Category Archives: Thailand

Leaving Hanoi… AGAIN!

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Time to leave Hanoi again. Got the bus from the Vietnam Airlines office, and managed to get a seat – it got busy as 11:00 approached as I believe they take a break from then until 13:00 for lunch. We got talking to Hannah, a girl from Leicestershire who looks uncannily like Talia from Bristol – and who’d bumped into those three English lads from a previous post as she had been leaving the same volunteer post when they were arriving.

The usual fun at the airport – trying to find food that didn’t come in a packet, didn’t taste like plastic and didn’t cost a fortune. Not much luck… Flight to BKK uneventful.

Used the AE1 bus to get into Silom rather than a taxi. Due to the busy traffic, we hopped out just past Lumpini Park. As we were getting off, I saw an American guy trying to talk to the driver about where he was and where he should get off. I had a look at his map and gave him a rough idea. Thing is, once I got off I realised that he was on the wrong bus as he wanted to go to Hualamphong which is the AE4 bus, not the AE1. Had I not been in such a rush I’d have got him to get off with us and put him in the direction of the MRT – it’s only a couple of stations from where we were. So, sorry and I hope you got where you wanted to go!

We walked down Silom to the hostel, stopping at A&W for a burger. At the hostel, we had enough time to check in and turn around as we’d arranged to meet Hannah at the Paragon to see Batman on the IMAX. Unfortunately, due to our slow bus and Hannah’s problems getting a tuk-tuk to drop her at the right place, we all arrived around 20:10 and by the time we got to the cinema, the film had just kicked off.

We bought tickets for the 23:00 performance instead, and wandered down to the basement food court to while away the time. And stare at food. And drink fresh fruit smoothies. And eat McD’s (Hannah!). And ice cream (*cough* not Hannah).

The time came for the film and we got there in good time to be shown in and take our seats. You all know what IMAX is and I’ve already documented watching Spiderman 3 and Superman Returns on the BIG big screen. But Batman: The Dark Knight blows them all away. Absolutely amazing. A great film, excellent use of the technology and Heath Ledger genuinely puts in a star turn as the Joker. Every bit as great, if not better in his own right, as Jack Nicholson‘s version. Certainly far scarier. I do think the film was cut, though, perhaps for violence. This could be a Thai thing, an IMAX thing or just bad editing. Either way I’d love to see a director’s cut but I’d just have to see it on IMAX again.

We got out of the cinema around 1:30 which was a bit of a shame for Hannah as she’d booked a trip the next day which she had to be ready for by 5:30. As I write this, I’ve not heard from her and I sincerely hope she made it onto the bus!

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Crossing into Cambodia

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You’ll find a lot of the bumph from this post repeated in the nearby “Tip”, but here it is in the original anecdotal form.

Today we crossed the border. The tuk-tuk guy we’d used yesterday picked us up at 9am and drove us to the little visa place a short distance from the border itself. The visa fee is meant to be $20 as stated on posters in the area. I was asked for 1000THB which is $33, but told them we had no Baht and they accepted $30. The excuse from last night was a repeated: “you can pay 1000THB here to get visa right away or go to Bangkok and wait 2-3 days which is more expensive”. Or you can fly into the airport, pay $20 and get it immediately as they don’t try to rip you off.

A bunch of 3 guys were there and relieved we could use dollars as they had no Baht left. One had to get his visa as his Thai one had expired and he couldn’t re-enter the country without exiting first! The tuk-tuk drove us the last half mile or so to the crossing proper where we were “helped” through border control by a Thai with a badge.

On the Cambodian side we were herded onto a “tourist bus” for the 500m drive to the taxi office where we could get a bus ticket for $10 or a taxi ticket for $60. This is a huge increase on recent years, where the taxi fare used to be $25 – and in fact, still is. The remainder is taxes and fees for the monopoly which operates in the area.

Their argument is it stops the old rip-offs that did occur – getting halfway to Siem Reap and then the driver demanding more cash or he’d dump you in the middle of nowhere. Rare, but reported. All drivers now must be licensed and regulated through them. Any problems and the driver can lose his license. They can also lose their license if they’re caught bartering outside of new system. We couldn’t find anyone else to share with (the others who came through were a group of four, and four is the maximum for a taxi) so had to foot the $60 charge between us.

The driver was great. Fast, chatty, friendly and the 2 1/2 hour drive passed quickly. The roads really have improved on what I’d heard about and for the first half or so it was rare to go more than a mile without seeing some kind of roadworks as they continue to be levelled and surfaced.

