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So...South East Asia begins!
We flew from Beijing into Bangkok. We arrived at 9pm and were completely shocked by the dramatic change in temperature! We were pretty cold in China ss you know so coming into the heat of Bangkok in our jeans and hoodies was a bit of a mare! We were taken by a nice taxi man to near our hotel but as he couldn't quite get down Khao San Road (Mega busy!) so he dropped us off outside a pleasant looking dark filled alley way and told us to "go down there and you'll find it". Great instructions. He was spot on though. Bangkok was busy and bustling, reminded us a bit of holiday resorts in Europe but with more Thai people :P Khao San Road was great though. One big long market street with cheap clothes, gifts, shoes and food. Hot sweetcorn and rice and meat, loved it! It was also the best place for bars, one such bar being the Roof Bar which had 2 great Live acoustic singers, playing western classics. We spent 2 nights there...the second one being the last night we were in Bangkok which turned out to be a long one...but more about that later. We ate in a couple of different restaurants, 2 of which we had interesting experiences. One was quite open on the street. We sat down next to the wall and ordered our lunch. As we enjoyed watching the street go by, Lou was startled by something black and large with a long tail running passed her feet...we both pretty much just stared at each, neither of us wanting to move. Lou looked around and it seemed to have gone so we stayed where we were, but both a little on edge. Then it appeared again and scares the crap out of me...so we moved to another table and managed to enjoy our lovely lunch! Same night we went to a cheap restaurant down the road and managed to spot a cockroach/beetle type creature scuttling under our table. Did not enjoy the food so much there. We often wonder what the crunchy parts of our meals are.
So, we booked our bus from Bangkok to Cambodia for 7am. We left the Roof bar at 2.30am. We got to bed by about 3am. Lou swears she set her phone alarm for 6am (my phone was charging so i didn't set my own). Morning comes. Lou speaks. "Sh*t, it's 7.30!" So, assuming we'd missed the bus Lou ran to reception. After a lot of confusion etc, our bus driver comes around the corner into the hostel and says our bus to Cambodia is here! Lou ran back to the room we packed the quickest we've ever packed, i didn't even have time to make up my face or straighten my hair, shocker! And we were on the bus at eacatly 8am. Only an hour late. No one seemed to care though, we are one lucky pair of ladies. So, we travelled for an hour (neither me or Lou speaking to each other as we were both feeling a little tender). After a coke and some water we were able to have a giggle about what had occurred this morning! We then got to what we thought was the border, a nice little restaurant. The man told us it would be best to get our Cambodia visas now before we go to the border, just for $30. We were happy to do this but other westerners were kicking up a fuss so we said we'd leave it until the actual border (all a bit dodge really!) So anyway, we wait at this restaurant for our driver to take us to the actual border. While we wait Lou sits down on the tiled step and tells me she is either going to be sick or faint there an then. She lies herself down on the tiles and luckily a dutch doctor came over and told me to put her legs up on a stool. I got her a pepsi and fed it to her through a straw as she lay on the tiles. She seemed pretty pale so I checked her forehead to see if she was hot, so the doctor came back and checked her pulse. As he was checking her pulse another doctor joined us to see what she could do. Then 2 local men came over offering all sorts of smelling salts (which we declined). It was very dramatic!! Luckily, she recovered after the pepsi and we were able to join the rest of our group on the bus. But this wasn't the end of Lou's dramatic day...
We arrived at the border, and realised we needed passport photos for our visa...I luckily had 2 in my bag, Lou did not. So we went looking for somewhere that produced passport photos. Funnily enough this was not as easy as it could have been. We finally found a man who said 'you nee passpor phodo?' We said yes. He took us to another man who took us to a shop. Lou was then escorted into the shop, took off her shoes, went up the stairs and into a room with a man sleeping in his underwear in a hammock. In the corner awas a boy with a camera and a computer. Lou sat in front of the camera and the boy printed off 4 passport photos for her. Perfect!
After all that we then managed to get across the border (slowly) and made our way to find our bus. This was again not as easy as it should have been, so a nice German couple offered us a taxi share which took 2 hours to Siem Reap rather than the 5 hours by bus. We made it to Siem Reap...but i have to stop there as I am bored of writing :P I shall continue our journey through Cambodia as soon as I can find another couple of free hours!
Love to all.
Laus and Lou x x x x
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