We were always concerned about this trip, we weren't sure about the visas and we didn't know what to expect in Cambodia. We certainly didn't expect what we got!
The previous evening we'd picked up our passports (good to see them again!) and in them were what looked like Cambodian visas - all good so far.
We were being picked up from the travel agent at 7:30am by some guy called Somphon(!?). This was the first hurdle passed. He took us to the end of the road and left us there with a handful of other people. We were a bit concerned now as there was no sign of a bus. 3o minutes later and a big bus turns up - another hurdle passed.
We got in the bus and headed off towards the border. This was all going so well, we were very chuffed.
We were quite skeptical about the whole thing as it was only costing us 300Bhat (NZ$12, GBP4) to travel about 400km from one country to another.
The bus trip to the border was great, nice bus and real easy drive (although it did rain torrentially). We arrived at a guest house 10 minutes from the border where you can sort out visas, although we'd already done ours so were feeling quite smug. Bit of lunch and we were all set to go.
I was feeling good at this point.
A short bus trip to the border and we all jump off and walk to the checkpoint (the bus doesn't go into Cambodia, we change onto another bus on the other side of the checkpoint).
The checkpoint leaving Thailand was very straightforward, just a couple of minutes then we walked out and across a bridge into Cambodia, There was another checkpoint on the Cambodian side that we had to clear but that just took 10 minutes of queueing and we were through that. The whole place didn't look very strict as the locals just seemed to wander straight past the checkpoint without a second glance. I think if you look a bit Thai and have no shoes you can just wander straight into the country without any passport at all.
This is where it started getting interesting. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia and the tar-sealed road ended at the border. Just muddy tracks from here on. And did I mention it had just been raining. So mud everywhere and huge puddles of water. We got on a crappy looking bus but were told that this is only to ferry us to the bus terminal where we would get on the real bus for the rest of the journey. Once we had bounced the 2 kms to the bus station we got off the bus (avoiding the puddles by parking on the pavement) and transferred to a much, much worse bus. The seats were hardly padded, except for ours which had no padding, the windows rattled and air conditioning was called 'opening the windows and going fast'.
The guide told us that the roads would be very bumpy for the first 50km and then for the remaining 100km it would just be bumpy.
The journey of 150km took 7 hours of driving. The roads were little more than mud tracks, and it was 40kms in before I realised that they drove on the right in this country - we just spent our time zig-zagging down the road avoiding the bugger pot-holes with on coming vehicles passing either side of us.
Our comfort options were either windows open for cooling or windows closed for not getting mud sprayed in your face.
Once it got dark we had to stop regularly to clean the mud from the windscreen and lights so that the driver could see.
We eventually made it to Siem Reap at about 10pm (the last 5km were on luxurious tar-sealed roads). We found ourselves a nice hotel to stay at and we had a go and cleaning most of the mud and sweat off our bodies before we lay our bruised and battered bodies down for the night.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Bangkok
We arrived in the early, early morning a short walk from Khao San Road. After wandering around for about 15 minutes with a number of other backpackers in tow we eventually found the place. It's a relatively short street and was quite quiet at 5:30 in the morning (although the bars had plenty of people in them still going from last night). We tried a couple of hotels, Lianne was very keen to get one with a swimming pool and we ended up blowing the budget a little and we ended up paying 750Bhat/night for the room (NZ$30, GBP11). But it did have a pool on the roof and that was a godsend in the hot muggy atmosphere of Bangkok.
We had a few hours early morning kip to recover from the overnight trip then went out exploring.
We found Bangkok quite hard work, partly because it is so busy and full or people but mainly because almost all of the Thai people are complete tossers and out to rip you off (apologies to any Thais reading this, but it's true). On a number of occasions tuk-tuk drivers or passers by would lie to us and tell us to go in the opposite direction to where we should be going, I assume so that we'd get lost and confused and end up parting with some cash in order to sort ourselves out. Lots of people hassled us trying to sell us stuff and it became quite tedious after, say, 2 minutes.
