From Siem to Bangkok....

On 10 August, we traveled from Siem Reap to Bangkok.  We woke up around five in the morning to catch our bus at six.  Actually, it was a shuttle to our bus, which left at six-thirty.

We arrived at the boarder around ten-thirty, and it took us over an hour to get through immigration--both on the Cambodian side and the Thai side.  Then we were taken in a tuk-tuk to a small restaurant to wait for our shuttle bus.  Unfortunately, we were one of the last in our group to come through immigration, so we were on the third shuttle bus.  This would have been fine except that each shuttle bus has twelve seats and will not leave unless all twelves seats are occupied.  This meant that shuttle buses one and two came and went pretty quickly and within half an hour of each other, but we were stuck waiting because we were two people shy of twelve.

We started to feel anxious because we needed to be in Bangkok before five in order to get to the train station to meet up with Clarissa and catch our train up to Chaing Mai.  We were not the only ones.  A couple sitting near us were in a near-panic because their flight was at four-thirty.  Good advice for the future: if you're going to travel from Siem Reap to Bangkok, give yourself all day to do so.

Around one, we finally got the other two people and were off.  We made it to Bangkok around three.  Nikki and I exchanged our money and then took a taxi to the train station.  We looked around for Clarissa but couldn't find her, so we decided to get our train tickets (after I asked the information guy if it was possible to purchase some and he warned me that they were going quickly) and hope she made it in time.  As we were standing in line, she came in the front doors.  We bought tickets for the seven-thirty train (due to arrive in Chaing Mai around ten the next morning) and then relaxed in the station, grabbing some food and just trying to catch each other up on our adventures.

The train to Chaing Mai was nice.  At first it is set out like seats that then fold into beds.  They weren't too shabby either.  We played cards and just talked until the train staff came around and started making everyone's beds.  The only bummer is that they don't turn off the lights.