Since I last spoke to you, after giving up on the strange idea that was put into my head by a fellow traveller to go and see Pol Pot's grave on the Cambodian/Thai border north of Siam Reap (incidently it was also here that the son of one of ex-leaders of the Khmer Rouge now works as a tourist guide by the way)... I then decided to make use of the time that I had left on my Cambodian visa by getting stuck into visiting a couple of quirky museums instead.

Learning more about the recent history of the country... speaking to a below-knee-amputee landmine victim (who then went on to let me feel the ball-bearings that were permanently lodged in his arms and his remaining full leg)... visiting these mini-exhibitions (and meeting him) meant that it was a strange end to a strange month as it goes.

In fact, looking at it from a broader perspective actually, and in me summing up the time I spent in Cambodia, I guess you could say that if I thought about the things I saw around me whilst I was a tourist there too much, I'd probably end up in a very confused, upside-down, inside-out state to say the least. So instead, and for the purposes of this blog, I will just say that Cambodia is a mad old thought-provoking place indeed. It's much easier that way I feel.

So... with my visa time running out in the Land of the Khmers, it soon became time for me to head west over the border into Thailand, with my plan of action being to travel the 450ish km overland from Siam Reap to Bangkok on a direct bus service I had seen advertised.

Ha ha!

And what a journey it was!

The lady who I bought my bus ticket from saw me coming didn't she!

Well it is the first time I ever bought a ticket for a bus that didn't exist anyway!

Instead, on the morning of the journey, a dirty old white car rolled up to take me to the border would you believe... the back seat of which both me and my bag were going to have to share with 3 other passengers as well!

It was never going to happen. Lucky it didn't in the end (as we were all pretty big people)... and as luck would have it, another car had to be rather reluctantly pulled into the equation as well.

So... five minutes later and there we were. Bombing along. May I take this opportunity to introduce you to the occupants of the car before I move on though... the 3 French guys, the local cap-wearing driver, oh and me of course. Not that this is important... but I just like to keep you in the picture, that's all.

Anyway. What a road. I have never, ever been on (and off) a road like it. Most of it never even existed in fact (I did read from one source that up until very recently, the government were not showing too much of an interest in upgrading the route as it goes, as they were receiving a bit of a back-hander from an airline who were keen to keep the tourists between Cambodia and Thailand off the road and in the air)...

Ha ha... it was a nightmare! It almost took over the Nemesis as being my favourite ride even!

After a bit of the old "oohh laa laa'ing" from the French guys here and there, we eventually made it to the border though... and at which point my bags were dumped on the dusty road, oh and it was a case of "see you later mate" from the driver of the car as well.

Nice one!

What an awful place it was to be in. Border towns give me the creeps. Fun but nasty.

And this place?

Dusty roads, strange people, big casinos and not a lot else really.

Passport check one. Passport check two. And then I was in Thailand. Thank god! (No bribes paid this time may I add!)

Anyway... according to the car driver from the first part of my journey, once I was on the Thai side, the plan was for me to show this piece of paper I had in my hand (the receipt the bus-ticket lady gave me in Siam Reap) to "somebody at the market" there.

Ha ha! "Like that one's going to work" I was thinking to myself at the time!

As the story goes though... I am surprised to say I soon found out that it did all fall together quite nicely actually. Well sort of anyway.

At this point may I introduce you to the thought process of the person running the Thai-side of the tourist-bus scam:

"It's 12 midday. Let's get all these farangs (foreigners) who are coming through the border with these bus ticket receipts all grouped up together. Then let's make them wait in the heat until 3pm before boarding them on a bus to Bangkok. At this point we'll get the bus driver to drive really slowly, and before they know it they'll be getting off the bus in Bangkok after dark. They will be so tired and naffed off when they do so, that they will jump all over our taxi-driver mates offering to give them lifts to their accommodation- where both the journey to which and the room at which will be way overpriced- and as a result we can go on to line our pockets with some extra money from these tourists (without them being any the wiser of course)..."

So... in a nutshell... the road journey from Siam Reap to Bangkok (when the Cambodian's finally fix their side of the road) should really take no more than 6-7ish hours (this including the passport paperwork at the border).

My journey ended up taking a tactical 12 hours. It didn't bother me in the slightest though. But it took 12 long, drawn-out hours none the less.

I left Siam Reap at 7:30ish am and I got to Bangkok at a similar time in the evening.

(Ha ha! Repeat after me... "Matt you was scammed!")

Anyway... Bangkok...

The bus stopped and we all got off. It was dark and we appeared to be at the junction of a very big road with no buildings on it (the sort of place you'd only stop at if your car happened to break-down there perhaps).

For me, rule number one of me being in a new strange city in a strange dark place without a clue of where it is I am to go, is to get myself out of the strange dark place as safely and as soon as is possible. (Not that this is overkill or anything by the way... I mean this place was hardly the bronx... but then again it was hardly your average heavingly-busy city-centre bus station either)...

So... back to the story... and I got my bag from under the bus, before I then went on to have the pleasure of meeting my very first Bangkok taxi driver (a guy who was undoubtedly in on the bus scam).

Have you ever met an English-speaking Thai guy who works in Bangkok's tourism industry?

Well, for those of you who haven't... these guys are cool. Like super cool. They've got the lingo, they've got their own funky way of dressing, and... oh yes... they've got that smile of theirs too. That unmistakeable smile. Judging by the number of tourists they must see, sometimes you can see through the smile as the eyes don't do it with the mouth, but it doesn't matter though. Their whole general demeanour of coolness makes any little bit of cool that you think you have about yourself disappear and hide somewhere within a flash anyway.

And my taxi-driver? Yeah he was the above. But as impressive as his chat was about all the hostels being booked up in an approximately 600 mile radius, oh and that he would have to drive me to a special office in order to find "a good deal" as a result, he was still talking to a brick wall however (due to me being in SE Asia for over 2 months now, I suppose you could say that I heard it all before... just in different formats and different situations that's all)...

Anyway... I was loving the randomness of the whole experience... I was loving him... I was loving the madness of the street he dropped me off at... In short I was loving Bangkok.

And that is where I am at now.

A rather uninspired definition of it actually, would be to call it a modern city that belongs to the world perhaps. The atmosphere here is like the mad big metropolises I travelled through in China, the mad lad's holidays I have been on in the Med, and the chaos I know that is London- all rolled into one extraordinarily big heaving mass of people, buildings, sights, smells and sounds.

Please excuse me whilst I explore this strange place.

Speak soon ;o)