The first day we went to the Grand Palace in the centre of Bangkok which was really nice. Lots of amazing temples and beautiful buildings. It was like an Asian St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace rolled into one.
That afternoon we booked our trip to Cambodia and arranged our Cambodian Visas. We had to give our passports to some random Thai person to do this, and given our current opinion of the Thais we were very scared.We cruised round looking at some of the sites and played a game of 10 pin bowling in the coolest bowling alley we've ever been to. We rounded off the night with a few beers and some food in Khao San.
The next day we slept in, went for a quick swim then caught the ferry down the river and had a wander around.
We went to a snake farm which was really good. Lianne hates snakes but loved the snake farm (I know not why). There were giant king cobras on show right in front of us (no glass or cages involved) - it was actually quite scary. Lianne got to touch some of the poisonous snakes (she was very brave!) and at the end we both had a snake wrapped around our necks.
After this we went to see the golden buddha, which is made of solid gold and weighs in at 3 1/2 tonnes! US$14m worth of gold alone. Unfortunately we weren't strong enough to carry it home, and anyway it would have cost more than that in excess baggage to get it to the UK.
That night we went exploring in Patpong road. They have some great night markets for hooky gear. Lianne bought a Welsh rugby jersey (would you believe it) for NZ$8. We also saw some other stuff that night involving ping pong balls, but in deference to Maurine and Aunty Betty who will be reading this we won't go into the details. But it was an eye opener!
After that we took a tuk-tuk home (bloody tuk-tuk drivers again - they wanted 300 Bhat to get us home and we ended up paying 100, and I still think we were ripped off).
The next morning was an early start for our bus to Cambodia...
We had a few hours early morning kip to recover from the overnight trip then went out exploring.
We found Bangkok quite hard work, partly because it is so busy and full or people but mainly because almost all of the Thai people are complete tossers and out to rip you off (apologies to any Thais reading this, but it's true). On a number of occasions tuk-tuk drivers or passers by would lie to us and tell us to go in the opposite direction to where we should be going, I assume so that we'd get lost and confused and end up parting with some cash in order to sort ourselves out. Lots of people hassled us trying to sell us stuff and it became quite tedious after, say, 2 minutes.
The first day we went to the Grand Palace in the centre of Bangkok which was really nice. Lots of amazing temples and beautiful buildings. It was like an Asian St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace rolled into one.
That afternoon we booked our trip to Cambodia and arranged our Cambodian Visas. We had to give our passports to some random Thai person to do this, and given our current opinion of the Thais we were very scared.We cruised round looking at some of the sites and played a game of 10 pin bowling in the coolest bowling alley we've ever been to. We rounded off the night with a few beers and some food in Khao San.
The next day we slept in, went for a quick swim then caught the ferry down the river and had a wander around.
We went to a snake farm which was really good. Lianne hates snakes but loved the snake farm (I know not why). There were giant king cobras on show right in front of us (no glass or cages involved) - it was actually quite scary. Lianne got to touch some of the poisonous snakes (she was very brave!) and at the end we both had a snake wrapped around our necks.
After this we went to see the golden buddha, which is made of solid gold and weighs in at 3 1/2 tonnes! US$14m worth of gold alone. Unfortunately we weren't strong enough to carry it home, and anyway it would have cost more than that in excess baggage to get it to the UK.
That night we went exploring in Patpong road. They have some great night markets for hooky gear. Lianne bought a Welsh rugby jersey (would you believe it) for NZ$8. We also saw some other stuff that night involving ping pong balls, but in deference to Maurine and Aunty Betty who will be reading this we won't go into the details. But it was an eye opener!
After that we took a tuk-tuk home (bloody tuk-tuk drivers again - they wanted 300 Bhat to get us home and we ended up paying 100, and I still think we were ripped off).
The next morning was an early start for our bus to Cambodia...
Sunday, May 13, 2007
From Koh Pha Ngan to Bangkok
We caught a minibus from the travel agent and it was a 30 minute ride to the ferry terminal where we boarder the ferry back to Surat Thani. The ferry trip was long (3 hours) but easy and when we got to Surat Thani we were then ushered into the back of one of the "minibuses" (more of a pickup with bench seats in the back and a roof over where you sit). Another crazy bit of driving took us to the where the coach would come to pick us up. It was about 5pm and the coach was due at 7pm which gave us time for some food and to watch another movie!
The coach arrived (just as the film was ending - good timing) and we got on. It was pretty comfortable, as good as you would get in NZ or UK, if not better. Double decker, toilet, air con and reclining seats.
The journey was long but we both slept through most of it (Lianne had a monster sleep of almost 8 hours!).
The coach was a little ahead of schedule and arrived in central Bangkok at around 5am. We woke from our sleep and dozily grabbed our bags and wandered off in search of somewhere to sleep...
The coach arrived (just as the film was ending - good timing) and we got on. It was pretty comfortable, as good as you would get in NZ or UK, if not better. Double decker, toilet, air con and reclining seats.
The journey was long but we both slept through most of it (Lianne had a monster sleep of almost 8 hours!).
The coach was a little ahead of schedule and arrived in central Bangkok at around 5am. We woke from our sleep and dozily grabbed our bags and wandered off in search of somewhere to sleep...
Koh Pha Ngan
We had a bit of a drama catching the bus to leave Koh Samui as we had hired mopeds the day before and I had put in my passport as a deposit. We turned up at 10:30 to return the mopeds and collect my passport ready to catch the 10:45 bus. Unfortunately the person who ran the shop was nowhere to be found (and hence, neither were our passports). We woke up some guy who appeared to sleep there and he phoned trying to find him. 15 minutes later and there was still no sign of our passports, but the bus had arrived. A bit of stalling and hoping later he turned up and we got onto the minibus apologising to everyone for holding them up.
The minibus driver made up for it by driving like a maniac to the port, although when we got there we sat around for about an hour waiting for the boat, so I don't know what all the fuss was about!
We then caught the boat for the short 30 minute trip from the north of Koh Samui to Koh Pha Ngan.
Once there we got on a minibus and travelled around to Haad Rin to find some accomodation. There was a reasonable looking place that we found right next to the bus drop off that we took for 350Bhat/night (NZ$14, 5GBP). We then took a look around Haad Rin.
The place was a lot smaller that Lamai in Koh Samui and it seem to be built around the Full Moon parties that are held there. Lots of bars and restaurants, and places in the streets selling "buckets" which are small ice buckets with a half bottle of spirit and a can or two of mixer for not very much at all (250-300 Bhat). The bars were all playing hooky copies of videos, we watched The Beach and Blood Diamond. I think one of them was playing Spiderman 3, which had only come out in the cinemas a few days before.
We then went down to the beach for a bit of a swim. The beach looked fantastic and the water clear and warm. We went in for a swim and after about 30 seconds we both felt small stings all over our bodies. We still don't know what they were, but maybe small jellyfish or sea lice. It wasn't very painful and there were no after effects, but it put us both off swimming.
We went back to the hotel for a shower, which was when we discovered that we had a shared bathroom. Unfortunately we were sharing it with several cockroaches. We killed a few but just had to put up with the others. There was a lot of girly screaming, and Lianne wasn't much better either.
It started to rain that night and we were wondering if we should stay in, when it was decided for us when all the power went out. We left and wandered down the main street where pretty much everywhere was blacked out. We ended up in a bar with a generator for dinner and eventually the power came back.
I had been planning to go to Koh Tao and do some diving but we were umming and ahing about it and when we looked into it we couldn't find anywhere that would do a day trip to the island, only places that we needed to stay overnight for.
