Thailand to Cambodia: Crossing the Border by Numbers

1. Our Hotel to Ayutthaya Train Station [Motorbike] - It was 1:30 AM when we quietly walked down to our hotel lobby to hail a tuk tuk to the train station. Yet, there was one, slightly huge problem: there were none operating at that hour. After our hotel graciously called around town, they suggested that the best (and only) solution was to hop on the back of motorbikes (with backpacks, i.e. large, heavy sacks). In preparation, I slung my camera bag (that I stylishly wear on my front on travel days) around my neck like a scarf while Jen, the master packer that she is, was instantly ready to go. In no time we were conducting a dusk balancing act making sure our cargo, and thus ourselves, remained on the strained motorbikes. One way or another, we made it to the station. Success! 
2. Ayutthaya to Bangkok [Train] - The train pulled up to the station in quite a theatrical manner with smoke rising up into the glowing night light as a monk in his orange robes stared up at the colossal machine. Although unexpected, it was a stunning sight. What met us inside was equally worthy of the cinema but not warming to the soul. Even though we expected the train to be relatively empty, we passed through car after car full of people stretched out across seats asleep under faint incandescent lighting. We zig-zagged through the rows dodging heads, feet, and hands, and although they were just asleep, in my state of sleepless delirium, it looked like a Postapocalyptic scene and I scurried along in a maze-like race to find a seat. (Yes, I am a scaredy cat) Luckily, after 4 or 5 cars, we found a place to sit and rode to the capital. 
3. Bangkok Train Station - We sat for 2 hours in the station; it was quite nice. And this time in the station, with much less people in it, I began to appreciate the architectural beauty of the place.
4. Bangkok to Aranyaprathet [Train] - Best anecdote from this portion hands down: Jennifer gives me a weird look; we are sitting across from each other in the train car, and I turn around diagonally behind me to see a Cambodian man blatantly staring at Jennifer with a ceaseless grin on his face. It was equally creepy and hilarious (exhaustion definitely played a role in this reaction). It was like he was trying to reach Enlightenment by staring at her face. Luckily, she successfully got him to turn around soon after.  
5. To the Border (Poipet) [Tuk Tuk] - Spot on.
6. Crossing the Border [On foot] - Partially due to our thorough research, obtaining online e-Visas prior to arriving, and definitely some luck, we had no real issues crossing the border on foot. In the "no man's land" that was technically in Cambodia, we found countless casinos and poor notation for where to go next to fill out our customs cards and get our passports stamped. Thankfully, our intuition got us there with no scams and all our belongings in tow.
7. Poipet to Siem Reap [Taxi] - I thoroughly enjoyed our two hour ride through the countryside, which certainly revealed the pure beauty of the country.
8. Siem Reap to Hostel [Tuk Tuk] - Like many tourism centric services in Cambodia, our free tuk tuk ride turned into a selling pitch on using their services while we were in town. They have a hard time taking no for an answer; our pitchman walked into our hostel with us to ask one more time about using him as our driver. Little did we know at the time that he was helping us take our training wheels off for being able to say no to countless tuk tuk requests in our future.
While the whole journey took over 15 hours, it was, surprisingly, refreshing..maybe it was just the countryside air; whatever it was, it was quickly clear that there was something very special to be recognized in the Kingdom of Cambodia.
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Ayutthaya: Thailand's Ancient Capital

Ayutthaya was first settled by King U Thong in 1350 in his attempts to avoid a smallpox outbreak in Lop Buri. Very quickly he claimed the city as the capital of his kingdom, known as Siam or the Ayutthaya Kingdom. At the junction of 3 great rivers, the city was in a perfect geographic location to foster economic ties with other Asian kingdoms. From the 14th to 18th century, the city state flourished into the country of Thailand. 

In 1767, Burma wreaked havoc on the people of Ayutthaya. They smashed the temples to ruins, melted down their golden-covered Buddhas to nothing, and stole all their marble. This once holy place was robbed clean in the blink of an eye, and the Siamese people suffered huge losses - some were enslaved and others murdered.

Although this city has seen much tragedy, it still holds glimpses of how magnificent this place must have looked at its peak in the 18th century. Surrounded by huge wats (temple complexes) in every direction, this city is quite a marvel...it is no surprise that the ancient capital area is claimed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

He was so cute!

"I think I shall never see. A poem as lovely as a tree." - Joyce Kilmer

Wat Ratchaburana

Beyond our wat explorations, we took a side trip by bike to the Ayutthaya Floating Market. It was beautiful!

It's a bit dusty in the streets!

We rode elephants. Jennifer is in love with them!

One of the many cute shops in the market.

Genius.

We couldn't go on the highway bridge. Solution: we carried our bikes up and down the bridge stairs
to the pedestrian walkway. Quite a good workout!

We very much enjoy playing the game, "Spot the Monk"!

Besides that, we enjoyed more delicious Thai food.

Ok, so this isn't Thai but it was delicious.

More delicious coffee!

And explored the Chinese New Year market with all its festivities.

I loved this. And it was on the display! :)

He cooked us some delicious Thai food.

Everything for sale was adorable. 

Off to cross the border into Cambodia; our long journey awaits us!

All my love,
Emma

The Longest (Shortest) Trip: Bangkok to Ayutthaya

After taking a quick flight from Krabi to Bangkok with Air Asia, we left the airport quite confident. How hard could it be to get from Bangkok (Thailand's capital) to Ayutthaya (Thailand's ancient capital)? They're only 41.5 miles apart. Easssssy.

Well, wrong-o. At least for backpackers!

After asking many people around the airport where the bus was that was supposed to run from the airport to the Hualamphong train station, we decided we should take an airport shuttle bus to a (potential) bus center on the premises.

