Welcome Home

So my last “travel blog” is going to be a bit of a cheat: I’m actually back at home now. I’m allowing myself this concession because I figured some people might want to know that I made it home safe and sound, and because I had always planned on writing one more blog from the road, events just happen to conspired against me and in the end it came down to writing a blog or making my plane on time, and well, I opted for the plane.

My last leg of the journey was the bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok. This bus ride is supposed to be the second worst one you can do in South East Asia (the worst being the bus from Vientiane to Hanoi). In the end the bus trip actually wasn’t THAT bad. I think it took something like twelve hours and it certainly was a washboard road for most of the journey, but I actually think the trip from Don Det to Phnom Penh was worse for me. The Phnom Penh trip was about the same length, the road wasn’t as bad for as long, but where it was bad it was horrible, and the bus I had from Don Det was way worse than the one from Siem Reap. That being said I did have to depart the Siem Reap bus via the window because the bags were clogging up the aisle and I was jammed with knees up to my chin the entire way so maybe I should call them even. I think the big difference was that the air conditioning actually worked on the Siem Reap bus and it still had some shocks left so the bumps weren’t quite as bad. Many things could have conspired to make that trip much much worse than it was. I also didn’t have any issues at the Cambodian border as I was leaving the country so maybe the trip is particularly bad if you do it from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Strangely the visa also seems to cost more if you enter that way but I’ll leave why up to your speculation.

Arriving back in Bangkok for the fifth time on the trip was actually quite a pleasant experience. I think because I started my trip there and because I now know the city decently well it almost felt like I was coming home. Yes it’s Bangkok, it’s loud, smelly, the air quality sucks, and a good chunk of people are trying to scam you, but that is really just part of the charm of the city. It gives it character and I think I actually appreciate that now. I didn’t stay in Bangkok very long however as I got the mini bus driver (I wound up on a mini bus from the Cambodian border to Bangkok) to drop me off at the main train station and then immediately jump a train north to Ayutthava where I was planning on spending two of my last three nights.

The train ride up was a pleasant experience. I wound up sitting across from an Ex-Pat who told me a decent amount of history about the area and where I should go in Ayutthava. Leaving the train I stole a ride into town with a couple of other back packers and set out to find a place to stay for the next couple nights. I should point out that the Lonely Plant map of Ayutthava isn’t quite right so finding the main ‘back packer street’ (which should be used very loosely as it really only had about 4 guesthouses on it and almost no other back packer amenities) was a little trickier but after asking for directions, and in turn making some friends with whom I’d spend the next day with, I was able to drop off my bag, grab some dinner, and turn in for the night.

The town of Ayutthava itself is not particularly exceptional. It’s quite small and quiet and was perfect for winding down for the last couple days of my trip. It also has some decent ruins to see around the city so I rented a bike and went out exploring with my new friends the next day. The ruins were probably some of the best ones I’d seen in Thailand but I had just been to Angkor Wat the day before so I was a little biased and didn’t spend as much time with them as I would have earlier on the trip. Still, it was fun to bike around the city and quite a lovely afternoon on a whole.

The next day I took the train back to Bangkok. I should mention that the train ride was about two hours long and only 15 Baht (about 50 cents) each way. Once in Bangkok I found a decent guesthouse on Rambuttri (just off of Khao San Road), went out to MBK to do some shopping and then set out to make some new friends and for my last night on the town. How much fun was my last night you may be asking? Well, let’s just say that the reason I didn’t write my last blog in Bangkok as because I woke up at 12:05pm the next day and checkout was at noon. I quickly had to shower, pack, eat breakfast and then catch a cab to the airport to catch my flight.

The flight back wasn’t actually that bad at all. After taking so many 10+ hour bus rides it was incredibly easy to do a 5 hour flight and then an 11 hour one where I got to watch movies on demand. The strangest thing was that I left Bangkok at around 5pm and then flew all night to arrive at Seattle at 7pm where it was thankfully sunny for another 2 hours before getting dark again. Essentially because I then had to take a bus up to Vancouver that didn’t get me in until 4am I had been in the dark for almost 24 hours. After my 4am arrival I got a few hours of sleep and then headed out for a much deserved welcome back to the country Canada Day celebration.

I think that’s where the story of this trip ends. Over the next couple of weeks I plan on going back over the blogs, fixing some spelling and maybe adding a little more and then doing a best of trip reflection. I am also going to put up some pictures from Siem Reap and Ayuttaya but at the moment my camera isn’t speaking to my computer so I need to go find a decent shrink to solve the problem. Thanks to everyone who read along, I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. Really now all that’s left is for people to take me out for a beer in order to get the stories that never made it into the blog for various reasons. :)