We left Siem Reap and Cambodia for our next staging post, Thailand, a tad concerned about the border crossing at Poipet - Aranya Prathet. But then we always seem to have been concerned about a number of things...
The road out of Cambodia was a 'pig' of a road, a number of pigs actually, but otherwise a straight line to the border, which was a bit of a grim place with casinos and adverts about informing police about child sexploitation.
We got through the Cambodian border side, including the exit signature and stamp on the Carnet de Passage, with no hassles and even better, no 'fees'. We then crossed the Friendship Bridge to Thailand. Despite only spanning 20m and not seeming to be a bridge anyway, it had nonetheless been donated by a host of other countries. Maybe it was donated to the Cambodian side? It has seemed that almost all pieces of Infrastructure from hospitals to wells and roads seemed to have been donated there by some other country. And this for a country that should have gained quite a bit of money from selling off its branding rights and also selling Angkor Wat itself - which apparently belongs to a Vietnamese hotel chain. Where does all the money go? It was the one year birthday of the last election in Cambodia the day we were leaving. The previous Prime Minister who lost the election that day amended the result and gave himself another five years. David Cameron take note on how to do it - no need to spend money on polls and adverts. Not sure which party the Cambodian PM is these days, but the current PM was a leader in the Khmer Rouge before...
It was now getting very hot and formalities Thai side were somewhat longer. They wanted to see our Thai insurance, which we don't have, and they told us we had to go into town to get it. Or something like that. But they would have had to let us into Thailand first so we could buy it. Head scratching. In the end we showed them the out-of-date English Insurance which we said gave us Global cover - they might have been able to read the word insurance but nothing else - and things moved forward. But it was hard filling in the forms as the paper started getting very wet from the sweat dripping of Paul's head. It took over two hours to get us and the bike in, but we didn't pay anything, even for the visas. Just hoping we haven't created a problem for the exit (you might have guessed by now we stress ever so slightly over border crossings).
Our destination that day was Prachin Buri. We felt an immediate change once riding in Thailand; it is far more westernised, dare one say boring? Both from a driving and a photographing on the road point of view. We even stopped at a petrol station that had an ATM and an air-conditioned coffee shop! No more talk of road conditions or driving habits, instead busy roads and traffic lights. Oh, and just to make us feel at home, TESCO Lotus ( the flower, not the car). Perhaps they could boost their UK market share if they rebranded at home as TESCO Rose?
Our idea was to visit the Khao Yai National Park which is not far off Lake District size and has, amongst many other things, wild elephants. We had a guide for the day who took us trekking through the rainforest and showed us many creatures. We saw where the elephants had been and what they had eaten, but that was all we saw of them. The noises of the rest of the rain forest both during the
day was magnificent.
One night in Bangkok was the song title if we can remember it right but we were aiming for three. We planned to arrive on the Sunday as all our education had told us that the traffic was BAD in Bangkok. And to spice it up a bit, just like in China, motorcycles are not allowed to use the Bangkok Expressway. Who designed this? And for that extra bit of chilli we thought it would be good to be in the centre so we could walk around and be touristy. What happened to our education? The traffic wasn't that bad at all, just slow due to the very long traffic light sequences.
We tried the walking tourist bit despite lots of tuk-tuk offers. We were let down again by our understanding; we tried to go and see those floating markets everyone has photos of, but they aren't even in Bangkok! We did see the rather over the top Royal Palace with its Emerald Buddha supposedly stolen by the Thais according to the monk we met in Luang Prabang - Thai story slightly different... We said that rivers made cities, maybe that's a European thing because Bangkok, like Vientiane, doesn't make much out of theirs. We like walking in cities too and maybe that's a European thing too because Asian cities just don't seem good for that.
But of course there is a Harley dealer in Bangkok and we were welcomed with amazement, why would we want to ride a Harley Electraglide round the world, you could buy a BMW? One of the two Thai riders we had gravelled through China with, Patima, had been keeping Harley Bangkok informed of our (slow) progress. We managed to squeeze in a well deserved service for the bike with not too many broken bits, and we are now preparing to roll South now.
We have been travelling two months now and, although without illness, we do seem to have picked up some niggling allergies. Full face helmets might have been, well, more sensible but they are not the only not sensible thing we are doing. Better to get a real feel for a place and breathe it in. Breathe in the technicolour dust and all those fumes too; really appreciate a place. Far better than feeling trapped behind a plastic visor. Except we now have runny noses and are coughing and sneezing rather a lot.
And now en route towards Southern Thailand.
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