22 Hours
Waterpostcardsbraclettshirtcolddrinkmototuktukjointladysunset. Another mantra. So I left the last Internet cafe in Bangkok with the notion of going somewhere, Cambodia or Laos, but another night in the city was in order. We left, bags packed, to the bus station only to find that the bus would
put us there well after the border closed leaving us in a border town guest house. Border towns are never really nice, its seems instead of the best of both worlds you get the worst. Think T.J., but throw in AK-47s, Casinos, and land mine victims. You sure as hell don't go for the fish tacos and buckets of beer. Sad Shit. So we headed back for one last night of debauchery, venturing into places no one should be forced to go or to work. We went to NANA plaza for a happy hour beer at the only outside bar and gawked at the constant stream of dirty old men flowing in. By far the best part were the completely transsexual corners of the 3 story plaza. They love Matt to the point where they follow him around whispering dirty things in his ears. They just smile at me. Even better was the shrine at the entrance that all the bar girls pray to before entering. I wonder just what the thought in their heads are. "Let this be my last day of work" or "I hope i get many customers tonight" or worse "I hope I find my husband tonight". Exiting past the shrine and the even greater flow of men and the crazy guy preaching about about Buddhists and sinners going to hell we ascend to the Skytrain as the sun quickly set beyond the skyscrapers and the smog. Soi Cowboy isn't much better, in fact it's worse. Nuff said, we left shortly after we arrived.
The next morning 4 am didn't happen as planned, in fact it hasn't yet. Maybe staying up till four but sure as hell not waking up by then. We arrived at the bus station around 9:00 after sitting in Bangkok traffic for a good amount of time. The plan was to take the "Ä\C" V.I.P. bus to the border and catch a taxi to Siem Riep, Cambodia, home of the Angkor Wat complex. The A/C didn't work and the ride was long but we arrived and made it through customs and into Cambodia quick and easy. A taxi was found and so was another seat filler. Jin, a small Korean girl who had been around the world in the last 7 months. We agreed on 45$ for the A/C Camry that was to be our ride on the road from hell. Last time I did this ride on the dirt road it took 10+ hours in a bus with no A/C and open windows. This time its took 5, in comfort and we got to choose our guest house. It would have been shorter but 2 things happened:
1) As we were driving through a small Village the kids were still celebrating Songkran by throwing water in plastic bags at each other and cars, as mentioned before you are supposed to stop when they tell you to. Our driver kept on driving, slower obviously, but kept moving as one teenager
started banging on our window, harder and harder harder. Then it broke. Now our driver did stop. Car still running he jumped out and disappeared chasing the kid into the wilderness. We suddenly become surrounded with stares of curiosity, smiles and water bags in hand. I quickly locked the door cause i was over getting wet. Around 15 or 20 minutes later our driver emerged emptied handed, but cell phone in hand. A truck full of police pulled up quicker than anytime Ive called them in the states with bigger guns ta'boot. There is discussion as we sit waiting and waiting, while a dance party is ensuing outside of our car. After an essentially meaningless hour we continue only to stop, turn around and go back to the spot to take pictures for the driver. Finally we continue.
2) After another hour or so our driver pulled off to the side of the road. We all look at each other with slight grins all wondering the same thing: WTF. I wonder what that sounds l
ike in Korean.
He mumbles something about a low tire, we all look at it and wonder what else could happen. Instead of driving on it to the next little house/place he proceeds to take the tire off and pull out the nail.Psssssssssssssss. All the air rapidly exits through the gaping whole as he tosses the nail back into the middle of the road. Before he notices my glance of discontent at that he realizes his folly and picks it up smiling tossing it off into the abandoned rice fields. Ummm so now we are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Nothing left to do but smile, smile,smile. He makes a call as we sit in the middle of a beautiful dust storm. A seemingly random car show up and offers him a spare and we head off towards a tire shop quite aways away.
