The Amazing Cambodian Adventure

My last blog post wasn’t so positive on Cambodia, but in the passed few days certain events have happened, that changed my mind completely.  After my first night in Siem Reap the scammers tuk-tuk driver arrived on time at my hotel at 9am.  He brought me straight to the ticket office of Angkor and told me I could buy my ticket there.  I knew my entry fee wasn’t included in the overpriced tuk-tuk deal, but still I tried to scam the scammers and I partially succeeded: as we arrived at the ticket office, I told the driver I “was promised” that the ticket was included in the price.  He then discussed it a bit with me, called his boss and drove me to the restaurant they call their office.  After some discussion between me and his boss, his boss gave him 20 USD to pay a ticket for that day and told me that the next day he would give him the money for another ticket.  I agreed and off we went back to Angkor.  On the way the driver started complaining about how hot it was and asked me if I would mind doing the tour on the back of his motorbike.  Of course I didn’t mind.  We went to his place, left the tuk-tuk behind and took his motorbike.  And thus I visited Angkor on the back of a motorbike.

The first day we did the small tour, visiting the main Angkor Wat temple, as well as Angkor Thom, Bayon, Ta Keo and Ta Prohm.  I must say, I was impressed, I was speechless, I have never visited such a mysterious, mythical place.  It must have been the most unique place I’ve ever seen in my life.  Seeing those buildings made me proud of being human, for it is us humans who build these huge temples.  You could say that it’s just a bunch of rocks piled up and partially collapsed in the middle of the jungle, and you would be right.  But you could also say that these are the remnants of a very advanced civilization, building the base of modern Asian society.  Also, seeing how nature got a hand at these temples, with trees growing on and over them, made me realize that nature is the biggest power on earth and will always conquer.  Angkor is a place everyone should visit.  It is one of those things you must have seen at least once in your life.

After the small tour the driver told me he got a phone call from his boss, asking him to bring me to his office again.  So he brought me there and the guy who sold me the trip the day before discussed the deal with me again and told me to repay the 20 USD for the ticket they gave that morning.  Of course I was serious on scamming the scammers and thus I said that he did tell me that the entry fee was included.  The obvious 'I never said that; yes you did'-discussion took place, and he threatened not to send a driver for the next day, of course I then threatened back that I would go to the tourist police in that case.  In the end the discussion stopped without a clear solution and the driver brought me back to my hotel.

In the evening I went out to some local restaurant where I met Pilu, an official Angkor guide (which at that time I didn’t know he was).  We had a great dinner together and I enjoyed Khmer cuisine.  I had a dish with beef, long beans, green peppers, garlic and chilis, which was really good, but Pilu had cha chu am trey, which is a fried fish dish served under sweet and sour sauce with lots of fruits and vegetables in it, which was even much better than my dish.  After dinner Pilu showed me the evening market for locals, which was really nice.  People were pick-nicking at the side of the road, food and merchandises were really cheap and it was a really big market.  It was a bit out of town though, and I’m not blogging the exact location, as I wouldn’t want that too many tourists find their way to this place, which will only result in prices rising there, with severe consequences on the local population.  After that I got back to my hotel to catch some sleep.

The next day (Wednesday) I got up at 8.30am as the driver would pick me up at 9.15.  At 9.15 he wasn’t there.  I got a little bit worried…  At 9.20 he wasn’t there yet, a little bit more worried.  At 9.30 no driver in sight, I got suspicious.  And at 9.40 I decided to walk towards the restaurant they call their office.  As I left the street of my hotel, the guy just arrived and I was relieved.  The first thing he said though, was that he was late, because his boss didn’t want to pay 20 USD for my second day entrance ticket.  I decided not to make a fuzz, because I already succeeded in scamming the scammers the day before, and I told him I would pay my ticket myself that day.  Thus we headed back to Angkor for the big tour.  I visited Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, Mebon and Pre Rup.  To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the second day trip, as the first temple I visited on the first day was the most impressive one, making all other temples just look like a pile of collapsed rocks.  Maybe it would’ve been better to start with the big tour and build up the next day with the small tour, ending at Angkor Wat main temple.  Anyway, I did the walks and made the photos.

