Relaxing in Phuket

Last Monday I left Hua Hin on the Special Express Diesel Rail Car N° 43 to Surat Thani, where I planned to take a bus to Phuket.  The Special Express DRC is the fastest and most luxurious train of the Thai Railways, though it is not a first class train, but a fully second class train (so no third class either).  The train itself is old and used, but the on-board service is the best.  Upon entering the train at Hua Hin, a very friendly attendant was waiting at the door to check if I boarded the right coach.  After boarding and taking my seat, she gave me a tray with a light meal and water.  The seats on the train are reclining seats and all facing the direction of travel.  You would think that in the other direction you would be traveling backwards, but the seats can conveniently be turned around.  The train reaches speeds of up to 120 kph, which is the highest allowed speed on the Thai rail network and can only be reached by this kind of trains.  And above all it was quite punctual to Thai standards, as we arrived in Surat Thani at 17.30, which was only 45 minutes late.

The delay made me miss the last bus to Patong though, so I had two options: spend the night in Surat Thani (or rather Phun Phin, as the station of Surat Thani is actually located 17km out of the city), or take a taxi to Patong.  I decided to go for the second option and found a taxi stand next to the station.  Prices could not be bargained as they were fixed by the local government and clearly indicated.  The price for a taxi to Patong Beach was 4000 baht, which is around 120 euro, quite expensive for a distance of 250km, knowing that the same distance elsewhere in Thailand would only cost 2000-3000 baht.  But as I was really eager on arriving in Patong that evening, I decided to use this taxi service.  The driver was of course very happy to be asked to drive this long distance.  He was so happy he picked up his sons to take them to Patong with him.  Initially I didn’t really understand what was going on, so I thought I was on a shared taxi, which would lower the price for me.  Once at my hotel in Patong I wanted to pay the driver 1500 baht, which would be more then enough for my share.  He told me to pay 4000 baht though.  I told him, that if the taxi is shared, the price is shared too.  Then he said the other passengers were his sons.  I understood the situation and payed the agreed price of 4000 baht, though I clearly told him that if I have to pay for an overpriced taxi myself, I expect to have the car to myself and no one else.  He apologized with the typical Thai smile and left.

My hotel in Patong (Bel Aire resort) was really nice for the price I paid.  It consisted of 3 buildings around a street with a lot of bars (and noise).  On top of each building there was a jacuzzi, though there was only 1 of them in use.  The room had a classic Thai interior with wooden ceilings and wooden furniture which were beautifully carved.  I really enjoyed my stay at this hotel and I did an excursion…

To James Bond Island (or Khao Phing Kan).  The excursion consisted of a full day program visiting the National Park of Phang Nga by longtail boat and by canoe, lunch at a muslim village built in the water and going to see the monkeys at “monkey cave”.  I got picked up at my hotel around 9am and the van drove me to a pier to embark the longtail boat which would take me around some beautiful islands in the park and to a pontoon where I was to embark a canoe showing me around the sea caves.  It was astonishing how beautiful this area is.  After the canoe trip, the longtail boat brought me to James Bond Island.

In fact, it is not the island of James Bond, but it’s the island of Fransisco Scaramanga, better known as the Man with the Golden Gun (the villain from the movie with the same name).  I found this part of the excursion a bit disappointing, as there were far too many tourists on the tiny island and in the movie it seemed much more peaceful.  We then went on to Ko Panyi, a village on the water, which is a strict muslim village.  Therefor everyone on the boat was asked to leave all pork products and all alcohol on the boat, as these were strictly forbidden in the village by local law.  We all got a halal lunch there, which to me tasted like normal Thai food.  I then used the spare time to discover the village a bit.  Of course it’s some kind of tourist trap, as all excursion boats stop at this village to have lunch and thus it is packed with souvenir stands.  Arriving there, I did see a mosque at the centre of the village, which I wanted to see, so I looked for it.  I found it, but didn’t go in, as it was just praying time.

The boat then left the village and brought us back to the main land, underway we got surprised by a storm, but still our captain managed to get us safely into port.  I quickly boarded the van which then brought me to the monkey cave.  In fact, it’s not a monkey cave, as the monkeys play around in front of the cave and are not allowed inside.  The cave itself is a place of worship with some nice Buddha statues.

When I finished playing with the monkeys and conveniently giving them all the names of the people I miss so much back home, the van brought me back to the hotel.  The next few days I continued enjoying the beach, tanning, swimming, eating, drinking, massages and going out.

This afternoon I left Patong by van, bringing me to Surat Thani station.  There I was booked on the International Special Express sleeper train to Bangkok, where I will stay for about one week.  I had to wait about 6 hours at the station of Surat Thani as the van arrived far too early compared to the departure time of the train, but luckily there was a nice evening market nearby, where I got some delicious street food.  The train was delayed for more than an hour, so I wanted to spend this time getting a foot massage, but I couldn't find any massage places near the station.  I was happy when the train finally arrived at the station, so I could lie down and sleep.

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.