - over the weekend we don’t really have internet access (or at least, no free internet access). Hence no blogging. Anyway when I last posted we were just about to go for lunch with a Very Important Person (so they said); the lunch itself turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, we were very briefly introduced (or shown off?) to the special guest and then shoved down to the furthest possible point away from him on the table. Our presence from then on was pretty much superfluous, we were quite literally only there because of the novel colour of our skin. And the food was much worse than usual; Wiz had to politely force down another helping of what I think was ‘jellied ... read more

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Aranya Prathet February 13th 2009

Shorter entry today. Last night we got shown around Aran a bit by the wonderful E, rapidly becoming a favourite member of staff. We ate Korean-style, where you cook the food for yourself over a huge vat of hot coals in the middle of the table; great stuff. The morning started weirdly; we were waiting on the road for our usual lift when a truck pulls up and who should roll down the window but a policeman, enthusiastically saying ‘Klong Nam Sai’? We assumed that somebody somewhere along the line had asked this officer of the law to take us to school today, so we jumped in happily, and he drove us to the right place (stopping briefly to go into a shop and leaving his gun on the front seat next to me - I ... read more




Tot: 0.164s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 7; qc: 92; dbt: 0.1007s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb