I decided to get the train to Nong Khai, in the North East of Thailand, in order to renew my visa. I had only been in Thailand for 1 week, but as the Tourist Visa Exemption was 15 days, I wanted to get another 15 days whilst I still had the chance and there was no pressure to renew it.

I got on an overnight sleeper train in Bangkok, headed for Nong Khai. I had two options when buying the ticket: either air-conditioning or fan-cooled. I opted for the fan option as it was cheaper and sounded more fun. On the train I met 3 French people, one boy and 2 girls; the boy and 1 of the girls were on an exchange programme and the other girl was the cousin of the boy, travelling with them to Laos just for fun. The boy had an internship with BK Magazine, which I had read in order to get the recommendations for seeing Sukhumvit (see previous post), so I knew roughly where he was working. We had a chat until it was time to go to sleep, with one of the girls not knowing much English, the other enthusing about Australia and the boy asking what it was like travelling alone, as he wanted to do the same thing in future. We arrived in Nong Khai about 4 hours late, after a very sweaty night on the train.

Whilst having my breakfast on the train (toast, coffee and orange juice), I got talking to a bloke who had been drinking since the first time I saw him the day before. He was actually really friendly and we got on really well and he offered to help me find my way around Nong Khai, which he did and ended up paying the quite large amount for the tuk-tuk to the centre. Whilst in the centre of Nong Khai, I tried to change money in a bank without having to get out Thai Baht and get it converted to US Dollars. Someone in the bank suggested that they accepted Baht at the border, so I went anyway, without any Dollars.

I said goodbye to my friend in Nong Khai, as I thought it would be boring for him to follow me around for a few hours whilst I got my visa renewed. This was a bit difficult as even though we had known each other for only an hour or so, we got on well and he was asking if I wanted to stay at his house. I had to say no, as I knew getting my visa renewed was the only reason I was in Nong Khai.

Once at the border, I decided that I would try and get my Thai visa renewed without having to pay the $35 for the Laos visa. I got stamped-out of Thailand and got a bus across the ‘friendship bridge’ to Laos. The bloke in the immigration office said that I could try getting back into Thailand and that all I would need to do was get a bus back again. This I did, but the Thai immigration couldn’t find the Laos visa, so sent me back across the bridge. I got back on another bus and was back at the Laos immigration soon after, where I got some money changed and paid the $35 for the Laos visa. Here, after paying the $35 for the visa, the immigration officer asked me for $1. As I knew this was a bribe, I questioned the reason for me having to pay it. What he was saying was a load of rubbish, but he started to get aggressive, hovering over my visa with a cancellation stamp. Basically, what he was saying was that if I didn’t pay $1, he was going to cancel my visa. I didn’t know if he was going to go through with it, but I made the mistake of saying I had Thai Baht and ended up paying him 40 Baht, which is just over a Dollar. I got a receipt, but I don’t think it was of much use, as it all seemed official.

Once in Laos, I decided to get on a bus to Vientiane, as the visa had been so expensive. I was in Vientiane about 40 minutes later and asked some backpackers where the best place to look for accommodation was. A tourist from Thailand helped me get a tuk-tuk, which took me to the main tourist area, where I found a good hotel.

The next day, as I was planning to go to Vang Vieng, I decided to look it up online. Without a guide book, all the information I had was telling me that it was a bit of a hell-hole and sounded like just the sort of place I didn’t want to go to. I decided to spend the day in Vientiane and go to the Kaysone Phomvihane Museum, getting a bus to Luang Prabang the next day.

Once back in Vientiane, I decided to sit by the riverside and watch the sun going down, finishing off the remnants of a soy-bean type drink and a baguette I had got earlier. As I was sitting down, a novice monk came and started talking to me. We talked for about an hour and we said goodbye after he had pointed out a good restaurant for me to eat in later. I got name of the temple he lived in, but my phone has died, so I can’t find the name!

Here I spent a few days before heading off to Nong Khai, on the border with Laos. I did see one or two ladyboys, but not as many as I was expecting!

I got to Bangkok on an unexciting bus ride from Chanthaburi. This was especially unexciting, as once we had entered Bangkok, we spent most of the time under the platform for the Sky Train, so everything looked the same. We did get free water and biscuits, however (a type of Jammy Dodger). Once in Bangkok, I got the metro to Chinatown, where I stayed for about 4 days.

I lost track of time whilst I was in Bangkok. I hadn’t been in a big city since Saigon, as Phnom Penh was much more low-rise and didn’t, in my opinion, have a ‘big city’ feel. I was glad being in an international city again and just spending my time exploring it.

The first thing I attempted to do was to go to the Siriraj Medical Museum, which I had seen on An Idiot Abroad. I asked in my guest house how to get there and after acquiring a map, was pointed in the direction of the ferry service. This seemed simple enough, but it took about an hour finding the ferry stop, as it was buried deep within the back-streets of Chinatown. By the time I made it to the medical museum, there was 30 minutes until it closed and the woman behind the desk explained that there were actually 5 museums. She reckoned I could do it, but I knew that one museum alone would take 30 minutes anyway, so went in, knowing I was going to come back.

