The road to Bangkok

The camera was ready on Thursday morning. This gave me just enough time for the round trip to suburban KL and get out the door before the hostel charged me for another day. At noon, I was waiting patiently to board my 12:15 bus to Penang. Sometime around 12:20, the drive actually let me on About 12:30 we started to move. At 12:45, we were still in the station and the driver told me to change buses. The agent on the other bus then asked for my ticket. A minor dram then ensued when I couldn't locate said ticket due to the frantic repacking I had just done on exiting the first bus. Threats of having me arrested ensued but I held firm and ultimately, the agent left and we proceeded to Penag without further incident.

I spent 2 nights in Penang, mostly to enjoy the food and see the large Buddhist temple complex of Kek Lok Si on a hill overlooking Georgetown. It's not old, dating from only the last 19th century but it is large with some interesting architectural features. It was perhaps not the best day to see it though. The heat and humidity was nearly unbearable. It was over 90F in the shade and the humidity was the Southeast Asia standard of near 100%.

The next day I want to Hat Ya, which was just as hot and humid but didn't have an interesting temple. It is, however, across the border in Thailand and 4 hours closer to Bangkok. It is also a good place to change my remaining Ringets and close enough to Koah Sok that travel is practical within one day. Koah Sok is a national park in Southern Thailand. IT is supposed to have abundant wildlife and one book lists it as the 5th best attraction in Thailand. I spent one night in a noisy room in Hat Yai and proceeded to Koah Sok via Surat Thani the next day.

Koah Sok was a bit of a disappointment. The tours are expensive so I didn't take one. Many, many bungalow "resorts" but really only two trails. I saw hardly any wildlife: a few macaques and the usual small stuff. Some swimming holes were nice and the extensive bamboo was interesting. But the forest is mostly recent regrowth. Very thick and few large trees. I guess it might be a good intro to the jungle but it is pretty poor next the forests of Borneo.

After a long early morning hike, I returned to Surat Thani. I seriously considered going straight on to Chamai but couldn't make up my mind or figure out the logistics. I opted to spend the night.

I got up in the morning expecting to go into Chamai for a leisurely tour of the ruins, return, and then take a night bus to Bangkok. What I found is that, despite the information on the wall, the hotel people didn't seem to know much. The information office seem to only have glossy brochures for resorts on Koh Samui. It did seem, however, that it was practical to get there. I checked a tourist booklet. It seems that the ruins consist of one small pagoda filled with artifacts. Whoops. That is definitely not worth staying for. Time to hit the road to Bangkok.

Once again, the hotel didn't seem to know much despite the bus schedule posted on the wall. However, it seemed that there ware only minibuses until night. 9 hours on a bus is not much fun. 9 hours on a minibus is just inhumane. I set off looking for options. Surat Thani doesn't have a central long haul bus station. I asked 4 travel agents and got 3 different answers. All of which are probably right. The last told me of a bus leaving at 11:00. I bought a ticket, rushed back to the hotel and walked back with the pack. All in all, about 40 minutes in stifling heat. And then they tell me the bus doesn't leave until 11:30. It also means arriving at 8:30pm.

The bus actually pulled into Bangkok at 9:30pm. The information desk at the bus station was closed. None of the buses that passed by matched anything in the guide book. Miraculously, my guess that 511 was close enough to 11 to get me where I needed to go turned out to be correct. I even managed to check into a hotel before midnight. It was hot, stuffy, and noisy but at least it was clean and cheap. I moved the next morning.

I haven't actually seen much of Bangkok yet, Mostly just the Banglampu area. It is an amusing concentration of bars, shops, and restaurants where herds of untested backpackers pretend they are in Asia. some travelers despise these kinds of places. Personally, I don't feel the need to be immersed in the asia adventure every waking moment. It isn't really practical anyway. The price of flexible travel is the reoccurring need to get into a town and change money, do research, and generally take care of business so that home and travel objectives don't fall to pieces. Bangkok, and especially Banglampu, is an excellent place to do this.

I made a run into downtown today and sorted out my Cambodia visa. It is possible to get one at the border but it always costs more ( 1000 baht > $20 ) and lately border officials have lately been charging 1300 or more. The extra 300 baht goes into the pocket of the border official, of course. United Airlines has an office nearby so I got my updated itinerary printed. American Express was useless as usual. It is getting harder and harder to find a good reason to carry travelers checks. The one truly compelling feature they could provide is the ability to convert a travelers check directly to $US cash. But no Amex office I have ever been to would do this. Out of two offices in Bangkok, one is strictly a travel agent. The other will only issue local currency. In all likelihood, I will return home with every travelers check I brought.

This evenings, I thought I had enough things arranged that an early morning departure for the border was assured. All I needed to do was get some $US for Cambodia and find me a bus to the border. The forex offices were open. The only problem was they didn't have any dollars, at least not in the small notes I needed for Cambodia. Oh, several places claimed to sell them but they didn't actually have any in their possession. It looks like a late morning start at best. That may not be enough time to reach Siem Reap. That would mean staying a night in the border town Aranya Prathet. I have no information on Aranya Prathet except that one experienced source claims it is much better than the Cambodian options. Here is what Lonely Planet says about one of those:

"Every country the world over has a town like this - ie with no redeeming features whatsoever - but Poipet is worse than most. Increasing numbers of travelers pass through here on the road between Bangkok and Sim Reap, but the less time spent here the better. During the wet season, the main road becomes a river of mud and detritus. It's a hole."