In Siem Reap, I gave the driver 200 Baht (about three quid) as a tip and he seemed genuinely taken aback. Hey, I don’t even know if he’d get a fare back to the border. Petrol here is about 50p a litre – less than half that in the UK – but this is an enormous amount when the average daily income is less than $1. We had a short tuk-tuk ride to the Bou Savy Guest House where Amy had stayed the last time I was in Siem Reap and settled in to enjoy the aircon.

After a shower and change of clothes (yeah, I know you’re hearing that phrase a lot on this blog – it’s humid over here), we tuk-tuk’d to the Children’s Hospital where I bled down a tube in exchange for a Coke and some iron tablet. As we were there, the first proof of the wet season descended upon us. When it rains here, it really rains! After the torrent finished, we got a lift down to the old market for a quick wander round.

Leah looked at the silks, I stared at the meat and fresh produce section. Great stuff. After a quick wander into some bookstores and a non-haggled $5 purchase of a new Vietnam Lonely Planet from a woman in the street, we settled down at the Temple bar on Pub Street for a drinkie and some food. My pizza was very tasty and Leah made approving noises as she devoured a steak. After a few more beers/vodkas we walked upstairs to watch the free Apsara dancing and supped a couple of cocktails. I recommend the AK-47 with a whopping 5 shots in it… and always available on 2-for-1. Eek.

After the dancing, we trundled over to the X rooftop bar where I let Leah beat me at pool (with our jury-rigged ball system as there aren’t enough for the two tables) and I got talking to a guy from Dorset who kind of arrived here and hasn’t left yet. He’s now working at X for around $10 a day, wondering what to do with himself – but I don’t think his plans will involve moving on any time soon. Apparently I was drunk when Leah instructed me that it was time to head back to the guest house, but I still don’t believe it. I’d only had about 12 beers and 9 shots. And one less pint of blood in my system than usual.

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TIP – the Thai / Cambodia border

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Information published elsewhere, but I thought it worthwhile to give this a space of its own as the other stuff’s spread across a couple of posts.

Crossing is easy – that’s the first thing. Don’t sweat it. We went from Bangkok to Siem Reap with an overnight stop, but if you can be bothered with an early start it’s easily achievable in a single day.

Stage one is to get to the border. A train is the cheapest and easiest way – you want the service from Bangkok’s Hualamphong station to Aranyaprathet which at the time of writing was 48 Baht. A superb resource for train journeys all over the place is The Man In Seat 61.

There are two services a day – 5.55am and 13:05pm. Taking the first, you can get to Siem Reap no problem. With the second I’d recommend an overnight in Aranyaprathet rather than over the border in Poipet, though the latter would be cheaper from what I hear. Maybe. I gather it’s not so safe, though.

Either way, you’ll have a 4 1/2 hour train ride with some great scenery (and no air conditioning). On arrival at Aranyaprathet you will of course be greeted by tuk-tuks prepared to take you to the border or to a (“cheap”) hotel.

Also either way you will end up at the border at some point. If you already have a visa then head straight for the crossing. Otherwise you’ll have to go to a separate office elsewhere (tuk-tuks know where) at which point you will be fleeced for the visa fee.

Right now, a Cambodian visa is $20. You will pay this in Hanoi, Bangkok, Saigon, Auckland, London… $20. Yup, it might take 2-3 days, but that is the visa fee. You’ll also pay $20 if you land at either airport in Cambodia and pay the fee on entry. $20 and they put the big paper stamp in your passport.

However, get it at a land border… at Aranyaprathet they ask for 1000 Thai Baht. At the current rate of exchange, this is $33. You can “save” $3 by saying you don’t have any Baht, and they’ll let you pay in US currency at a fee of $30. The “excuse” is that the $10 is an express fee, though they don’t offer a means of paying $20 and waiting 2 days. It also doesn’t explain the immediate visa at the airports without such a fee. The presence of overseeing government officials at the airport, however, does.

Short version – $30 at land borders so the staff can line their pockets.

A short tuk-tuk ride away is the border crossing itself. You disembark and a Thai will likely assist you through. There’s no real need for this, but they’re not pushy and slightly helpful. Of course, they expect a tip afterwards for this non-requested and non-essential service. Stamp out of Thailand and into Cambodia (after filling in one of those annoying immigration slips), then walk out into Cambodia proper.

There you will be herded onto a tourist bus which will drive you over the incredibly potholed road to an office where you will be sold a taxi or bus. Taxi is $60 to Siem Reap (around 2 1/2 hours with the new roads), bus is $10 and around 4 hours. The roads are much better than you’ll have heard about historically and work is still being done on them. The little bit up to the tourist office is by far the worst you’ll experience.

