Day 55 - Friday, April 8 - Bangkok

I woke up and realized the stick and sweat was ok on the islands. Here, in hot Bangkok, with no breeze and no ocean to look and jump into to cool down, air con is my preference.

I waited for Rochelle to get in but she never did so I showered and took a tuk tuk to Khao San Road to check with a travel agent. Much to my chagrin, the flights to Cambodia are expensive. After searching around, as a budget traveller, I decided to do the responsible thing, TAKE THE BUS.

The one way bus ticket from Bangkok to the border of Proipet and then from Proipet to Siem Reap is 300 baht. I'm told the ride from the border to Siem Reap is horrible as there are no roads and they just drive wherever they want over mountains and rocky roads. I met a girl who told me to take a pillow or a wad of clothing because her ass hurt for 3 days when she got there. I'm up for the adventure and I leave tomorrow morning at 7:30AM for a PROMPT arrival in Siem Reap at 8:00PM!

I ran into Chrischan and his friends and had lunch with them at a food stall near Khao San Road. I then needed to take a water taxi down to the last stop, the same stop as The Peninsula and The Oriental Hotels to go to STA Travel so they could issue my new ticket home for April 17th. Good thing I did this today as STA, like most things in Thailand are CLOSED all of next week for Thai New Year.

On the water taxi, I ran into Nico and Janis on their way to Chinatown. It still amazes me that I run into the same people over and over again whether in the same city or different parts of the country.

From STA, I made my way back to Shanti via water taxi so I could book my bus for the morning with Rochelle. I walked through my market and it was good to see things haven't changed much since my last stay here. My market is just how I left it.

Back at Shanti, Rochelle and I played with all the possibilities and I decided to scratch the "budget traveller" plan. I booked a flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh for tomorrow morning (7:25A) and a return flight from Siem Reap to Bangkok for next Friday as I'm going to take a boat up the Mekong River to get from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap.

I had dinner with Nico, Janis, and Ed, a Thai guy they met and have been traveling with for part of their stay. Dinner was awesome curry at Shanti and then we went to Khao San Road. They wanted to do some last minute shopping before their flight home and I needed to get some passport photos for my Camboida visa, film, and another bag to fill up and leave at Shanti while I'm gone as I need very little for Cambodia.

I said goodbye to Nico and Janis and was back at Shanti by 11:30P. I packed my things, put another bag in storage and went to bed.

My alarn was set for 4:40AM so I could be ready for my taxi which was coming at 5:00AM.