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.
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