We decided to head off to Bangkok the next morning. Our impression of Koh Pha Ngan weren't great, I think if you like drink a lot (and I mean a lot) and you're into your unce unce music then it could be great. We also heard some good stories of beach resorts that can only be reached by boat, not by land. However the brief bit we saw was unimpressive and we were quite keen to leave.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast and booked our travel to Bangkok. It was a boat and coach, leaving at noon and getting into Bangkok at 6am the next morning. We were not looking forward to the journey...
The minibus driver made up for it by driving like a maniac to the port, although when we got there we sat around for about an hour waiting for the boat, so I don't know what all the fuss was about!
We then caught the boat for the short 30 minute trip from the north of Koh Samui to Koh Pha Ngan.
Once there we got on a minibus and travelled around to Haad Rin to find some accomodation. There was a reasonable looking place that we found right next to the bus drop off that we took for 350Bhat/night (NZ$14, 5GBP). We then took a look around Haad Rin.
The place was a lot smaller that Lamai in Koh Samui and it seem to be built around the Full Moon parties that are held there. Lots of bars and restaurants, and places in the streets selling "buckets" which are small ice buckets with a half bottle of spirit and a can or two of mixer for not very much at all (250-300 Bhat). The bars were all playing hooky copies of videos, we watched The Beach and Blood Diamond. I think one of them was playing Spiderman 3, which had only come out in the cinemas a few days before.
We then went down to the beach for a bit of a swim. The beach looked fantastic and the water clear and warm. We went in for a swim and after about 30 seconds we both felt small stings all over our bodies. We still don't know what they were, but maybe small jellyfish or sea lice. It wasn't very painful and there were no after effects, but it put us both off swimming.
We went back to the hotel for a shower, which was when we discovered that we had a shared bathroom. Unfortunately we were sharing it with several cockroaches. We killed a few but just had to put up with the others. There was a lot of girly screaming, and Lianne wasn't much better either.
It started to rain that night and we were wondering if we should stay in, when it was decided for us when all the power went out. We left and wandered down the main street where pretty much everywhere was blacked out. We ended up in a bar with a generator for dinner and eventually the power came back.
I had been planning to go to Koh Tao and do some diving but we were umming and ahing about it and when we looked into it we couldn't find anywhere that would do a day trip to the island, only places that we needed to stay overnight for.
We decided to head off to Bangkok the next morning. Our impression of Koh Pha Ngan weren't great, I think if you like drink a lot (and I mean a lot) and you're into your unce unce music then it could be great. We also heard some good stories of beach resorts that can only be reached by boat, not by land. However the brief bit we saw was unimpressive and we were quite keen to leave.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast and booked our travel to Bangkok. It was a boat and coach, leaving at noon and getting into Bangkok at 6am the next morning. We were not looking forward to the journey...
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Koh Samui
Once we made it to Koh Samui things really started to look up. We got a local bus/taxi thing from Na Thong where the ferry arrives to Lamai on the other side of the island. This was only THB50 (NZ$2, 70p) and it was the same as the locals were paying (we were the only foreigners on the bus). This was the first time in Thailand where we didn't feel we were getting ripped off!
Once there we wandered up and down for 10 minutes before settling on a nice place that was basic and cheap (THB350/night - NZ$14, GBP5).
Once there we walked to the beach - which took all of 20 seconds. We went for a swim in the beautiful warm water and then cooled off with a beer and a pad thai on table and chairs on the sand. We really felt like we were on holiday now!
That night we went exploring around the small town of Lamai going to a few of the bars and exploring the night markets.
The next day was really lazy and we loved it, a bit of beach, swimming, exploring, eating, reading and more swimming. We really like it here.
The following day was more active; we hired scooters for THB180 each (NZ$7, GBP2.50!) and circumnavigated the whole island. Our navigation skills were not the best so it took us 3 hours to travel the first 10km, but it got better from there on in.
We went to see the other big resort, Chaweng, the Big Buddha and Na Thon, the capital of the island.