After Angkor the driver showed me a temple which commemorates the thousands of lives lost during the Pol Pot regime in the 70s.  There was also a small museum with paintings depicting the torture the Cambodians had to undergo during that period.  After my visit there, the driver took me back to my hotel.  Around 2pm I was already back there, so I decided to book my busticket back to Bangkok (only 10 USD) and I spend some time looking for a school, where a friend of mine wanted me to take some photos and check out the atmosphere.  I didn’t find it though and ended up making a nice walk around Siem Reap, along the riverside.  In the evening I met Pilu again and he ‘outed’ himself as an Angkor tour guide as we were getting further acquainted.  He told me some facts about Angkor and at that moment I regretted not having had a guide during my visit.  I saw lots of things at Angkor, but I didn’t always know what they were.

My last full day in Siem Reap, I didn’t really know what to do.  So I decided to rent a tuk-tuk for the whole day, for a fair price (15 USD).  I went on the street and found Sopha, a very motivated tuk-tuk driver who is 22 years old.  His first reaction was: “do you wanna see the temples?”.  I responded that I wanted to see the city and that I wanted to find that school for my friend.  Thus we started looking for the school, which again we didn’t find.  Then he asked me what I wanted to see.  I told him to show me his favorite places in Siem Reap, the places that made him proud of his city.  And was I out for a surprise!  First thing where we went, was a lotus flower field.  This may sound a bit dull, but in fact it was really beautiful and very unexpected.  We then went on to a small Buddhist temple on the outskirts of the city.  On the way he bought me sugar palm juice, a sweet but delicious drink.  When we got to the temple, the monks were surprised seeing a tourist visiting them.

After the temple we went to the day market (for locals), which was at that time already closing, but still I got the idea.  We ended the trip by visiting the war museum.  I don’t really like guns and tanks, but the guide was really good.  He told us the entire war history of Cambodia.  Of course everybody knows about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the 70s, but since 1969 until 1999 Cambodia has been almost non-stop at war.  First with the Khmer Rouge, then with Vietnam, then a civil war between the political factions and then in the 90s, after a peace treaty under influence of the UN, a guerrilla war started, which lasted until 1999, when the Khmer Rouge was finally disbanded.

Sopha then brought me back to my hotel and I invited him to have a drink with me in the evening.  He told me he would be back later to have some drinks.  At 7pm he picked me up at my hotel and we went to a local bar, where we met 2 of his friends / colleagues.  I talked with them about their job an apparently they are very satisfied.  They asked me about my job and they noticed that I am also very satisfied.  We had a couple of beers and then I had to go, as I was meeting Pilu too for my last evening in Cambodia.

On Friday morning my bus picked me up at my hotel and brought me to the border at Poipet.  Of etcourse the bus stopped en route at some overpriced food and drink stands.  Most of the passengers didn’t go for the scam and had enough food and drinks on them to last all day.  When we got to the border, things went really fast as there were almost no queues.  I got my departure stamp at the Cambodian side, filled out a Thai immigration form and got my arrival stamp at the Thai side in less then one hour.  The only bad thing that day, was that the Thai stamp in my passport.  At a land border it is only valid for 15 days, instead of the 30 days you get at international airports.  Anyway, there are ways to get it extended.  At the Thai side the bus group got split up, as everybody had other destinations.  Passengers for Bangkok were being seated in a mini-van.  Underway we had to quickly change vans though, as the airco wasn’t working in our original van.  We got to Bangkok after dusk, as we were caught up in traffic.

I expected the van to arrive at Mo Chit bus station or at Victory Monument, but it arrived in the area of the Democracy Monument, which was really far away from public transportation and also from my hotel at Si Lom road.  I decided to take a taxi, who brought me to my hotel in a flash.  I was really relieved to finally be able to take a shower after all day in a bus and van.  I then went to my favorite bar, the Balcony pub, to have a jug of cosmopolitan and dinner.  After food and drinks, I had a foot massage.  During the foot massage the masseur convinced me to take a Thai massage as well.  When all my bones were cracked, I headed back to the hotel to catch some sleep.

