14/9/06 Today we took a Taxi to the China town area of Bangkok, the busiest place I have ever seen. There are intricate tributaries or market filled streets over flowing onto the road. Along the main street are stalls that cook food in huge wok痴 with all sorts of fruits and vegetables that I have never seen before and disgusting looking meats, enormous fish crammed into tanks, unable to turn around, live crabs tied up in crates and a whole load of junk- every other shop sells tacky looking gold Jewry, plastic combs. We were looking for a sarong for Lucy but there were no nice textiles or anything of taste whatsoever. Beggars sat by the food places, one had nothing below his torso, no legs, not even stumps... he sat propped up, I looked back and him and he smiled. We ordered food at a riverside restaurant because it was too busy at the market stalls to explain vegan. Dinner cost 270 baht altogether but we had cancelled Lucy痴 order because it came with some kind of fish skin even though she ordered the same as I had. 15/9/06 Into Cambodia We took a Mini bus to the Thai border form the first holstel we had stayed at, we had to get a taxi back to Sukhumvit for 7am, The bus didn稚 come. When we asked 腺ig John・he reassured us that it would come and that although we weren稚 told, the mini bus had to go and pick everyone else up at other hostel and ours was the last stop. Once you got out of Bankok you get to see what Asia really looks like, I weren稚 sure what would happen at the border, we new visa were available there but didn稚 know if we could get one.. when we had booked the bus it was headed as Siem Reap (Cambodia). But I thought everyone might allrady have visa as the bus (as far as I knew) when straight though- there might be no time for paperwork. On the way the a****** bus driver ran over a dog, the feral dogs are always on the roads, this one didn稚 move and the driver didn稚 slow down or swerve...the road was straight and there was nothing behind, it was a beautiful dog and Lucy and I were sitting in the front and saw the whole thing. He drove his big Toyota mini bus with silver chrome bull-bars head on into it for sport and didn稚 even flinch. We stopped at some kind of restaurant and were told to sit down, no one ordered food. I asked a girl who was sitting with us if she had a visa and if we could get one, she looked confused but then the man told us it was what we were doing now, they informed us that they were both on 宋isa runs・ The visa cost us more from the consulate than it would have done at the border but we had no choice at the time. When we arrived at the border crossing it was incredible and unreal, everything changed, I had heard that Poipet- the border town on the Cambodian side was a crap heap but when you see its its something else,when your amongst it the reality is another story. The poverty hits you like a sandstorm, Children follow you, there is rubbish everywhere, roads turn into dirt and mud, sewage fills the stagnent rivers and the cars have no number plates. The British man on the visa run told me that poipet was where all the Thai痴 went to gable because its illegal in that country, but the Thai government stopped them from crossing... we saw two lines, one for foreigners and one for Thai痴 We then took large bus to Seam Reap, which was full of other backpackers... The road was scarred with potholes and craters and was more or less in a straight line all of the way, it was lined with shacks where people lived in the filthy rubble and sewage, most of them sold fruit and petrol, the shacks were extremely basic, from what I could see they either sleep all together on the floor or in hammocks. Our driver wore a sage uniform with flat cap and looked like a communist, we stopped a few times- once for food at a restaurant set up for tourists- we got stir fried veg with noodles, the same thing we had had for evcery other meal since we have been here. The bus was then stopped to be cleaned, children pestered, girls tied material around our wrists... each one said the same thing to me- 塗ello where are you from・胞ngland 登h my sister form there・澱uy a postcard・ The Khmer痴 all speak extremely good English and are very friendly. It was about 9:30 by the time we arrived in Siem Reap, the change made me sick... the landscape went from roadside shacks and paddy fields to world-class hotels, people still call this country communist but all the wealth stays in the city and outside kids are dying from dihorea. The bus took us to a guest house, by that time we had no choice but to stay in the commissioned accommodation, we had been traveling 13 and a half hours and the room was only 6 dollars between us for the night.