The next day I went to the Chatuchak weekend market. This was interesting, as there were a lot of animals in cages that I hadn’t seen before or thought of as being a good pet. I spent the day wandering around and went for a drink in a bar I liked the sound of (they were playing good music) earlier in the day. Here I met a few people who were either expatriates or locals but all living in Bangkok.

The following two days I spent the time exploring Sukhumvit, an area of Bangkok and exploring Chinatown, which lies to the west of the city. Sukhumvit I thought would be more interesting than it actually was, as I had seen a good magazine article talking about all of the new, slightly alternative places that were springing-up. I went there an found some of them, but it was nothing special. Then, walking around Chinatown, I got to see a lot of the locals buying and selling things and finally made it to Wat Arun, which was closed. It looked very pretty, but as it was closed I went for a Vietnamese coffee instead and went home.

The last thing I did, in the evening, was to visit the red-light district. This is known as Patpong to tourists and there are other, real, red-light districts elsewhere. This was much more touristy than I was expecting. There was one street with girls on it but that was it, with more slightly more seedy streets branching off it. I went and watched the ping-pong, amongst other things and left it at that.

Things done in Bangkok:

• Siriraj Medical Museum (twice)
• Chatuchak weekend market
• bar in Chatuchak weekend market
• walking around Sukhumvit
• ping-pong in Patpong
• walking around Chinatown
• Wat Arun (sort of, it was closed).

I got to Chanthaburi on a roughly 4-hour bus ride from Battambang. Whilst waiting for a bus, at roughly the right time, a man turned up and the woman who had sold me the ticket pointed for me to go with him. I followed him and he took me to the bus.

During the journey, at one of the stops, one of the other passengers started talking to me as he wanted to practise his English. He helped me with directions and with the translations for words like ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ in Thai. I thought these might come in useful, as the previous border crossing had shown some need for diplomacy.

Once at the border, everything was very streamlined and efficient. The Cambodian border police were very friendly and the Thai border police caused no problems at all. I got stamped-out of Cambodia, walked the roughly 1 Km between the borders and met the Thai border guard at his border station. He told me to go to two separate booths, one where a woman was waiting to give me a departure card and photocopy my passport and one where the original man was sitting, waiting to give me the stamp. I was the only one there, as far as I could tell and it was over very quickly.

I walked around the corner to the market, where a woman (who was just about to get on a motorbike) and a man (who was on the motorbike) were waiting. The woman offered to take me to her home town, where I could get a bus to Chanthaburi, for free. They seemed genuine, but having been in the country for only a few minutes, I decided to walk around and see what the options were for myself. As the man and the woman on the motorbike were saying, there didn’t appear to be any buses from the border, but I asked someone else, who was sitting in his cabin and he pointed me in the direction of a nearby restaurant. Here, a woman who spoke English, helped me by telling my how to get to Chanthaburi, giving me free water and flagging down her friend, who was going in that direction anyway. I got on the back of his moped and he took me to a checkpoint, where I waited for a bus.

A lot of friendly border guards were waiting around with M-16s and one of them helped me find a car to Chanthaburi. There was a casino in the space between the two borders (I think) and most of the traffic was going either to or from there. Several cars and buses stopped, but eventually we found one going to Chanthaburi. It contained a woman and two men, none of whom really spoke English, but they took me to Chanthaburi, which was about an hour away, for free.

In Chanthaburi I walked around until I found a hotel. I was able to find two, one of which was very expensive, so I stayed in the other one.

The next day I walked around the main part of the town, finding the river and a few nice back-alleys.

The day after I went to Bangkok, as I thought it might be a bit more exciting.

Getting to Battambang was relatively straightforward. I asked in the hotel in Siem Reap where to go for minibuses, but they didn’t know, so sent me in the direction of the old market. I didn’t find any minibuses, but found a bus company I had used before, so bought a bus ticket for about an hour’s time.

I got back slightly early and had a conversation in broken English with the daughter of the woman who ran the closest restaurant, who was about 6. She was asking me things like “do I like chickens” (to eat). It turns out she likes chickens, too.

In Battambang I ended up staying in the first hotel I looked at, despite looking at several others.

Whilst in Battambang, I went to look round the old Pepsi factory, which was built in 1960 but stopped production in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge came to power. It is now derelict and owned by a Japanese company, but since being taken over, you’re not meant to look round it. I didn’t know this and spent at least 2 hours there, walking around and taking photos without any problems. The next stop was the old train station, which is also not in use. After walking around here, I was glad to leave as there was too much rubbish and it was clearly a very poor (or under-maintained) area.

Back in Battambang, I spent the remainder of my time figuring out how I was going to get to Thailand, as, technically, you’re meant to have a ticket for onward travel before setting off (and applying for a visa). I didn’t have this, but decided to set off the next day anyway, attempting to get the Tourist Visa Exemption on arrival.