This morning I woke up really late.  I wanted to catch the 1pm train to Hua Hin, but I also wanted to go to Wat Saket (the golden mount) again.  So I cleared my room, left my stuff at the reception and took a taxi to go to Democracy Monument, where I would meet up with my friend Ken to go to Wat Saket together.  The taxi took an eternity as Bangkok traffic was jammed as usual.  When we got to Wat Saket I was quite surprised to see a ticket booth there.  Since some time now tourists need to pay an entry fee of 20 baht.  After taking some reflection time on the top, I said goodbye to Ken and took a taxi back to the hotel and then onwards to Hua Lamphong station, where I had just a few minutes left to buy a train ticket to Hua Hin and catch the 14.45 special express n° 35 to Butterworth (Malaysia).

I asked for a second class seat, but the lady at the ticket window told me there were only sleeping cars in that train.  Of course a bed has a higher price.  She told me that on the next train, the 15.10 special express n° 37, there were coaches with seats available in 3rd and 2nd class.  But that train would leave 25 minutes later.  So I decided to pay the bed fee for the first train.  The ticket was about 600 baht.  I got to the platform and saw that the train wasn’t there yet (though the later train was already waiting at the opposite track).  To make a long story short: my train was delayed and we ended up leaving 20 minutes after the later train (with a delay of 45 minutes).  Thus I paid about 300 baht too much for a bed I didn’t use and for a earlier train, which arrived later.  Let’s just call it international railway staff support for the Thai railways.  En route the train was delayed even more and I got to Hua Hin about 65 minutes late.

My father, Kanya and Kai-Mook were already waiting for me as we agreed to have dinner together.  We ate and when I finally got to my hotel in Hua Hin, which this time is hotel Giulietta e Romeo, I was happy to close the door of my room and write this post.

Cambodia... Same same but different or just a wanna-be Thailand?

Ok, now it’s time to stop posting drunk stories and start the serious travel stories.  Yesterday I finally left Hua Hin.  For the first time I made the choice to travel by (third class) train instead of mini-van or bus between Hua Hin and Bangkok.  The train is a much slower option and took an eternal 5 hours to do the entire journey, whereas the bus or mini-vans do it in maximum 4 hours, mostly even in only just over 3 hours.  The train is also the less comfortable option, as on the service I took there is only third class with hard wooden benches and no airconditioning.  But on the other hand, the train is really cheap compared to the other means of transport, it has fans on the ceiling (to compensate the lack of airconditioning) and it still is my job and passion too.

Thus at 14.10 I boarded the ‘ordinary train’ from Hua Hin to Bangkok.  As we were slowly passing through the Thai country side, I opened the GPS app of my iPhone to check the maximum speed.  The train didn’t go over 90kph and it stopped at all stations.  During our stops I could see how monkeys crossed the tracks and couldn’t stop thinking: “you should really be a monkey to walk over the tracks.”  I then noticed that there are no passageways for passengers either, thus everybody (not only the monkeys) crossed the tracks as they got in or out of the train.

I followed the train route on google maps and I noticed that the train did make a quite big detour to get into Bangkok, hence the reason why it takes so much longer.  As soon as we entered the Bangkok suburbs, the railway line was surrounded by 1 huge construction site for the future high speed line.  Well… high as in built entirely on a bridge and speed as in 160kph.

As the train continued on the final stretches to Bangkok Hua Lamphong station, it started to stop very frequently in the middle of the tracks.  Apparently the busy Bangkok traffic isn’t made for level crossings and thus the train had to wait each time for the traffic to clear before traversing the level crossing.  At 19h05 we arrived at Hua Lamphong with a mere 5 minute delay.

I quickly left the station and crossed the pedestrian bridge to get to my hotel, the Krung Krasem Srikrung Hotel.  I’ve never had such a dodgy hotel!  Ok, I admit, it was cheap, really cheap.  But when I entered the room the first thing I thought was: “I should’ve brought my own sheets and towels.”  At least it had a working airconditioning system (which my hut in Hua Hin didn't have).  And I was tired, so I quickly got something to eat in the streets of Bangkok and then tried to sleep on the hard matras.  (Or was it a wooden board?)

The bed was so bad that I couldn’t sleep and I ended up staying awake all night long.  At 04.45 in the morning my alarm started buzzing.  I got up, took a shower in the dirty bathroom, packed my stuff, went back to the station, bought a ticket (third class again) and boarded the 05.55 train to Aranyaprathet, near the Thai-Cambodian border.  The train was bound to arrive at Aranyaprathet at 11.35, but we only got there at 13.05 as the train was delayed due to the upgrade works they are doing on the line.  Apparently they are upgrading the line to start a lightrail service between Poipet (just over the border in Cambodia) and Bangkok.

