In order to stay in Thailand for 6 months without a work permit, I obtained a triple-entry tourist visa before I came. This visa allows me to stay in Thailand for up to 60 days at a time, so I must leave and re-enter the country after each of the 60 day periods expire or risk fines and possibly jail. Unfortunately our return tickets to Canada ended up being 5 days after my last 60 day term would expire, assuming I left and re-entered Thailand the same day for both of my visa re-entries. I was left with 2 options: 1) I could pay the immigration office 1900 baht for a 30-day visa extension or 2) I could leave the country for 5 days before re-entering. I chose the latter and planned a low-budget trip to the world famous Angkor Wat at Siam Reap, Cambodia.

I researched my options online and found lots of useful info for getting from Bangkok to Siem Reap overland by bus and taxi. I left my apartment around 4am and found a double-decker bus at nearby Lumphini Park eager to get to the casino’s in Poipet. The bus left at 4:20am and made a couple quick stops in Bangkok, then went straight to the Market at the Aranyaprathet border getting there around 7:20am. I was asked to pay 200 baht for a one-way journey (or 300 baht return).

The bus brought us right near the border to enter Poipet, Cambodia. Poipet is quite an unwelcoming, dusty town with an unusual contrast of lavish casinos where rich Thai’s come to gamble that are surrounded by very poor Cambodians begging or working, and corrupt officials. I soon found myself at the Cambodia Visa booth and was the only one there; it was now around 7:30am. A tourist visa is required for most forigners visiting Cambodia, and I had been warned that the corrupt officials would demand more than the standard set fee. I filled out a form and handed it to the official at the window with a photo and $20 usd. As expected, he told me the fee is now 1000 baht (or around $34usd). I argued pointing out the sign above the window that clearly says $20 and asked where it says 1000 baht? He replied that the rates have changed and if I insist on paying in US dollars it will be an extra 200 baht. I asked what the extra 200 baht was for and again told him that I think the fee should be only $20 as indicated on the sign. After some more back-and-fourth questioning I was surprised when he eventually admitted that he needed the extra baht for himself! He proceeded to give me a long sob story about how difficult it is to survive in Cambodia where he earns only $30 per month, and how this isn’t enough to pay his expenses, which he started listing off… food, housing, kids, wife, motorcycle, fuel, etc. He then suggested that I could afford at least an extra 100 baht to help him out, and that he would then process my visa very quickly. I told him sorry, I’m only paying $20. He warned me that if I did it could take a very long time to process my visa. I was pretty frustrated by now, and told him I had lots of time and I can wait, so I left the window and sat down in the waiting area. A short time later a young American couple arrived and applied for their Cambodian visas, then sat down behind me. I learned that they had taken the 3:30am bus from the Mo Chit terminal in Bangkok, and they were also on their way to Siem Reap so we agreed to share a taxi. They told me they had just paid $25 each to the same official for their visa applications, obviously they were not happy about this. A couple minutes later another official came up to the three of us and handed back our passports with new Cambodian visas to each of us at the same time. Next the three of us went through Cambodian immigration without any hassles.

As soon we stepped out of the immigration building and entered Poipet we were swarmed by 4 or 5 guys who I assume were taxi mafia touts, and they quickly ushered us onto the free shuttle bus (taxi’s in Poipet are controlled by a Mofia that gets a cut of every fair, and the tout’s will do whatever they can to make sure you don’t get into a non-mafia taxi). We all climbed into the bus, and were then treated to a rehearsed speech from one of the men about how we would soon be taken to the transport depot where we would have the option to choose any taxi or bus we liked. My favourite part of the speech was when he proudly declared, “Cambodia is a free country and you will have the freedom to choose whichever method of transport you like. You all like freedom don’t you?” “Of course” we replied, but I know full well that what he really meant that we were free to choose any taxi as long as it is a mafia-taxi.