The highlight of the day was going to the waterfall at Na Muang (apart from Lianne falling off the rocks). We went for a swim under the waterfall and then the elephants came up the river to be washed by their keepers (there are elephant tours run from the same area). When we came to leave we jumped on our scooters but watched as the elephants were all paraded down the road back to where they are kept overnight. This looked amazing and we took plenty of photographs as they paraded by. We loved it until we realised that they were going down the same road that we were about to go down. We now had the enviable task of overtaking elephants on our scooters on a very narrow road.
If you ever have to do this yourself here are our top tips for elephant overtaking:
- Go slow, do not rev your engine
- Give them plenty of room as their huge trunks and tusks swing about a bit
- Do not make eye contact!
- Treat them as if you were overtaking a rider on horseback, but with much greater respect for their nose and teeth
Lianne said that she has never been so scared! It was so cool we hardly noticed overtaking the water buffalo 5 minutes later!
The next morning we packed up our stuff and headed of to Koh Pangan but with very fond memories of Koh Samui.
Once there we wandered up and down for 10 minutes before settling on a nice place that was basic and cheap (THB350/night - NZ$14, GBP5).
Once there we walked to the beach - which took all of 20 seconds. We went for a swim in the beautiful warm water and then cooled off with a beer and a pad thai on table and chairs on the sand. We really felt like we were on holiday now!
That night we went exploring around the small town of Lamai going to a few of the bars and exploring the night markets.
The next day was really lazy and we loved it, a bit of beach, swimming, exploring, eating, reading and more swimming. We really like it here.
The following day was more active; we hired scooters for THB180 each (NZ$7, GBP2.50!) and circumnavigated the whole island. Our navigation skills were not the best so it took us 3 hours to travel the first 10km, but it got better from there on in.
We went to see the other big resort, Chaweng, the Big Buddha and Na Thon, the capital of the island.
The highlight of the day was going to the waterfall at Na Muang (apart from Lianne falling off the rocks). We went for a swim under the waterfall and then the elephants came up the river to be washed by their keepers (there are elephant tours run from the same area). When we came to leave we jumped on our scooters but watched as the elephants were all paraded down the road back to where they are kept overnight. This looked amazing and we took plenty of photographs as they paraded by. We loved it until we realised that they were going down the same road that we were about to go down. We now had the enviable task of overtaking elephants on our scooters on a very narrow road.
If you ever have to do this yourself here are our top tips for elephant overtaking:
- Go slow, do not rev your engine
- Give them plenty of room as their huge trunks and tusks swing about a bit
- Do not make eye contact!
- Treat them as if you were overtaking a rider on horseback, but with much greater respect for their nose and teeth
Lianne said that she has never been so scared! It was so cool we hardly noticed overtaking the water buffalo 5 minutes later!
The next morning we packed up our stuff and headed of to Koh Pangan but with very fond memories of Koh Samui.
Surat Thani
We figured out what happens with the trains now. You get on and all the seats are as per usual then at about 9 o'clock a man comes around and turns them into beds. This was good as we didn't have to try and sleep from about 2:30pm (although Lianne still did!).
The train got to Surat Thani (the stopping off point for Koh Samui) at about 12 midnight. It was all a bit stressful as the train station is in the middle of nowhere and the only people at the station were sleazy looking "taxi" drivers. We were the only foreigners who got off the train at that station as well, which worried us a little too. The taxi driver "recommended" a hotel and we knew we were going to get ripped off. We suggested another, cheaper one, and he took us there but they just said "no" when we asked if there were any rooms - we don't think round eyes were welcome at that place! We ended up at the hotel he originally suggested which was a little bit more than we wanted to spend but still not expensive.
In the morning we got up and explored Surat Thani a little - there's not much there at all. We then set off for the pier to catch the ferry to Koh Samui. After a couple of abortive attempts to catch a bus and a taxi there we ended up going back to our hotel and getting them to sort it out for us. We were trying to be really budget but we were just making hard work for ourselves! We've learnt to just pay the extra 100Bhat and make it all nice and easy.
