Goodbye Cambodia, Hello Thailand

We left our hotel at 7:30 am to get a jump on the long journey to Thailand. Our time in Cambodia was too brief, but so enjoyable. I will say that the constant barrage of people trying to sell us things has been difficult, especially when it has been small children peddling souvenir magnets and small trinkets. You are told not to buy anything from the children because they want the kids to be in school and not on the streets. This is a catch-22 because parents have to pay up to $25USD a month for school. However, if you don’t have money (which is why you and your children are out selling souvenirs) then you can’t send your child to school.

On our journey we ran into several political rallies that held us up. There’s an election soon, and today is the last day to rally. While Cambodia calls itself a democracy, it really isn’t because there’s only one party running; the opposition “didn’t have the right paperwork” to run. Nonetheless, people in rural areas are out in droves and very excited to support their current prime ministers re-election.

We reached the Cambodian border about an hour later than anticipated. Tong said that 15 years ago, the border was incredibly dangerous because of muggings, robberies, and other crimes, but now the border features a ton of casinos and they have security so it has become much safer. We got through Cambodian security with no issues and then had to walk to the Thai border. Tong warned us that we could be there for up to three hours as the guards love to ask a ton of questions. Lady Luck was on our side again as there was no one in line ahead of us and our whole group took less than 15 minutes to get through security!

We loaded into two luxury vans and drove for another two hours before stopping for lunch. Once again, lunch was as at a “truck stop” but not like our truck stops. This one had a men’s clothing store, a restaurant, a dozen food stalls and a 7-11. We pointed at some food at a stall and hoped for the best! There were a lot of English signs in Cambodia because they rely heavily on tourism, but in Thailand, not so much. Anyway, we ended up with some spicy pork, glass noodles, stir fried veggies, and a curry with chicken but also… organ meat. It was all fairly good, all things considered. Then we popped into 7-11 to get a sweet treat and after looking at all the cool food products, I said to Brad, “We are going to have a lot of fun with food in Thailand!” There are SO many interesting things to try!

Back in our van, it was another two hours before we got to our hotel in Bangkok. Our hotel is the nicest one we have stayed in and it sits right on the edge of Chinatown. The street is lined when people and food carts, so we are excited for our food tour on Sunday!

As always, we had a quick refresh and then went on a walking tour where we saw the Royal Palace. Tong also bought us durian to try! The fruit is supposed to smell so bad that you can’t bring it into hotels or on the subway! And while it didn’t smell pleasant, the fruit itself was delicious! Almost custard like in texture, so it would make a great ice cream.

At 7:15, we gathered for the final supper. Tong took us by metro to a Thai restaurant. Brad had Tom Yum soup with seafood and I had pad Thai with seafood. The soup was excellent, but we have had better pad Thai before. Nonetheless, we all gave speeches about the trip and shed some tears as we thanked Tong for being so kind, knowledgeable, and patient. Honestly, we could not have had a better guide or group! We all got on like a house on fire and apparently that’s not always the case.

We took tuk tuks (way different here, they drive like maniacs!) to the street of clubs and bars to have one last drink. This area reminded me of a big high school party where the music is too loud and everyone is a bit sweaty. We sat on tiny plastic stools, listened to a Thai cover band (hello “Summer of ‘69!), drank Chang beer, and took a ton of pictures before calling it a night. We were fortunate to share our last tuk tuk ride with Tong, which was so lovely because we will miss him terribly!

After hugs in the lobby, we were off to bed. It was already midnight and we need to be up at 6 to go on our first tour without our “Sticky Rice Family”もっと詳しく