Back to Thailand - Friday 22 June onwards

Friday 22 June:

We got picked up at 8am and took the thirteen hour bus ride to Bangkok. It was a minibus which was already packed. I asked someone to move so that Carl and I could sit together. I wish I hadn’t because all through the six hour journey to the border I had to sit with my legs across Carl’s lap. The seat in front had fallen back and I was above the wheel arch so it was impossible for me to put my feet down. The six hour drive to the border of Cambodia was along an undeveloped road so it wasn’t the most comfortable journey. Apparently an unnamed airline company is paying the government money to delay the development of the road so that more people use their airline to cross the border.

Once we had crossed the border on foot we were met at the Thailand border by a beautiful (it was only beautiful at this time because of our dreadful journey in a thirty year old minibus) coach with had so much leg room. It was so nice especially as I was sipping beer out of a can in a lady like manner. We arrived at Khao San Road – our first real experience of Bangkok.

We booked into D&D Hotel where Jamie and Michelle stayed last time which was more than we wanted to pay but we would find somewhere cheaper tomorrow. Carl and I walked along Khao San Road and couldn’t believe how many freaks there were on this one little strip. We had a really good night though and got completely drunk.

Saturday 23 June:

D&D Hotel is one of the noisiest hotels. The walls and doors must be paper thin because we heard everything and everyone. I remember that when we got in at 3am this morning Carl tried our key in the wrong door. He was rattling the key and rattling the handle trying to get in until we heard a voice saying “excuse me” and then we hushed up and went next door to where our room was. I blame it on the Chang. When Carl drinks Chang beer something happens. It’s like the werewolf on a full moon. Chang beer could be anywhere from 6% to around 20% so you never know how strong the Chang beer you are drinking will be.

We checked out of the hotel and booked into Swansdee Bunglampoo Inn which was much nicer and we saved a bit of money.

Sunday 24 June:

Jamie and Michelle left for Pattaya so Carl and I pushed our hangovers to the back of our minds to say goodbye. We had a lazy day doing absolutely nothing. In the afternoon though we sat in a bar reading and then I decided to go shopping along the street which is full of stalls selling clothes, jewellery, DVDs etc. I had been gone for about half hour and had only done one half of the road. I hadn’t found anything but I did buy Carl a Thundercats t-shirt. I returned back to the bar to find that a Thai prostitute was talking to Carl. So of course I didn’t finish the other half of the road. I plonked my backside down next to Carl. This woman was awful. Most Thai women like the old men but this woman kept going on about how she liked them young and all the places she has had sex and so on. I think Carl had actually been shaking in his boots before I had got there. Carl had no idea that she was a prostitute and she said that as soon as she sat down Carl told her that he had a girlfriend who will be back any minute now. Aaahh. And she kept telling me not to take him anywhere because she had lost several of her boyfriends to blonde girls. I was actually thinking “you don’t loose your boyfriend to other girls, love. You loose them because you’re bonkers”. And that was that. She wanted to carry on drinking with us through the night but that was madness so Carl and I went to Cabbages & Condoms instead. It was a really nice restaurant which had condoms and fairy lights everywhere. I ordered the soft shell crab. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten but Carl’s food was delicious. It’s definitely worth a visit. Plus they give you two condoms at the end of your meal instead of chocolates.

Monday 25 June:

A bus picked us up at 7am to take us on a tour to the bridge over River Kwai, the Death Railway and also to the Temple of Tigers. These places were all around Kanchanaburi. Our first stop was to see the Allied War Cemetery. The cemetery holds the graves of over six thousand prisoners of war, most from Britain, who died building the bridge and death railway. This cemetery is a gift from the Thai people to remember these soldiers who died on their soil. The grounds are lovely and are well looked after.

We then stopped at the Jeath War Museum which is mostly a display of prisoners working on the death railway and is very close to the bridge. We walked over the bridge and it gave us a really weird feeling, especially after visiting the cemetery and war museum but it is such a beautiful place as well.

We took the train along the death railway which was also beautiful. It also gave us a horrible feeling though knowing that this railway was built by approximately 300,000 prisoners of war under the control of the Japanese. After the first year of building this bridge most of the prisoners were in such a poor state because of the beatings they received and the poor diet.

The Tiger Temple was our last stop. This place is why most people come on this tour. It’s run by monks who provide a home for orphaned cubs and they stay here until they are ready to be released into the wild. Unfortunately the elder tigers don’t have enough instinct to survive in the wild but the young cubs are trained and then released. We were taken around all five tigers, stroking each one while a member of staff took a picture. They aren’t behind cages. They are just chained to a heavy piece of rock. All the tigers looked so dopey though and we thought they were drugged up but were assured that they weren’t. I got to hold a playful young cub and it was like holding a teddy bear. Afterwards we had to hide behind trees while the staff used catapults to scare other animals away. The tigers were being led back to their cages. What a great day! Seeing the death railway and bridge over River Kwai was my highlight though.

Tuesday 26 June:

We caught a minibus to Pattaya today but Carl and I were the only ones leaving Bangkok to go to Pattaya. The minibus driver drove around the same area for about forty minutes until he decided to take us back to the travel agent he had picked us up from. Here we were told that we had to go to the main bus station because it wasn’t worth their while taking us. So we drove another forty five minutes to the bus depot. We would have been half way to Pattaya now but we hadn’t even left Bangkok. So we got on the bus and realised the ticket was 150 baht cheaper that the price of the minibus but the skanks didn’t give us a refund.

Jamie had booked us into Mark Land Hotel and we had our own apartment which was great. We had cutlery, glasses, fridge and even a microwave. Heaven. Jacket potatoes were moving closer and closer at the sight of this microwave. Even though I prefer my done in the oven.

Wednesday 27 June:

We did absolutely nothing all day. We did manage to go out in the evening with everyone and had such a fab time. I must explain that Pattaya is the sex capital of Thailand. Oh my Lord. It all goes on here right in front of your face. Prostitutes and lady boys are everywhere you turn. Hundreds of them. You can’t go into a bar without there being prostitutes at the door. They work there of course. I went to the toilet in one bar but the toilet was behind several bars and you had to pay to go so they were quite clean. As I walked to the toilet, on my right was a very large glass window which I glanced at out of the corner of my eye and saw about thirty women in really nice dresses sitting on a stage. There was one really fat mama as well that I couldn’t help but notice. On my way back from the toilet I looked again out of curiosity and noticed that these women were in fact prostitutes and on the other side of the glass were sofas where men were sitting with a drink in their hand while they chose which prostitute they would have tonight. I couldn’t believe it. I had been there long enough for me to exchange a wave to the women and then I did a runner.

We found a bar which I can’t remember the name to but we stayed here for most of the night – and morning. We made friends with Jenny (our lady boy friend who has a boyfriend in Leeds), the prostitutes and their pimp who we called mama. She owned the joint. Jenny’s role is to be DJ (on a tape player) for the night at the back of the bar. Jenny says that it’s because she’s too old now to stand at the front and bring in customers. We really liked Jenny. She is absolutely lovely and fantastic at pool. Whipped Carl and Jamie’s backside several times. She had the hots for Jamie we think. She started off wiping his sweat with a tissue but by the end of the night she used her hands. Mama is a little round thing who reminds me of a bubble. She wears her hair like Princess Leah but the buns are really wonky. She’s so cute. There’s a lady boy who works on the door and is kind of stunning but a real bitch. A lady boy (who looked more like a boy than a lady) walked past with a really old man and our lady boy started throwing ashtrays at her/him. She had her butt cheeks hanging out and I must say if I had a butt like that I would show it off too. I am very jealous of that butt. You could crack nuts with it. We stayed here until about 3am and they made loads of money out of us but then we did draw really rude pictures of lady boys all over their walls.

Jamie came back to ours because he had to stay up until 6am to collect a key off one of his friends who was checking out. Carl stayed up with him until about 3.30am (yep, he lasted half an hour) and I stayed up until about 6.30am finishing my bottle of wine.

Thursday 28 June:

As I didn’t get to bed until 7am we did absolutely sweet FA. We woke up at about 11am and in the late afternoon went to Tesco to get some drinks, wine, jacket potatoes, beans and cheese. Carl and I stayed in and cuddled up on our sofa watching movies with our spud dinner. It was heaven and our first taste of what home will be like. Can’t wait.

Friday 29 June:

Me and Carl went to watch Transformers at the cinema and it was fab. Absolutely brilliant. Loved everything about it apart from the fact that this cinema didn’t do sweet popcorn – only salty – which I hate. But you can’t go to watch a film without popcorn so I had to eat salty.

After the film we thought we would have a bit of a wonder and came across Soi 6. Blimey. As soon as we arrived in Pattaya a few days ago we already sensed that this was the sex capital of Thailand even possibly the world but this one little street is something else. I have never seen anything like it in my life but I’m glad something good came out of it. The street is lined on both sides with sex bars, one after the other, with about ten girls outside each one just waiting for that dirty, wrinkly man to walk up to them. A curtain divides the outside from the inside and inside there are loads of poles and cushions and upstairs is where the bedrooms are. Carl clung on to my very tightly as we walked up this road and I made sure that I clung on to him. There was even a place called barely legal. The good thing about this street? Half way up was Queen Victoria. A proper English pub. On the menu was bangers and mash, cottage pie, Sunday roast, jacket potato, toad in the hole to name a few. It was heaven and worth walking up that street for. We were so excited when we told Jamie and Michelle. We ate here in the evening but the main attraction was watching this lady boy across the road who looked like a string of spaghetti. Actually that’s wrong. A string of spaghetti on a diet.

We had a drink back in our local bar but there was an accident outside which ruined the evening. A motorcyclist had ran over a dog and was lying motionless in the road. I looked across the road to where the squealing was coming from and it was the injured dog trying to get up a curb. He had obviously broken his back in the accident and was in so much pain. The squealing was unbearable. He crawled off to die.

Saturday 30 June:

We all went to the English pub for lunch and the main topic of conversation was where we were going next. We decided that me, Carl, Michelle and Jamie would stick together for another week – well it has been about a month already – so our next place would be Koh Tao.

Sunday 1 July:

We could only get to Koh Tao from Bangkok so had to get the bus back there. We didn’t rush to check out because neither of us wanted to get to Bangkok in a hurry and we’d have to stay overnight to catch the bus to the coast anyway. Once we had checked back into our hotel in Bangkok we found out that we could have left straight away on a bus to the coast so we were a bit annoyed. Carl and I went out in the evening and sat on a balcony in a bar looking at all the freaks. There were so many of them that Carl had to go back to the hotel and get the camera. A woman on crutches came past with her boob hanging out. She went for ages along the street until her friend looked round and tucked it back in. A big man walked past with the worst homemade cut off jeans you could imagine. They were so short they could have easily been mistaken for a thong.

Cambodia - Monday 18 June to Thursday 21 June

Monday 18 June:

We caught the six hour bus ride to Phnon Pehn in Cambodia. As we didn't arrive until late me and Carl disappeared to the Frog & Parrot and played Jenga and Scrabble. No one will believe this but I won at Scrabble. We didn't play for points though which is probably why.

Tuesday 19 June:

A tuk-tuk driver (we bought him a beer last night) took me, Carl, Michelle and Jamie to the killing fields and S-21. He seemed to be the only one who wore the biggest crash helmet but we felt quite safe.