Once we got to Aranyaprathet I took a motorbike taxi to the border post.  On the Thai side everything went really fast.  There wasn’t even a long queue.  The Cambodian side was kind of a challenge, but in the end everything went fluent as well.  Everywhere there were these official-looking guys wanting to help me for some money, whom I completely ignored.  I followed the signs and got to the visa office first to pay for my visa.  I had to give some semi-official bribe money as I didn’t have a passport-sized photo on me.

After I got my visa I continued to the immigration office to get my passport and visa stamped.  Another unofficial official-looking guy was handing out arrival cards.  Out of reflex I refused, until I saw that there were no forms in the holders anymore and this guy had them all.  So I asked him a form, which he only wanted to give me in exchange for money.  I refused and just queued up.  Luckily the Japanese guys in front of me didn’t get an arrival card either and got one from the immigration officer.  I politely asked one too and filled it out.  By the time I got to his window, I was ready filling it out.  Immigration felt just like starting up my new iPhone 5S for the first time: it went smooth, fast, efficient and my fingerprints got scanned.  The entire border passage from the Thai side to the Cambodian side only took 1 hour in total.

Now everything was in order to enter Cambodia.  I passed all the Poipet casino’s and got to a roundabout where there was a free shuttle bus waiting to go to the Poipet International Tourist Bus Terminal.  All blogs, websites and travel guides warned me for this free shuttle bus scam, so I ignored it and just walked down the road to find me a taxi or a bus to go to Siem Reap.  All busses left in the morning, so the only option left was to take a taxi.  The two hour taxi ride costed me 35 USD, which is a good price, as the taxi wasn’t shared with anyone else.  I clearly asked the driver to drop me off at my hotel, on which he agreed.

My first impression of Cambodia was that it was quite the same as Thailand, except that here they drive on the right hand side of the street.  Roads are as dangerous as in Thailand, maybe even a bit more dangerous.  My taxi driver took some incredible risks and I’m still not sure whether I survived or died in that car, but since I’m writing my blog now, I presume it’s the first one.  Upon entering the city of Siem Reap, he dropped me off at a place which was certainly not my hotel and told me that a tuk-tuk would bring me to my final point.  I got out of the taxi, took my backpack and boarded a tuk-tuk.  Then this irritating vendor came to sell me an overpriced trip through the Angkor Wat ruins.  The trip would be 70USD for 2 days, whereas my Rough Guide spoke of a maximum of 15USD per day.  I told the guy I just wanted to get to my hotel and nothing else.  He told me to get off of the tuk-tuk and wait 20 minutes for them to leave.  I couldn’t believe what was happening.  They made me wait in the scorching sun as I didn’t want to accept their overpriced offer.

Since I was really getting impatient to get to my hotel, I signed his stupid voucher for the 70USD trip through Angkor Wat.  All of a sudden the tuk-tuk could leave immediately and they even stopped at an ATM for me so I could get the money to pay for their scam.  As I only got 100USD bills from the ATM, the scam guy didn’t have change and so he asked me if he could keep the 30USD as a tip.  I laughed and said that he already costed me enough, so he asked the tuk-tuk driver to give me my 30USD change.  By the way: US Dollars are really ugly bills!  At 17.00 I finally arrived at my hotel and the tuk-tuk driver tried to negotiate a price for the trip he gave me, though when I got on his tuk-tuk he said it was included in the price I paid for the taxi.  In the end I didn’t pay and he didn’t ask me for anymore money.  As I got into my room I jumped under the shower and then I made a walk through the city to find something to eat.

My hotel, the Golden Papaya Guesthouse, has got a really good central location.  I’m at a 5 minute walk from Pubstreet (a tourist trap area), which has lots of restaurants and bars.  I had dinner there and wasn’t really convinced of the Khmer cuisine.  My starter and soup could use some spices, whereas my main course was quite okay.  Thai food still is better.  There were a lot of Cambodian barbecue places, but in reality this is just the same thing as Thai barbecue (same same but different they would say here).  My first general impressions of Cambodia and Siem Reap are rather negative and I keep on having a negative feeling about the tuk-tuk scam.  I feel like vendors are really more aggressive in their ways here in Cambodia compared to Thailand.  Anyway, I hope my feelings change during my overpriced 2-day discovery of Angkor Wat by tuk-tuk, otherwise I'll be counting down to Friday, when I'm traveling back to Thailand.

