Thursday November 30th

Happy Birthday Morag!

And Happy St Andrews Day to all.

Time to see if all the stories about the overland trip to Bangkok are true! We have booked a bus ticket all the way but reports suggest that this will not be the plain sailing implied by what the sellers tell us. We're picked up by taxi a little later than the 7am claimed start and dropped on the edge of town with a big crowd... at least there is safety in numbers. And there we wait... and wait, while the apparent organizer talks animatedly on his cell phone. Finally a bus arrives, but it's mostly full and only takes a few of those who have booked to the border (one way to do the journey is to make your own way by tuk-tuk from the border to the Thai bus station and on that way).

Then another bus arrives... again for most of the rest of the border travelers. Finally an old 18 seater rolls up for us... no A/C, hard seats... and two girls who came to Siem Reap aboard the same jalopy inform us that it broke down twice en route! Can anyone say “memories of Malawi”: this is more what we were used to living there in the early 90's when we were younger and tougher.

Initially the road is OK, then it becomes pot-holed pavement/ tarmac and finally dusty dirt. However for all the bumps and dust it is the dry season and it has been graded (flattened out and fixed) somewhat since the stories we heard from October when vehicles were towed across washed out areas... It's really the dust that provides the hardest to put up with for 6 hours and by the time we get to Poipet it fills every wrinkle and pore. Here we board a nice bus... but only for the mile to the border post where we check out of Cambodia and walk over into Thailand. This involves crossing the road too, Thailand drives on the left (Cambodia on the right in theory) and we have to walk in on the left. Is this the only land border outside Africa where the road priority changes? I can't think of any other places where countries driving on the left are not islands. New Guinea maybe?

Once over the border we have another long wait but at least there's ATM machines to fill up with Baht, a cafe and a store to buy snacks (which the Thai's do rather well). Then our bus arrives and lo and behold, a nice double decker like we had at the Interhash with lots of space for the bags. We grab space down in the VIP section (that's what they call the lower floor) and what proves to be the really easy part of the journey commences. There is not much to see along this road in Eastern Thailand but it's a fine highway and we're in Bangkok in less than 3½ hours!

While we are supposed to be dropped downtown in the Backpacker area the bus terminates at a travel agent shop I know not where. We grab the bags and one of the employees hails us a taxi (of which Bangkok has no shortage), explaining that they could not get all the way due to preparations for the King's birthday holiday on Tuesday (he's been on the throne 60 years so it's a big deal). We don't care as we've booked a place out of the center recommended by our friend Mike Burgess (who introduced us to the local Peace Corps group in Albany just before he moved out here) and the cab finally finds our hotel despite a few communication difficulties.

The Niran Grand is a big place if slightly run down, but meets our needs well. First up there is lots of hot water at high enough pressure to hose off the dust layers, then the restaurant is open late and we are able to get some food before a well earned rest. In Malawi we would have thought the journey acceptable if not easy... these days we'll avaoid repeating it for a while!