The rest of the ride was mellow, no more issues but after we asked Jin if she had been stuck like that before, she nodded and said "Yes, in Peru, Chile and Egypt". We kinda wonder if she didn't bring the luck. We arrive in town just in time for dinner after searching for Jin's non existent Korean guesthouse. We parted ways with Jin at a shitty guesthouse and after a decent meal the night was quickly coming to a satisfying close. We found a nicer guesthouse for the next day and called it a night. I'll save the next days for the next blog .... Peace and Love - Z
put us there well after the border closed leaving us in a border town guest house. Border towns are never really nice, its seems instead of the best of both worlds you get the worst. Think T.J., but throw in AK-47s, Casinos, and land mine victims. You sure as hell don't go for the fish tacos and buckets of beer. Sad Shit. So we headed back for one last night of debauchery, venturing into places no one should be forced to go or to work. We went to NANA plaza for a happy hour beer at the only outside bar and gawked at the constant stream of dirty old men flowing in. By far the best part were the completely transsexual corners of the 3 story plaza. They love Matt to the point where they follow him around whispering dirty things in his ears. They just smile at me. Even better was the shrine at the entrance that all the bar girls pray to before entering. I wonder just what the thought in their heads are. "Let this be my last day of work" or "I hope i get many customers tonight" or worse "I hope I find my husband tonight". Exiting past the shrine and the even greater flow of men and the crazy guy preaching about about Buddhists and sinners going to hell we ascend to the Skytrain as the sun quickly set beyond the skyscrapers and the smog. Soi Cowboy isn't much better, in fact it's worse. Nuff said, we left shortly after we arrived.The next morning 4 am didn't happen as planned, in fact it hasn't yet. Maybe staying up till four but sure as hell not waking up by then. We arrived at the bus station around 9:00 after sitting in Bangkok traffic for a good amount of time. The plan was to take the "Ä\C" V.I.P. bus to the border and catch a taxi to Siem Riep, Cambodia, home of the Angkor Wat complex. The A/C didn't work and the ride was long but we arrived and made it through customs and into Cambodia quick and easy. A taxi was found and so was another seat filler. Jin, a small Korean girl who had been around the world in the last 7 months. We agreed on 45$ for the A/C Camry that was to be our ride on the road from hell. Last time I did this ride on the dirt road it took 10+ hours in a bus with no A/C and open windows. This time its took 5, in comfort and we got to choose our guest house. It would have been shorter but 2 things happened:
1) As we were driving through a small Village the kids were still celebrating Songkran by throwing water in plastic bags at each other and cars, as mentioned before you are supposed to stop when they tell you to. Our driver kept on driving, slower obviously, but kept moving as one teenager
started banging on our window, harder and harder harder. Then it broke. Now our driver did stop. Car still running he jumped out and disappeared chasing the kid into the wilderness. We suddenly become surrounded with stares of curiosity, smiles and water bags in hand. I quickly locked the door cause i was over getting wet. Around 15 or 20 minutes later our driver emerged emptied handed, but cell phone in hand. A truck full of police pulled up quicker than anytime Ive called them in the states with bigger guns ta'boot. There is discussion as we sit waiting and waiting, while a dance party is ensuing outside of our car. After an essentially meaningless hour we continue only to stop, turn around and go back to the spot to take pictures for the driver. Finally we continue.2) After another hour or so our driver pulled off to the side of the road. We all look at each other with slight grins all wondering the same thing: WTF. I wonder what that sounds l
ike in Korean.He mumbles something about a low tire, we all look at it and wonder what else could happen. Instead of driving on it to the next little house/place he proceeds to take the tire off and pull out the nail.Psssssssssssssss. All the air rapidly exits through the gaping whole as he tosses the nail back into the middle of the road. Before he notices my glance of discontent at that he realizes his folly and picks it up smiling tossing it off into the abandoned rice fields. Ummm so now we are stuck in the middle of nowhere. Nothing left to do but smile, smile,smile. He makes a call as we sit in the middle of a beautiful dust storm. A seemingly random car show up and offers him a spare and we head off towards a tire shop quite aways away.
The rest of the ride was mellow, no more issues but after we asked Jin if she had been stuck like that before, she nodded and said "Yes, in Peru, Chile and Egypt". We kinda wonder if she didn't bring the luck. We arrive in town just in time for dinner after searching for Jin's non existent Korean guesthouse. We parted ways with Jin at a shitty guesthouse and after a decent meal the night was quickly coming to a satisfying close. We found a nicer guesthouse for the next day and called it a night. I'll save the next days for the next blog .... Peace and Love - Z
posted by Mr Zazanis at 7:13 PM
1 Comments:
sounds like you're having fun, how much longer are you staying? and are you going to go to vietnam? my mom's vietnamese friend says she has never eaten better vegetarian food than there.
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