Now you can get a cheaper taxi, but it’s difficult. You’ll be actively discouraged (harassed) if you try to barter outside the monopoly system. The driver gets $25, the monopoly some money and the government (apparently) some more of the $60 fee. So theoretically, you should be able to find a private driver for $25. Good luck. I did meet some guys in Siem Reap who’d got one for $45 by refusing to board the tourist bus – just say you’re going to check the casinos or something.

Good luck, however you do it. It’s not a difficult crossing, and the experience isn’t bad. Quite an adventure, really!

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Headin’ south

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We checked out in the mid-morning and I ran around trying to get some US$ from local banks. Amazingly, the largest one didn’t have any at all. I ended up in a small money exchange place over the road where I got a very reasonable $33 per 1000 Baht.

Our plan was to get the train down to the border, so we hopped on a BTS to Sala Daeng, walked underground onto the Silom MRT. The hardest part of this was the security check. For some reason, there’s a guard at the entrance to every MRT station (and all the lifts are unusable) . Normally, they take a brief look into the occasional handbag. However, Leah and I were carrying five items of luggage between us! Out pops a little torch and he had a flit through, knowing we had nothing explosive but having to do his job and appear polite at the same time.

Soon enough we made the quick journey to Hua Lamphong train station. There we were accosted by hordes of Thais in yellow shirts offering to help. Genuinely. It seems to be some effort on the part of the transport people to make using the railway easier for foreigners. These young Thai spoke excellent English and seemed to know the entire rail timetable off the top of their heads, as well as which queue to get in for the tickets. Very, very useful. Even though we’d done the research on the trains and times, it helped knowing where to go to get the tickets and what platform for departure.

Rail travel in Thailand is well cheap. Our 4 1/2 hour journey cost 48 Baht each – around 70p. OK, again we would only have fans and no aircon, but at that price you can’t pick and choose. It was a hot day when we left, but as we’d gone for the afternoon journey it cooled down as we travelled further south and the hours wore on.

A Thai couple on the train struck up a brief conversation with us, and were all smiled and waves when they disembarked. The drinks sold by the wandering ladies from buckets full of ice were cheap, and the scenery out of the windows was gorgeous. The further south we went, the more lush it seemed to get. The types of housing changed and the distance between them increased. Really, a lovely train ride.

We’d already decided on our accommodation before we got there, based on some web searching. There’s not a lot in Aranyaprathet – basically it’s a stop-off before the border crossing and a preferable alternative to the milling pit that is Poipet on the other side. We overpaid (probably) for a tuk-tuk to the Thupthongkum hotel (or Thap Thong Kam as on their business cards) that I’d spotted on a web page. The recommendation turned out to be very good, though the pricing was out. We paid 400 Baht for a large twin with aircon, telly and hot shower. In fairness, everything has gone up over the last year or so. There are rooms available in the area for half that price, but I have no idea what they’re like.

The hotel’s not in a prime location, but I don’t think Aranyaprathet has one. We were a fair distance from the town, but after a few hours on the train we really just wanted to stretch our legs, get some food and crash out ahead of more travelling the next day.

While getting our shower sorted (one of the fuses had popped – they fixed it very quickly), I got talking to a Cambodian woman who (apparently) works for the tourist board or something. She basically told me a lot of stuff I already knew – I’d pay over the odds for a visa at the border, the transport is monopolised once I cross over and so on. Essentially, she was trying to convince me to get her to do all the work for me. Which I’m sure would have made her a few bucks.

The way she phrased the excess fee at the border was that the $10 excess was a “rush fee” to have it done immediately, whereas in Bangkok they take 2-3 days to return a visa for $20. Of course, she didn’t seem to understand that if I flew into the airport I would get the visa on the spot, immediately and without waiting for $20… Let’s face it, the additional fee is for the border staff to line their pockets and nothing else.

Regardless, that was a job for the next day. Tonight we had dinner at a restaurant a couple of doors down. Lovely local food, and a chilled bottle of beer – that the owner had to go and get from an off-license for me as they’d run out!

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Third time tigers

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Today would be my third visit to the Tiger Temple after one touristy excursion and then a week working there in 2006. And things have changed. A lot.

Again, there may be repetition in this post compared to the earlier ones, but I will try to highlight the differences. First of all, a few points to note about anyone visiting – get there early. Virtually every trip from Kanchanaburi runs from 2pm to 4pm. If you do this, you will miss out on a lot. Get up there for 11am if you can. This may mean hiring your own transport or getting the public bus up, but it is worth it.