Bingo! We found the bus center but the bus we needed didn't exist. Instead, we needed to take 2 buses to get to the train station. No worries! We boarded the first and got off at the stop we were told to in the middle of town. We looked like odd balls out for sure. After about 10 minutes, a bus came along that wasn't the one we were supposed to board; or we didn't think so. But the bus attendant told us to jump on board. She obviously knew where we needed to go. After a quick confirmation of the train station, we boarded and were off again. Bus #3.

Thirty minutes later we jumped off at another random stop but this one was much busier. We asked a police officer, a local, and a taxi driver where the train station was. The first two pointed across the street - it would have been impossible to cross the street. So we took option #3: the taxi driver. He was incredibly nice, but very quickly we thought we were going the wrong way. Options #1 and #2 pointed in the opposite direction of the way we were going. Nevertheless, in 10 minutes time we arrived at the station; our backup bailout plan didn't have to be used!

What a station! No matter where you are in the world (besides a few), all train stations seem to look the same. We bought our tickets to Ayutthaya and waited to leave. For the first hour, the train was very crowded! Some people had to stand and we passed by shanty after shanty. There is much poverty in Bangkok. In our 2.5 hour trip (the train was delayed for a bit), I counted 4 monks in our train car!

The sunset was gorgeous...probably from all the pollution though...

After jumping off the cart at the Ayutthaya train station, we were approached by a tuk tuk driver who said he could take us to our hotel. After some bargaining, we left the station; however, he took us to his friend's guesthouse on the way to our hotel. After some confusion in us telling them that we already had reservations somewhere else, we made it to our hotel.

Travel time from airport to hotel: 6 hours.

Actual time: 1 hour.

Modes of transportation:

• 3 buses
• 1 taxi
• 1 train
• 1 tuk tuk

Cost: $6.50 each. SCORE!

I love travel days! :)

Paradise on the Beaches of Krabi, Thailand

ทักทาย!

Greetings!

 

Oh how I wish all of you could have been with us in Krabi, Thailand! It is quite an unbelievable place full of islands as far as the eye can see, clear sea water populated by hundreds of colorful fish, pristine beaches lined with longtail boats, palm trees scattered with monkeys, and Thai food cooked to perfection: a tropical getaway for the world's people. And that is the truth. I couldn't believe my eyes (or ears) whenever we walked down the main road in town; Krabi truly attracts people from allover.

 

We spent five nights on a secluded beach 8 km from Ao Nang in a cute little bungalow. It was a perfect getaway to sit back and enjoy the ocean. Every night the distant storm clouds would make their entrance into town and rain down upon us: a daily cleansing ritual marked by large lighting bolts out at sea. I loved it; there's nothing like falling asleep to the sound of rain hitting the roof of your hut. 

Our bungalow, #2.

View from the Villa restaurant.

View to the Sea.

Lots of reading was accomplished :)

The beach!

Their Pad Thai was incredible...

The Villa we stayed at is owned and operated by 3 generations of a local Thai family. The property itself has no more than 9 bungalows and a family guesthouse so we always knew everyone staying at the place. I love the intimacy of small establishments. Plus, it was fun to meet other guests. Staying in the guesthouse was a family from the south of France; their children (8 and 9) spoke no English but instantly clicked with the Thai grandfather; truly some relationships need no words - it was so beautiful to see. 

Our view at sunset.

We adopted Chow Que for our stay! She was so adorable...quite a beach bum!

The people in Thailand are so unbelievably kind  - they emanate loving kindness; there are few places I have felt as equally welcomed. There have been countless times we have been approached and helped by locals. :)

During our days in Krabi, we explored many of the islands and snorkeled our hearts out. And ate a ton too! One day, we rented a moped with our new German friends, Paul and Nicola. They were staying in a neighboring bungalow to ours and were on holiday in Thailand after working for 5 months in Australia! We had a blast. Jennifer drove our moped; I was a hopeless mess trying to figure it out. We zipped along the side roads outside of town and got a good feel for greater Krabi. The landscape resembles a wild, Jurassic paradise with huge rocks jutting out of the land. In the evening, we went into Ao Nang and ate loads of goodies from the food tuk tuks. 

We saw wild monkeys that day!

Delicious!

Jennifer with our classy moped.

The biking gang!

Tuk tuk dinner!

My favorite of our days in Krabi was spent out at sea on a longtail boat. We snorkeled multiple islands and explored others. At some points, we were snorkeling in clear waters at depths of over 30 feet! Another one of our island stops was to swim through an island! Quite exhilarating. The end of our island hopping led us to watch the sunset while our guide, Lee, cooked us dinner. 

Beginning of our boating day on Chicken Island.

Lee as we head into Hong Lagoon.

Sunset.

This is how he cooked dinner...incredible!

Dinner and a show!

After sunset and our dinner show, we boated out into the middle of a few islands and went night snorkeling. I can't even begin to describe how incredible the experience was. But I wrote a poem...don't judge...I've just begun to start sharing them and they're nothing incredible.

-------

Bioluminescence

Lightning strikes in the distance.

"Don't hesitate," I urge myself.

With that, I plunge into the Andaman Sea:

Cool, calming, rejuvenating, surreal.

Each movement is traced by hundreds of glowing lights:

Bioluminescent plankton.

How connected I feel with the sea!

We move in harmonious accord

Lighting each other's way in the darkness.

Oh how this pitch blackness does not scare me!

You, bioluminescence, are a guiding spirit of safety.

-------

And sometimes, I'm not the best at expressing an event in all its reality. With that being said, I will take some advice from Heinrich Heine, a great German poet, who said "when words leave off, music begins"...

 

 

Onwards to Ayutthaya, Thailand.

 

All my love,

Emma