They told us it would be a few minutes before the bus would leave, and it didn’t look like we’d be moving anytime soon so I suggested to the American couple that we look for the Ly Huot Hotel which I had heard could discreetly arrange for a much cheaper non-mafia taxi. They agreed so we told the men on the transport bus that we wanted to look around a little instead of waiting for the bus to leave, and we got off the bus. I soon spotted the blue Hotel on the right of the traffic circle, and we were closely followed by the mafia touts as we headed that way. Sure enough, there was a taxi parked right in front of the hotel and the driver motioned for us to hop in as he went aside to ‘talk’ to the men following us (and slip them a few thousand Riel to bugger off). The driver agreed to take us to Siem Reap for $40, so we jumped in the car and started pulling out. As we were leaving the parking lot, the driver was blocked by 2 or 3 police officers, who only moved aside after being paid some Riel by the driver. Finally on the main road, we thought we were home free. The driver stopped in front of a store and honked, prompting a lady to run out with a stamped paper that the driver paid for. A short distance later, another official was waiting for us in the middle of the road and motioned for the taxi to turn off the main road. I realized our driver had been caught, and he was guided into the official transport depot where they made us all get out of the car. Officers escorted the driver away and another official told us that we were in an unlicensed taxi, and we would have to change cars. They asked what price we had agreed to and when we told them $40, we were surprised when they said the new (mafia) taxi would honour the same price. The new taxi stopped at a booth at the exit of the depot to get an official version of the stamped piece of paper that the first driver had paid for, which he would need to give to another officer as we finally exited Poipet. We all felt sorry for our original driver’s misfortunes, but we were happy to finally be out of that deplorable town.

It was close to 9am when we finally left Poipet. Our taxi driver seemed pretty speedy and after reading several reports of the terrible bumpy road to Siem Reap, I thought it wasn’t too bad at all. We seemed to average 80+ km/h most of the way, I suspect the road may have recently been graded. Along the way we passed what I suspect was a broken down Khao San Bus, with a group of sweaty backpackers huddled outside under the shadow of the bus hiding from the mid-day sun. I did not envy them as I dozed off in the front seat of an air-conditioned taxi. We arrived in Siem Reap shortly after 12 noon, so my total journey from Bangkok to Siem Reap was around 8 hours.

I checked into a guesthouse called Earthwalkers that sounded good online, but I wasn’t too impressed with. My room wasn’t very clean with a trail of ants marching right beside my bed and an unimpressive aging bathroom. It was also pretty far outside the main town which I didn’t think would be a problem because they had advertised the use of free bicycles, but apparently are no longer offered. I took a taxi into town, checked out the markets and had dinner before heading back to the guesthouse early evening to turn in.

After a hot day in Lumphini Park, we checked out the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. This is a popular night market that has been rumoured to be closed as developers have recently leased the land and told the tenants they had until April 2007 to vacate. Apparently the tenants aren’t listening as it seems to be business as usual. The main attraction is a very large food court and beer garden with a stage at one end where live performances of Thai rock and pop music blare through the night. There are also several hundred vendors selling the usual souvenirs and fake designer clothing in a covered market - much more organized and easy to navigate than the jatujak market. We both browsed the market for a while before having a cheap meal and beer, then staggered back to the subway. Click on the album on the right for a few photos.

Today Fiona and I decided to check out Lumphini Park, which is the largest park in Bangkok and is only about 3.5km from our apartment. We took the subway 2 stops which brought us to the main entrance of the park, next to the large King Rama VI statue. It was a pretty hot day and we had a nice walk through the lake section of the park, before we rented a pedal boat and made a lap around the lake. It’s pretty amazing that this large green space is right in the heart of Bangkok. It wasn’t very busy at all on this nice Saturday, and there were plenty of available picnic spots and unoccupied open grass fields, a rare sight in Bangkok. There are several large monitor lizards that can apparently grow up to 2m long and roam the edges of the lake. This is also a very popular spot for runners and general fitness activities, with free aerobics classes, outdoor weight and exercise machines, and a paved road with km markers around the perimeter of the park which I’m sure my parents will appreciate when they come to visit this fall. Click on the album icon to see our photos at the park. After the park, we headed across the street to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar.

Fiona and I had heard several rumors of ice rinks existing in Bangkok. Each of us longing for a skate and some exercise, we decided to check one of the more easily accessible rinks out. After a short trip on the subway followed by a 5 minute taxi, we found the rink on the 4th floor of a large shopping mall in the Lat Phrao district of Bangkok. We paid our 120 Baht (about $4 each) admission and as we entered the Zamboni was cleaning the small sheet of ice, which was about the size of the old Bauer rink at UBC, or around 2/3 the size of a standard NHL sized rink. For some reason, the Zamboni went over the entire surface at least 3 or 4 times, and by the time it was done the ice rink looked more like a pool than a sheet of ice. They squeegeed as much of the standing water over the boards as they could, still leaving about 80% of the rink covered in puddles. At this point a bunch of figure skaters took to the ice while the public skaters stayed out. Apparently the figure skating club shares its icetime with public skating sessions. The figure skaters practiced a few routines for about 15 minutes before they let the rest of the skaters on (while they continued to practice). In the meantime, Fiona and I had each fitted our rental skates. This would be the first time for each of us wearing rentals, but we figured since we are both such experienced skaters we shouldn’t have too much trouble and would probably dazzle the locals with our skills.