The Killing Fields which isn't as big as it sounds holds 129 mass graves, 43 of which have never been tampered with. Men, women and children were executed here in many different ways by the Khymer Roughe between 1975 and 1978. 300 people a day were killed. There was also a huge stupa which acts as a memorial to all 17,000 people who were killed here and holds the skulls of over 8,000 people including clothes which were found. A very depressing place but one that people should be aware of.

Svay Prey High School (S-21) obviously used to be a school but in 1975 Pol Pot's security forces turned it into a prison where they killed at least one hundred people a day. Men, women and children were brought here to be tortured and those unlucky enough to survive were then taken to the killing fields to be 'finished off'. This place gave off a more eerie feeling than the killing fields. It still looked like a school but everywhere you looked, whether it be the classrooms or the corridors, you were reminded of the terrible things that happened here. Five classrooms were full of large boards which held passport pictures of all those brought here and you could see the terror in their eyes. It was so sad. One room was dedicated to the few that survived (only six in total) and also Pol Pot himself (his photo had been removed because of vandals - you can understand why) and the torturers. By each picture was an explanation of where these people are today.

Wednesday 20 June:

The bus to Siem Reap took six hours. We stopped half way for a quick five minute break where they were selling caramelised crickets, cockroaches and fried tarantulas. On the floor was a bucket full of live tarantulas which you could take away with you. We didn’t arrive in Siem Reap until 7.30pm.

Thursday 21 June:

Carl and I chose to see the small circuit of Angkor Wat. We were told that we would be bored after a couple of hours so only bought a one day ticket. Our tuk-tuk driver took us around all day and told us which each ruin was. He was very helpful and you definitely need someone like that at Angkor. You have to hire a tuk-tuk because all the ruins are too far spaced out. As we entered Angkor we drove around the huge moat which circles Angkor Wat. It was really pretty. Our first stop was Raven Village and as soon as we walked up to the ruin a young boy came up to us and gave me a wooden bracelet. He was all teeth and gums and was so sweet. As we walked around the ruin he kept following us but stayed on the ground and kept shouting up that we had to buy a drink because he gave me a bracelet. So we did.

We absolutely loved Angkor Wat and didn’t get fed up with it once. To us it wasn’t a case of ‘once you’ve seen one ruin, you’ve seen them all’. We could have carried on but the weather was scorching that day. We got there at 10am and left at 3.30pm and managed to complete the short circuit. The ruins which impressed us most was Angkor Wat, Ta Prohn, Terrace of Elephants and Ta Keo.

Angkor Wat is huge. It’s the largest temple, standing sixty five metres high. The moat surrounding it is huge as is the bridge crossing over the moat. It didn’t impressive us as much as we thought it would. A lot of the other ruins were more impressive. But the size of this ruin is what makes it amazing. As we walked up the stairs a monkey was sitting at the top. Carl joked as he walked past the monkey about making sure that it didn’t bite me. What did it do when I walked past? It grabbed my leg with both hands and bit my leg. It really hurt but luckily it didn’t draw blood and I’m sure it was just playing because it could have had my blood if it wanted to. I kicked it off and then it bit a local guy.

Ta Prohn is where Tomb Raider was filmed and the ruin is amazing. Enormous trees are growing through the ruin and pulling down the building. There is a lot of work going on here though to try and keep it in its original state. All stones which have fallen are being numbered and put back in place. Many areas are shut off because it is too dangerous but with the chambers, halls, trees and wooden walkways around the ruin, it is easily our favourite.

The Terrace of Elephants is another favourite. It is not a building as such, rather a very long and high platform with elephants and other animals carved into the stone.

Ta Keo is a temple which stands fifty metres high. We climbed to the very top using the extremely small steps which are just about big enough for a two year old to walk up. You had to walk up sideways. On the way back down Carl was having a bit of a moment. I took a picture of him on his way down and he said ‘stop f’ing laughing at me because it’s not funny’. He’s not very good with heights.