The wedding crasher

Just to warn you, this blog post contains some gory details.  The last few days have been quite heavy, with yesterday night being the heaviest.  I’ve passed some personal borders as I ate chicken feet (in a spicy soup), oysters (which I’ve never tried before) and I saw a corpse lying next to the street.

Obviously all this (except the corpse) happened under influence of my friends Tam and Mo here in Hua Hin.  The first night I met them again after not seeing them for a few months, we went out and kept it quite decent, though the evening ended very late.  We started off by having one cocktail in a bar near to the bar where Tam used to work, as we were awaiting Mo who was about to finish his shift at that bar.  We jumped on Tam’s motorbike and had some drinks in a ladyboy bar which has the exotic name ‘Suky 2’.  There we started drinking San Miguel light beer.  I now know that the ‘light’ doesn’t mean that the beer is low on calories, but just that your head feels light after having some of them.  We then went to a discotheque called ‘Hua Hin Beer Brewing Company’, but it wasn’t good enough there so I vaguely remember going to another discotheque.  And of course we had some more beers.

At 2am the discotheque closed under curfew rules instated by the military government.  We then went for some noodle soup at a stand on the side of the road (which was still opened).  What to do when all bars are closed?  Well… when you know people, you KNOW people and doors are opened.  Thus we went back to Suky 2, were visibly the party ended, but in fact it was still going on behind the doors.  Some more beers later I saw on my watch it was already 7am and this fact was confirmed when I looked out of the door and noticed that the sun was already shining.  To finish we had another dinner (spicy chicken feet soup and oysters) at some dodgy restaurant.  At 8am I said goodbye to my friends and started wandering the streets of Hua Hin to get back to my hotel, where I finally saw my bed at 9am.

As now you should understand how my friends are, I will start writing about yesterday night, as I crashed into a wedding party they were at (something I would usually not do, but circumstances decided otherwise).  The evening started with my father calling off our daily dinner date, because his wife didn’t feel very well.  I decided to have a quiet evening then, go for a massage, pedicure and manicure and then have some light dinner in Hua Hin city center.  I walked to the city center and entered a massage parlor, where I had my nails and feet done and got a wonderful shoulder- neck- and back-massage.  I then walked around the small streets with bars and restaurants looking for the right place to have dinner.  Unknowingly I passed Suky 2 bar and all of a sudden I heard some guys screaming my name.  These guys were Tam and Mo, whom I thought to be at a wedding that night.  Apparently the wedding party was going on in Suky 2 bar, so I joined them for one beer.  They were there with a French guy and his Thai girlfriend and the married couple was a Dutch guy with a Thai lady.  A real lady.  So I want to stress again that I joined them for just ONE beer.  During that first beer, they started offering shots of tequila to everyone.  I was kind of obliged to participate.  When my first beer was finished I probably already had about 4 shots of tequila, Jägermeister and some pink liquor.  By that time, the second beer was already ordered, without my consent.  Anyhow, halfway that second beer I felt really sick as I hadn’t eaten at all that night.  So I left the bar and sat down on the corner of the street to cool down a bit.

My friends quickly joined me with a cold wet towel and some water just to make sure I was alright.  I took a small sip of water… and then all the booze I had that night came out the same way it went in, but probably just a bit faster.  Next thing I remember I was on a motorbiketaxi back to my hotel, where this morning I woke up feeling really sick.

I stayed in bed all day and just went out to the 7-11 to get some cold drinks.  While I was walking there, avoiding all cars on the roads, I noticed how dangerous Thai roads can really be.  A dog was hit by a car, his eyeball popped out of its skull and obviously the poor animal was dead.  And even though it was a street dog, the Thai people working at a nearby shop gave the beast a decent funeral as they were digging a hole and wrapping it in big empty rice bags.  This really illustrated to me how Thai people think about the circle of life and death.  And now back to the real world and try to get rid of this headache, while wondering how it can be that those small thin Thai guys can drink that much without having a hangover!