From there on in it became nice and easy, if typically chaotic in a typical Thai way. Minibus to bus station to another minibus, no wait, get off that one and on to another one, drive real fast to the pier then wait around then onto the ferry. 2 1/2 hours later we arrived at Koh Samui.
The train got to Surat Thani (the stopping off point for Koh Samui) at about 12 midnight. It was all a bit stressful as the train station is in the middle of nowhere and the only people at the station were sleazy looking "taxi" drivers. We were the only foreigners who got off the train at that station as well, which worried us a little too. The taxi driver "recommended" a hotel and we knew we were going to get ripped off. We suggested another, cheaper one, and he took us there but they just said "no" when we asked if there were any rooms - we don't think round eyes were welcome at that place! We ended up at the hotel he originally suggested which was a little bit more than we wanted to spend but still not expensive.
In the morning we got up and explored Surat Thani a little - there's not much there at all. We then set off for the pier to catch the ferry to Koh Samui. After a couple of abortive attempts to catch a bus and a taxi there we ended up going back to our hotel and getting them to sort it out for us. We were trying to be really budget but we were just making hard work for ourselves! We've learnt to just pay the extra 100Bhat and make it all nice and easy.
From there on in it became nice and easy, if typically chaotic in a typical Thai way. Minibus to bus station to another minibus, no wait, get off that one and on to another one, drive real fast to the pier then wait around then onto the ferry. 2 1/2 hours later we arrived at Koh Samui.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Penang
We spent a a couple more days in KL with nothing much to note other than finally making it up the Petronas Twin Towers (not to the top, just to the bridge between the two, which is still pretty cool).
On Wednesday night we caught the night train from Kl to Butterworth, we had a sleeper bed which was actually quite comfortable and doubled as a night's accomodation not bad for RM38 (NZ$15, GBP 6).
Butterworth is on the mainland and it's a short ferry journey across to Penang island and it's main city of Georgetown. It is, apparently, Malaysia's second largest city, however it is a world away from KL. Where KL has a shiny new subway system to get you around, Georgetown has rickety buses, none of which seem to be less than 30 years old.
There's not much to do here but we did take a trip out to Kek Lok Si temple which was very impressive, although incredibly commercialised. In order to get to the temple you have to walk past dozens of stalls selling knocked off Harry Potter T-shirts and Beckham tops.
We stayed in a very budget hostel and we leave today for Ko Samui which we are both quite excited about as it will be our first proper beach part to the holiday. Bit nervous about how we are going to get there as we are catching a train that leaves at 2:20pm and arrives into Surat Thani at 11:30pm ish and the last boat to Ko Samui leaves at 11pm. We'll figure it out.
Oddly the train we are catching is a sleeper, even though we leave in the middle of the afternoon. I'll let you know what the go is with that in the next blog.
On Wednesday night we caught the night train from Kl to Butterworth, we had a sleeper bed which was actually quite comfortable and doubled as a night's accomodation not bad for RM38 (NZ$15, GBP 6).
Butterworth is on the mainland and it's a short ferry journey across to Penang island and it's main city of Georgetown. It is, apparently, Malaysia's second largest city, however it is a world away from KL. Where KL has a shiny new subway system to get you around, Georgetown has rickety buses, none of which seem to be less than 30 years old.
There's not much to do here but we did take a trip out to Kek Lok Si temple which was very impressive, although incredibly commercialised. In order to get to the temple you have to walk past dozens of stalls selling knocked off Harry Potter T-shirts and Beckham tops.
We stayed in a very budget hostel and we leave today for Ko Samui which we are both quite excited about as it will be our first proper beach part to the holiday. Bit nervous about how we are going to get there as we are catching a train that leaves at 2:20pm and arrives into Surat Thani at 11:30pm ish and the last boat to Ko Samui leaves at 11pm. We'll figure it out.
Oddly the train we are catching is a sleeper, even though we leave in the middle of the afternoon. I'll let you know what the go is with that in the next blog.
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