Well the crossing from Cambodia to the Thailand border is unusual!
We booked our $12 dollar (note they wanted to charge us $15) trip from Siam Reap to Bangkok, but soon found out there was another little scam going on. The back street or bus station told us on arrival that the bus had broken down and we all had to pay another 3 dollars to the border by Taxi. Although once we set off we knew why. A taxi would be better, as the road had deliberately been reduced to a dirt road in the name of progress, because the Bangkok airline has quietly been re-housing the local government officials to keep the progress slow.
Anyway, we found Bangkok very modern and quite impressive. The Metro is small but the newest we have seen up to now, and the sky train is very good and efficient. We stayed at Khaoson Road (this road is another world just for hippy holiday makers) any where else in the city they would stand out like sore thumbs. We visted the super new malls and had the day in the super new aquarium were you dive with the sharks. We only stayed for 3 nights so we could get down to Koa Tao Island and book into a sailing course. We organised our Indian Visa in Bangkok too, so we can pick it up on the 29th ($130). Well here's the web site for the sailing:
http://www.island-cruises.org/
It turns out that the business is being run by an East German guy in his 40's who found a half completed boat project in Australia and spent all his money and time for a year getting it afloat then sailing it to Thailand back in 2000.
Hello Clive Bostock - we are finally getting that course under our belt so we will hopefully be some use on the sailing front in a couple of weeks time if you want a crew.
By the way I hope the Croatian cruise went well and all is well with you and the family.
Unfortunately we would have put some photos on, but we put our camera case down and turned around in Bangkok Its acts like a magic trick! It disappears! Luckily we only lost the card reader to add photos on to the Blog. Thailand is quite open about corruption, its seems the in thing.
Thailand is open about alot of things! and if you are a man of any age and you like wearing ladies clothes then its ok. Buddhists preech that as long as you don't kill anyone then its up to you how you live your life, as long as you feel it is not harming anybody. Seems a reasonable policy, although I have been quite confused a few times who is who? chuckle.
We have had 2 days on the boat and a day doing chart work - Remember that Clive Donaldson! Hope things are good?
We are living in a wooden shack on the beach with a fan and our own mosquito nets for 400 Bhats a night ( 6 pounds ) and have a choice of going to see the Thai boxing or the drag show! he he.
