Phnom Penh to Bangkok
Today we got up at 4:48 am and plugged in an electric kettle for instant coffee. We ate our sticky rice with fresh mango for breakfast and washed it down with Nescafe. Ugh. Our driver Mr Sandy was a few minutes late, he seems to have slept in because his alarm failed to work. Our hotel man phoned Mr Sandy and he was there to pick us up in 10 minute. HIs hair was still a bit sleepy looking and trying to button his shirt. In the end we had to wait at the airport to check in. We were there about 15 minutes too early.
The check-in, passport control, security and screening went very soothly. Shoes off, belts off, the usual thing. Once again we had to ditch a brand new bottle of water we got from the hotel.
Our flight loaded quickly, we were off in no time and on the ground in Bangkok in less than 2 hours.
Once we passed through immigration, picked up our bags, hit an ATM for Thai Baht, then we got a SIM card for our mobile phones. The cost was 649 Thai Baht which is $27.50 CAD. Over $1/day each for phone service. We paid $5 USD in Cambodia for up to a month ( but was only there 3 days) and $8 USD for a month in Vietnam (our stay was 20 days).
We hired a cab for 500 Thai Baht for the 45 minute trip to the Centre Point Pratunam hotel. Once we got checked in we crashed. Something about getting up early and flying is hard on the body. It really wears you down. Our Sticky rice was starting to wear thin by then. We got up after 90 minutes of snoozing and walked around and found a Thai restaurant. Back to the hotel to check out the laundry facility and then we went for a walk. By then it was getting dark.
The buildings around here are tall and the roads are narrow. Our side of our hotel is on a wide street but the front is on an streets no wider than a back alley at home. it is cray how narrow the roads are here in places.
The weather is Bangkok is hot. The weather at home is -33C with a wind chill of -46C. There are times when we miss the cold, but only for a moment as we are crowded on a narrow street passing food carts with deep fryers and people smoking cigarettes. Car and tuk tuk exhaust and smoke. We are wandering around Bangkok in flip flops t-shirts and shorts. By 6:30 pm our underarm secret was worn off. Its almost 9pm and we are ready to crash again for the second time today!
