The Cheat. Trip to Thailand for a week.

The coin flipped and Thailand won, I was actually relieved in some way. The trip to southern Laos didn’t sound overly interesting from people I talked to and it was also going to put me days away from the things in Cambodia I wanted to see.

Anyways the friendship bridge greeted me the next morning. What I completely forgot in all of the planning of my route was my Thai visa… yeap I spent days in Vientiane  and in the end forgetting this… I hit the border and checked out of Laos with no problems apart from lots of confusion as to where I had to go and who I had to bride to get my bike through, in the end I gave the dude my bottle of Lao-Lao (whisky) and waved away, so much cheaper than when I entered Laos.

On the Thai side it was even worse, I had gone through the customs and passport control then asked how I get my bike and then they promptly asked me with guns drawn to empty my bike contents out for inspection… 2 hours later and a x-ray on my body I was aloud to go. I still have no idea why I was targeted by they were extremely interested in my bike, must have been the Vietnam plates.

Anyways I was in Thailand, WELCOME. I had a visa for 15 days, no where near enough time to see the country so, I pulled into the first thing I could see after the border. A 7 Eleven! Clearly I was in a “westernized” country again, otherwise there wouldn’t be a 7 eleven on every corner. 

Parked at the train station
ready for loading

Bought a map and looked at the ground I had to cover. If I wanted to spend any time in Bangkok or get to Cambodia around Christmas I would have to do a lot of KM to get there then move on with no time to see anything. I took the easy way, I drove all day then pulled into a town with a railway station. Bought myself a ticket with a sleeper and booked my bike on as well. I was heading directly to Bangkok.

Im going to leave the day to day accounts here. I spent a lot of time in Bangkok but most was relaxing, I had been on the bike every day for a month and needed some serious beer time, hell I was in Bangkok after all!

While in Bangkok I did manage to see lots of the sights by foot and Tuk Tuk.

The Giant relining Buddha and royal temple was awe-inspiring. It was completely covered in gold with mother of pearl on the souls of Buddha’s feet. The temples around were covered in glass and mirror pieces that made them sparkle as you walked around.

In the center of the Palace area was the great Jade Buddha. A Buddha carved out of a single piece of Jade and the largest of its kind in the world. The temple was amazing and had paintings on all the walls telling the story of how Buddha came to this place and how the king of Thailand came to be… I sat in the temple for a good 40 min listening to the monks prays, it was a really quite mesmerising.  

The palace was beautiful as well, it had a very French feel to it and the guards even looked like the European royal guards.

I was able to catch the Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn) at sunset and have a nice relaxing beer over the riverside.

While in Bangkok I also took a day trip out to see the floating markets, there’s a large number of them and I can not remember the name of the one I visited but it was a good 2 hours out of the city.

The markets themselves where nothing overly special in comparison to others ive been to in Asia, but the food there was amazing!
 Small boats on the side of the river offering fresh seafood and meals for 1-2$. I pigged out and took a small boat ride around the markets, before heading back to Bangkok for the evening.

The rest of the 5 days I spent in Bangkok I used to try and find some new shoes… you would think in 7 major retail shopping centers in Thailand you could find some shoes that are 13.5, but it would appear the largest they have is 12. So no new shoes my ones that are falling to bits will have to do.

The shopping centers were not without mention either, I was in one that had Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini on the 2^nd floor of the shopping center, you can only imagine the things that were on the ground floor at the entrance…

Another center was made out to look like a airport, it was called Terminal 27. Each floor was a different themed country, Italy, England, China, Japan… they were all there and the shops had fronts that made it look like you had entered the place. Each level also greeted you with gate 2, 3, 4 whatever as in the floors… it was very cool, but super expensive.

The nightlife in Bangkok didn’t disappoint either, I had a great time heading out on the town with some friends I met and it was very easy to see how you could get into trouble. But a hell of allot of fun with the locals ;)

I left Bangkok after 5 days, and had enough of the city. It was nice to be in a place with subways and cars but it was time I got away from the big city again. A friend of mine in Japan told me about a small town called Pattaya, that was “fun” so that’s were I headed next.

On the way I stopped off at a free range zoo, this was fun as I was on my bike and able to ride in and around all the enclosures. It was a zoo and all the usual African animals, but what I found funny was the wild monkeys sitting on the cages. The zoo keepers trying to shoo them away.

It was a beach side city with more pubs and clubs that I could hit up in a year… definitely a fun spot. I spent the days on the beach swimming and the nights partying. Oh Thailand was going to be expensive but so much fun.

I only stayed in Pattaya for 1 day, it was all I needed to see what it was about and I had enough party time in Bangkok.

My visa was getting close to finishing, my Cambodian visa was opening up the next day, so I headed for the border and the following day entered into Cambodia.

So it was only a short 9 days out of 15 on my visa, and I will come back and see the “real” Thailand as I have no doubt that I have missed 99% of the country. But this was a detour at the end of the day.

Either way it was fun, I enjoyed the nightlife and the city… it was nice for a change not to have to worry about drinking water and ice cubes and to have fast internet to update my blog.

Time to head back into the unknown, Cambodia here I come!...

Till next time have fun!

Steffen.