Days 256 – 257: Bangkok to Siem Reap
We spent the next two days travelling – first returning our rental car to Bangkok, then heading to the airport our flight to Cambodia. The road trip back to Bangkok was easy, but uneventful – just taking turns driving for about 10hrs.
No offense, but we do not dig Thai music (everything on radio was putting us to sleep), so we busted out our MP3 thumb drive from our Africa road trip for the long haul back to Bangkok
Driving in Thailand is super easy and tourist friendly – the roads are in such great condition, we feel like we are in the USA (especially when we pass tacky alligator statues – is this the Orient or Orlando?). Even the police check points are a breeze – we passed about four on our way down, and the cops mostly just wave us through. One had us pull over, but after asking where we were coming from and where we were going, he immediately let us go…which was a tad odd when we thought about it: after all we were two foreigners driving from the Golden Triangle (a drug producing hotspot) to Bangkok in one day – you’d think they’d at least ask to look in the truck before waving us off?
Easy-to-read bilingual road signs makes driving in Thailand really simple – many areas even include photos of the nearby attractions to help tourists find their way
Our airport hotel – only USD $30/night for a decent room which was surprisingly well insulated (A bus load of Chinese tourists were checking in just after us – even though there were are least 150 of them, for once we didn’t hear any noise in the hallways nor smell anyone smoking cigarettes! We have a feeling that Thai tour guides may go to extra lengths to make sure Chinese tourists are aware of the proper etiquette in this country, as they seem far better behaved in Thailand than they are in China)
Regardless of the Chinese tourists’ improve manners, we still didn’t want to fight a rush of over 100 guests at the hotel restaurant for dinner, so we went to Burger King, which was within walking distance. We were a little bummed as it looked inevitable that we would have to break our vegetarian streak (going on two months without meat!), but we were delighted to discover that Burger King now has a veggie burger option! Not sure if this available in the States too, but it was pretty good!
Since we had originally picked up the rental car at 8AM when we first got it in Chiang Mai, we had to return it first thing in the morning to the airport in Bangkok. Our flight to Cambodia wasn’t until 1PM, but we figured we’d just camp out in the DMK Executive Lounge again. What we didn’t realize, however, is that our Priority Pass only got us into the lounge in the *domestic* terminal – we had nuthin’ in the international wing! So instead of grazing a loaded breakfast buffet and loading up on free coffee, we had to content ourselves with the slim pickings of the various fast-food chains in the terminal and hunker down next to an outlet to charge our devices. Oh well, at least the airport had free Wifi.
Since we were denied a breakfast buffet, we gorge ourselves on sugar-coated lard masquerading as donuts (GOD, I love Kristy Kreme)
Airport lunch at Micky D’s. After compiling all these photos I now realize that we ate A LOT of fast food in a short period of time. Granted, it’s not like we had many alternatives, and it was kinda nice to try out all the new veggie items that chains are starting to offer
Taking a cheap, cramped (but thankfully short) AirAsia flight to Cambodia
We were expecting Immigration in Cambodia to be a mess, but it was surprisingly efficient! US citizens can pay for an on-arrival visa (luckily we brought spare passport photos with us which helped speed up the process) – there were about a dozen government agents working behind the visa counter, passing each new passport to the next agent like a fireman’s brigade – we were in and out in about 5min! Well done, Cambodia.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in our swanky resort, planning our sight-seeing itinerary for the next two days. The hotel offered an all-inclusive package for an additional USD $60/day which would get us a driver for the day plus unlimited mini bar and Happy Hour drinks and appetizers – while we could certainly have visited the sights cheaper had we hired an outside taxi or tuktuk driver, we decided to splurge. Once again we had a lot to see and very little time, so the convenience factor was worth it (plus, a hotel chauffer was not going to drag us to souvenir shops or restaurants where he gets a kick-back).
The dollar can go *really* far with accommodations in Cambodia, so we booked an extra special room in Siem Reap – the “Privilege Floor” is a hotel within a hotel, and boy was it fancy! Welcome flowers (garlands of fresh-cut jasmine!), welcome drink, welcome fruit, and even a welcome jellycake wrapped in a banana leaf
After we check in to our spacious room, we head up to the restaurant for free cocktails and canapes (even though our all-inclusive package didn’t technically start until tomorrow, our concierge gave us a little *nudgenudgewinkwink* and told us to help ourselves)
We decide to go into downtown Siem Reap for dinner, so we take a USD $2 tuktuk to the lively Pub Street, which is packed with restaurants, bars and Western tourists. The majority of the restaurants are Western (a lot of Italian and Mexican places) – it feels like a backpacker Disneyland and strongly reminds us of the Thamel neighborhood in Kathmandu
Walking through the night market along the river
Grabbing dinner at the only Cambodian-food restaurant we can find on the Pub Street strip
There are lots of tuktuks rolling around (some for them pretty pimped out!), so we have no trouble getting a ride back to the hotel (although the fare has mysteriously gone up in price by a dollar…)