The public bus runs frequently from the main bus station and costs pennies, but drops you on the main road – a couple of kilometres walk away. Making your own way by moped is certainly an option if you have access to one. Cycling is a long way so bear in mind the distance and the heat.

The most common way is to get a converted flatbed with seats in the back and fill it. Drivers usually charge for the trip, not per passenger so the more you get (maybe a capacity of 10) the cheaper it is. These are the vehicles used for the organised tours.

After breakfast, we met Sam himself – the owner of the Rafthouse and two other places in the area. He’s Thai, fluent in English, and an incredibly nice and helpful chap. And a qualified pilot. With his own airfield out near the Tiger Temple. Cool. He called the taxi driver we’d used yesterday  and he gave us a good price for a return trip to the Temple. A few minutes later he was sat outside waiting for us and we hopped in with all our luggage.

The trip up was fun, watching the usual sights. The first thing I noticed that was different was the road running from the main “highway” to the Temple itself. Two years ago it was unpaved dusty gravel. Now it’s tarmac, with walls in some spots as well. Money is definitely being spent. At the Temple itself, parking is more organised, a couple more buildings are in place and the price had risen to 300 Baht for entry. You still have to sign a “these are tigers and might rip my throat out and I realise I can’t sue monks” declaration before entering.

Entering the Temple itself, the pathway up to the cages has changed a little. What used to be the female accommodation for volunteer staff now seems to be administration offices. To the left is the start of (I guess) the “wild” area where future tigers will play without human interaction. This wasn’t there last time I was here. Neither were the larger cages for the cubs with play areas. Or the waterfall. Or half of the tigers, come to it – they’ve had quite a few births since I was here in 2006.

One of the things you’ll miss if you go up late is being introduced to the smallest of the cubs. Leah got to cuddle one of these little beasts while I took photos. The largertigers were introduced and the tourists taken down in small groups to the Tiger Canyon area. The opportunity was given to “walk with the tigers” and have photos taken with your hand on the tiger’s back as it is led down by one of the monks.

More changes were visible at the Tiger Canyon. Guests are spoken to more frequently, there’s more organisation and more rules. Basically it seems more “touristy”, but this also means more organised. The tiger “teeth” on sale for 30 Baht last time are now 100 Baht and you can buy belts as well. Also, to have a photo with a tiger’s head in your lap is now 1000 Baht. Previously, this was done on spec – you got one if you wated long enough and were lucky. Still, there was a huge queue for these photos – the only ones where you can get more than one person in a picture. The other photos are still free, so don’t worry if you can’t afford to fork out £15. Water is still ice cold and free!

Fancy doing what I did for a morning? Mucking out, feeding the cubs and having breakfast with the monks? 4000 Thai Baht to you, guv’nor.

So, yes, it’s more regimented. It’s more of a “tourist attraction” than it was. But costs rise and there is definitely money being spent on the place. I can only assume that someone upstairs has started to look seriously at the money situation and these decisions have been based on getting the work done that has been the aim of the project since the start.

Oh, and no – they’re not drugged. As ever, I heard this… crap being whispered by various tourists. Here’s hoping this makes it onto Google: The tigers at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, are not – and I repeat in big letters with italics NOT drugged, doped up, tripping or otherwise maltreated in any way. The only drugs they get are for medicinal purposes (vitamins, antibiotics or anabolic supplements such as clenbuterol and others)

Yes, they look dozy when you visit. They’re used to people. They’ve just been fed. It’s the hottest time of the day when tigers, by their very nature, will sleep. Watch one of them being walked down to the canyon when it’s not in a good mood. Or how fast the staff move when one of them rolls over and could – just could – be about to “play” with a tourist.

They. Are. Not. Drugged.

Soapbox now goes away.

Our driver dropped us off at the bus station in good time to jump on one of the aircon buses for Bangkok. We had one transfer partway along the route where I panicked when I didn’t see my luggage being shifted between buses – all was fine, though, and we got to Bangkok South bus terminal in good time. There’s a new shopping mall at the terminal that we walked through (and had doughnuts in). The information staff were very helpful indeed, giving us various options for getting into the city.

We chickened out and opted for the taxi. Bus is cheap but would have taken ages.

In the evening we popped back to the cinema (so cheap!) and watched the surprisingly good Hancock. Will Smith does it again. I had my fears with the stories of reshoots weeks before it was released, but this is a great bit of cinema. No classic, but good fun.

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