Sunshine and happiness

So last Tuesday I arrived safely in Hua Hin.  I was so happy to see my father, his wife Kanya and her daughter Kai-Mook again.  Once I got to the hotel, I immediately unpacked the stuff I smuggled in for them (5kg Nutella, some chocolate, a bottle of Laphroaig and 1kg of chicory).  My back was relieved as my backpack was all of a sudden almost empty.  The hotel I’m staying at (Korawan Garden Resort) is really wonderful, but as images speak more than words, I will not write about it, but show some photos:

In the last few days I’ve been here, I didn’t really do a lot, except from relaxing, tanning, swimming, going out with my local friends, … Oh yeah, and yesterday I cooked!  I made chicory in the oven with ham and cheese sauce and mashed potatoes, a typical Belgian dish.  We had a hard time finding nutmeg, we had to visit 2 stores before we found it and still it was well-hidden in that shop.  Above that I also had a hard time cooking the meal, as my father made some mistakes on what ingredients they had in stock at home, potatoes for example.  But in the end I succeeded in making a well-tasting Belgian dish in Thailand (without the mashed potatoes).

To get to my dad’s place the day before yesterday, I took a local bus, which was almost falling apart as we were driving on the highway.  It was quite an interesting experience, but the fare wasn’t high at all, so I’m not complaining.  The bus driver was very helpful and friendly, though he didn’t really understand where I had to go to.  Maybe I should work on my Thai language a bit more…  In the end he dropped me off at the right place after making 2 stops at wrong places.

I’ve been exploring the surroundings of my hotel too, and discovered a Russian-Orthodox church here, as well as some very poor housing.  Seeing this kind of housing makes you realize Thailand still is a third-world country and it gets your feet back on the ground from all the glitter and glamour in the luxurious hotels and resorts.

Today is my fathers birthday and I arranged with the hotel that we would be eating here and they will be preparing a special menu for us.  I went to a french bakery and bought some delicious-looking eclairs.  I hope their taste is as good as they look.  The next few days I won’t be blogging a lot, as I extended my stay here until the 22nd and I don't want to make you all jealous with my beach and swimming pool stories!  After that I’ll be leaving for Cambodia and Laos, skipping Vietnam as there is really too much to see and visit there, so I decided I’m going to make a dedicated Vietnam trip in the nearby future.

The Hangover: British edition

Yesterday I safely arrived in Bangkok, after two enjoyable, but exhausting flights.  As always the service on Etihad Airways was excellent.  On my Brussels - Abu Dhabi flight I was traveling next to a French guy from Toulouse.  He introduced himself to me as a former police officer of the French police and started talking about himself.  He quit his job because he found it to be too heavy and frustrating and thus he decided to become self-employed.  He also told me quite immediately he had severe sleeping problems due to the things he saw and did in his days as a cop.  As it was a night flight, that wasn’t good news.  The six hours from Brussels to Abu Dhabi he didn’t stop talking about himself, his family and his daughters.  I tried to act as if I was falling asleep, but it didn’t seem to bother him, so he continued rattling on.  When he learned I was single, all of a sudden he started me showing lots and lots of pictures of his daughter.  As the guy was on his way to Phuket, he also asked my advice on… Thai women!  So I made up some story about how to hit on Thai girls and that he has to be careful as the most beautiful Thai women often come with a small package between their legs.  At the end of the flight I felt tired, but it didn’t disturb me that much as I really had a good chat with the guy; I even didn’t have the time to watch a movie on the in-flight entertainment system.

During my 3h50 stopover in Abu Dhabi I bought some tax-free stuff for the folks home and enjoyed the courtesy of the Al Reem Lounge.  As I was really tired, I fell asleep in the lounge and I woke up about 30 minutes before my Abu Dhabi - Bangkok flight was due to depart.  As the lounge was in terminal 2 and my flight was departing from terminal 3, I got a bit stressed.  Luckily there was no queue at security and the terminal transfer went quite fast.  When I got to my gate, there wasn’t anyone queueing anymore, which made me think the gate was already closed.  But when I got to the counter, I saw that the gate was still opened and that boarding was still going on.  When I entered the aircraft, I said to myself that I was definitely not the last one boarding as there were still lots and lots of seats available.  In the end I was the penultimate passenger to board and the aircraft was almost empty, what made that the stewardesses were even friendlier as usual.  I watched Interstellar on the in-flight entertainment system and slept a bit.  I also tested the on-board internet which functions great, though in the end I couldn’t login as I forgot my password (stupid me) and I had to pay a second time.  Luckily T-Hotspot has a great customer service that refunded me my first payment.

