Day 22, Wednesday 12th May, Sihanoukville to Bangkok

I was up early and had everything sorted. Breakfast in the hotel, including a baguette for lunch on the bus, everything on the hotel bill, paid with Visa at no extra charge, remaining dollars and riells allocated for coming expenses.

I went back to my room and checked my mail a last time, lo and behold, the hotel in Bangkok had sent me an email saying they had a room for me. Took everything out to the front of the hotel, now about 10:10, and settled down to wait for the bus, which didn't come.
The lady from the travel agency turned up, then phoned the bus, which had asked after me but been informed (by whom?) that I had already departed. So I had to hop in a tuk-tuk and pay $3 and rush to the bus station to catch the Paramount bus. My fault, I should have been out there at 10 am. Counting my dollars now though.

The bus trip, happily my last, was fine, the rest stop OK, I had enough to eat and drink. I was tempted to try the boiled eggs on sticks they sell (see picture), but decided not to.

Some impressions from the bus:
Rice paddies:

Rubbish:

Cambodian garden gnomes:

More rubbish:

Even more rubbish (a rubbish depot?):

I did see a billboard with a cartoon encouraging people to be environmentally conscious and not throw their plastic bags full of rubbish just anywhere ...

SUNWAH New Town, a project?

A school:

 Clean city, clean resort and good service (and on the left: Mao Tze Tung Boulevard):

















This still amazes me, it is a series of piles of clothes, on the right, for instance, jeans. For sale?

Electricity:

 In the outskirts of Phnom Penh, the bus turned off the road we'd taken coming out, so I started paying attention, as I'd gathered that I could get off at "airport corner", which presumably came before the terminus. There were some stops, and I tried to communicate with the conductor, but he was busy looking for something and shook me off. After sighting a sign saying "Korean Air Freight" I asked again, looking at the driver and saying "Airport!", whereupon consternation reigned, the bus stopped at the side of the road, I was unloaded with my two bags and pointed back the way we'd come. So I trudged along a bit until a tuk-tuk driver came. He wanted $5 but accepted $4, and brought me to the airport back the way we'd come, about 15 minutes.

Side-saddle and speed-bump:

 
Phnom Penh airport was a lot bigger than Siem Reap and and procedures were efficient. A security lady even took my nail scissors off me, as I'd packed my toiletries in my hand baggage, by now thoroughly mixed up as to what should go where. I spent my last dollars on a pot of tea and an ice-cream, then boarded my first Air Asia plane for the 80 minute flight to Bangkok.

Cambodia from the air is brown and dry and ragged, with bushland and scattered villages. Thailand is almost as neat as Bavaria: clearly marked out green fields, orderly suburban settlements of new roads and houses, a cultivated, economically efficient country. Cambodia seemed just a big mess in comparison.

Thai fields from the air:

Happy to be back in a relatively developed country with an international airport I hoped I could rely on to get back to Australia the next day, I embarked on the last episode of today's journey. I wanted to go to the A-1 Inn in Pratunam near Siam Square to collect the bag I'd left there in a locker, then go to the New Siam Riverside Hotel on the Chao Phraya River a few blocks from Khao San Road in Bang Lamphu, which was maybe 8 km away.

The Airport Express Bus to the station Hualamphong, which went by Siam Square, would not come for half an hour, so I took the one going to Silom, not far away, planning on getting a taxi. The conductress suggested taking the Skytrain, but as it turned out, that was closed due to redshirts. I was the only passenger, we sped along the expressway and the driver dropped me at Silom. I took a taxi and we made it to Soi no. 1, Rama 1 road, by a roundabout route due to redshirt closures and communication problems. Near Silom we watched a squad of soldiers crossing the road on their way to containing redshirts (a curfew was put in place there the next evening), the taxi driver seemd to find this funny.

At the A-1 Inn, I searched for my storage receipt and found it after a while, unlocked the locker and retrieved my padlock and my bag, piling it onto the others in the taxi.
I then tried to explain where I wanted to go next, but after the hotel receptionist had written down the hotel and the address in Thai, the taxi driver said oh no no, not there, too far. Only for 300 baht. I said I did not want to pay 300 baht (about €7.50), and he said, then 200. OK, so he switched off his metre, by then at 95 Baht, and we drove across town to the hotel. I think he lost out on that one ...
The New Siam Riverside Guest House is my most upmarket accommodation, cable internet access, pool, right by the river, 1390 baht per night (about €33) with a smart receptionist and a porter for my 3 bags, also a lift to take me up to the 4th floor. I even gave the porter a 10 baht tip!


I wandered out towards Khao San Road and Rambuttri Soi, where I had a light meal, enjoying the feeling of being halfway back to normality. Leonardo di Caprio was playing in The Beach on a big screen.

Tomorrow evening I would be catching a flight to Melbourne. I'd seen at reception that staying beyond 11 am incurred a half-day charge, beyond 6 pm a full day. As I had some shopping to do and would like to shower and change before flying, I decided to pay a half-day more and spend my last hours in Bangkok in comfort.