Not so. Not with these skates anyway. The rental skates were very well used and that’s putting it kindly. On top of that, it looked like they hadn’t been sharpened… ever. Fiona was given figure skates, while I elected to forgo the mens figure skates included with our admission and ‘upgrade’ to ‘hockey’ skates, which cost an extra 100 baht. These ‘hockey’ skates were moulded plastic boots with ski-boot like ratchet bindings, and were made in Italy! The blades had no edges to speak of.

So we both took to the ice and probably looked like first time skaters as we tried to find our balance on the edgeless rental skates. Fiona’s were so bad she had to hold on to the boards to just to make her first lap without falling over into the puddles, before she gave up on them to try for anything better. The skate rental guy did his best to find another pair for Fiona with better edges and she ended up with something that was a tiny improvement, although the blade on her left skate was actually broken off about 1″ from the end.

We appeared to be the only non-Thai skaters on the ice, and despite knowing that we could probably each outskate anyone there we also appeared to be two of the worst skaters on the ice. Most of the local skaters were using pretty nice skates - either custom figure skates or CCM hockey skates (which I later found out cost about double here what they cost in Canada). We did our best with the rentals and managed not to fall in any puddles, but after about 1/2 hour our pant cuffs were soaking wet from being splashed and we’d had enough. Despite our slow pace on the ‘ice’ surface, we also found ourselves quite sweaty and hot. They obviously can’t keep the arena cold enough for a decent ice surface. It was disappointing that it didn’t feel any cooler than the rest of the air conditioned mall.

So we’ve vowed to never put on such terrible skates again. I suspect that we chose one of the lower quality rinks in Bangkok as there are much newer ones around including an olympic sized rink, but I’m not sure if we’ll bother checking those ones out unless we are desperately missing skating again.

While Fiona’s parents were in Thailand we all went to visit some friends of theirs who are teaching in an international school near Pattaya. Pictures are here.

Now Pattaya has a bit of a reputation but don’t get the wrong idea - even though it was Mike’s 30th birthday while we were there - this was a parent-friendly trip (sadly) devoid of any form of cabaret or beach-side carousing. But there were plenty of other fun things to do so read on…

The bus trip from the Ekkamai station was uneventful and only about 2.5 hours long. We had a bit of a look about town and then a really nice evening with Chad, Karolee, and Payton. We saw their school and went out for a nice dinner. Mike even got to drive their golf cart around and we both tried out the school’s little climbing wall.

Following the best breakfast we’ve had in Thailand so far we handed the reins over to Chad - who wouldn’t tell us what we were going to do until after we agreed to do it! We were all suitably impressed by the snake show - where Mike got up close and personal with a snake with many long sharp teeth - and then the crocodile show at the Million Years Stone Park. Click on the following album for more photos of snakes and crocodiles. * NOT FOUND *

Pat, Scott, Fiona and Mike caught a taxi with an entertaining driver this morning to see one of Bangkok’s must see attractions, Wat Phra Kaew or the Grand Palace, also home to the Emerald Buddha. The admission included passes to the National Treasures museam which was full of historical rgalia, royal decorations and old coins. Next we entered the grounds of the Grand palace. The buildings were incredable, with amazingly detialed passageways, rooftops, chedis, statues and temples.

We were exhausted after walking around the grounds in our mandatory long pants in the heat, so we cooled off at a refreshment stand before finding a nearby foodcourt at the pier for dinner. We tried to get a taxi back but after trying 3 taxi’s, we discovered that none of them wanted to take us back to our apartment for a reasonable fee since there were sure to be several traffic jams along the way. So we decided to take a river boat back to the skytrain to end our long day. Click on the album on the right for the photos.