When I got to Bangkok Airport everything went really smooth: I passed immigration really quick, my luggage was on the belt when I got at the carroussel and there was an immediate train departure to the city centre.  Thus from the airplane to my hotel in Silom, it took me just over an hour.  I dropped off my luggage at the hotel and went for my first cocktails and first foot massage for this trip.  As always, I went to the Balcony bar.  The waiters were again very happy to see me there.  The first cocktail I had was a cosmopolitan, followed by a mai tai and for dessert I had a margarita.

Whilst drinking my cocktails on the terrace I met 2 crazy girls, Karen and Karen.  Karen 1 was from London in the UK and Karen 2 was from Hasselt in Belgium.  They were ‘celebrating’ Karen 2’s last day on holiday, which was a quite painful fact as she had been traveling for 1 year and a half.  At some point Karen 1 made some drunk vomiting scene.  But everybody in Europe knows that it’s just standard British travel behavior, so we weren’t really surprised by it.  In fact, I had the very social gesture to be a good drinking partner and kept her hair out of the vomit.  In the end Karen 2 had to finish all the alcohol, as Karen 1 couldn’t stand it anymore.  No really, they were 2 really nice girls and as we were blabbing about everything and nothing, another Belgian guy from Brussels joined us.  His name was Koen and he was on his first Thailand trip, which he got from his friends for his birthday.  We had so much fun at the bar that I didn’t go for that foot massage.

Around 2 am I got back at my hotel, after making sure the girls found their way back to their apartment.  This morning I woke up quite early, but I felt really rested, awake and most importantly, I had no hangover!  I got out of bed, made my backpack and went out to find some fresh fruit for breakfast.  I enjoyed the pineapple I bought, together with a cup of tea.  I then took the train back to the airport to catch the 13.30 bus to Hua Hin.  I miscalculated the transfer time from the city to the airport a bit and got to the airport two hours early, so I took the time to eat Tom Yam Kung (sour & spicy prawn soup) there.  I still had more then an hour left after my lunch, so I took a foot massage, as I originally planned to do yesterday evening.  After the foot massage I went to my luxury first class bus and we left for Hua Hin.  I’m currently on that bus and it is packed with old people.  Thanks to me the average passenger age went down with 10 years.  Anyhow, I’m looking forward on seeing my dad, his wife Kanya and her daughter Kai-Mook in a few hours.

The journey has begun

As I am waiting to board my airplane at the Brussels Airlines Lounge at Brussels Airport, I was thinking that it might be a good time to start planning my trip a bit for the upcoming 7 weeks.  For the time being I haven’t made any definite plans except for my first week.

I’ll be arriving around 8pm in Bangkok tomorrow evening, so there will be no more buses running to Hua Hin.  Therefor I will stay in Bangkok for 1 night.  I saw on Facebook that a befriended colleague of mine is there too, so I’ll try to meet her for cocktails in the evening.  The next day around noon I will be taking a bus from the airport to Hua Hin, arriving there around 5pm.

In Hua Hun I found this fantastic hotel called Korawan Garden Resort.  It is in fact not really a hotel, as the rooms are bamboo huts built around the swimming pool.  My father lives nearby, so that is ideal to celebrate his birthday and in the mean time get used to the scorching sun again.  I’ll be staying there for one week, so that’ll be one week of sun, beach, fun, family and food.

So far for the already planned part of the journey.  In great lines I will be traveling onwards to Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat and stay a few days in the capital of Phnom Penh (mainly to apply for a Vietnamese visa).  If I get the visa, I’ll be continuing to Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City), Hoi An and Hanoi.  From there I’ll be going to Laos to visit its capital Vientiane and the beautiful city of Luang Prabang.

Around the 13th of April, which is the beginning of Song Kran or Thai New Year, I want to be back in Thailand, in Chiang Mai in the north to be precise.  I’ll be staying there for a few days and then go somewhere else in the south for another 2 weeks of sea, beach and sun, this might be Phuket, Hua Hin or somewhere else.  The 27th, finally, I should be back in Bangkok, as my flight homebound is leaving that night.  That in great lines is what I’ll be blogging about during the next 2 months.