Seeing as we were stuck in the city for the weekend, we decided to go on an exploratory mission to find a climbing wall in Bangkok. There were rumors on a local climbing site about a free 15m outdoor wall being the best place in town to pull on plastic. Click on the album on the right to see the photos

Considering the nature of the trip, this might be considered something of an epic. To begin with, we picked the hottest day of the week - around 36ºC and sunny - and keep in mind we were carrying all the gear you might need for a sport climb, including a rope. We set out walking (silly in a place where a short taxi ride costs about $1) and Mike was soon dripping. But we were playing hardman/woman so we pressed on. We reached the pier and hopped (literally) on a canal boat. Except, since we were working with rather limited beta (internet rumors) we really didn’t know which stop we wanted. Sometimes paying your fare can be an adventure.

Eventually we managed to find the University we were looking for (after some more (somewhat aimless) wandering about the streets of Bangkok…but i’ll spare you the details) and then the wall. A bunch of somewhat friendly Thai climbers were already occupying what looked to be the ‘beginner wall’ - which started out alright but quickly turned into a nightmare of overhanging dynos - so we got set up to climb the lead wall…alright, i’ll admit that we may have retreated to the nearest 7-11 to collect some water and our wits before tackling the monster of ungraded pumpy routes that was before us. Fortunately Mike doesn’t let sweaty hands get in his way and we managed to get a rope up in the end.

A lesson learned on our way home is this - always have change when you get in a taxi and don’t know where you are going. And not just more than enough to get to where you think you are going…more than you might need to go halfway across town in traffic. sigh. yep, epic.

Fiona and I decided to do a little further exploring in Bangkok today, so we took the Skytrain to the last stop at the central river pier. The Chao Phraya River is the main river that runs through Bangkok. We took a river boat to a popular tourist area near the Grand Palace, and got a glimpse of some of the buildings behind the palace walls as the sun set. There were some nicely lit temples and buildings across the river on the boat back to the skytrain station. Click on the album to see the photos.

We took a train from Bangkok to Lopburi where we stayed one night. Click the album image below to see the photos.

Since this was our first foray away from the metropolis we figured we would try for an interesting small town not too far away. It’s really easy to get to the Hualamphong train station (which services northern destinations) on the subway system and there’s even a special ticket agent who deals with foreigners only once you get there. I bet he’s tired by the end of his work day! Anyway, we managed to get 2nd class seats for our 2.5 hour ride and took advantage of the open windows to get some pictures of the Thai countryside.

We were pleased to discover that everything is within easy walking distance once you get to Lopburi, despite what the pedicab drivers outside the train station would have you believe. We also found that there were plenty of budget places to stay in Lopburi, plus lots of yummy food available at all hours on the street. All in all it was a pretty simple ‘make it up as you go along’ kind of trip. And we did feel just a little sorry for the backpackers who were carrying all their stuff with them - ah the luxury of traveling light.
Somewhat disappointing was finding that there are climbing areas near Lopburi, but not much information about it since the guesthouse that organizes trips for tourists was closed. I guess we’ll have to go back since we hadn’t brought our climbing gear and it rained pretty much the whole time anyway. The downside of traveling off season. The upside is that there’s no need to book rooms in advance (so you can see the room before agreeing to stay there - a good idea when rooms cost between $5 and $15) and we also had most of the tourist attractions pretty well to ourselves the next day.

In the morning we checked out King Narai’s Palace grounds (mostly brick ruins, but with topiary) and a museum dedicated to Lopburi’s early inhabitants. Then on to the real attraction - the monkeys. Well, ok, macaques. They live in a shrine, San Phra Kan, but spend their days across the street around one of the ruined temples, Phra Prang Sam Yot. And there are lots of them. And they are not shy. You pay TB30 (about $1) to get in to the grounds and they give you a stick to fend off the curious georges while you make a dash for the inside of the old temple. From there, in an interesting take on a visit to the zoo, you look out through the bars at the monkeys who roam freely about the grounds and surrounding streets…apparently the locals put up with all kinds of monkey antics in part because they appreciate the tourism the monkeys bring.

We parted with TB 40 each (about $1.30) and three hours later we arrived in Bangkok having experienced our first 3rd class train ride…not as bad as you might imagine, honest.
Estimated total cost: $35… for both of us!

After reading about Pantip Plaza, I knew I had to check it out. Plus I needed to find a new computer case and power supply to house the guts of my dissembled computer that I bought with me. 5 floors of computer hardware, software (mostly counterfeit), DVD’s and all things technology. There was almost too much to choose from and after 4 hours or so of exploring the mall, I finally found a nice computer case at a good price. I also picked up a set of computer speakers and a toaster. Click the album for a few photos, plus a movie of the crazy traffic just outside the mall.