I had learned that my plans to visit some places in northern Laos would be easier by not going through southern/eastern Laos, because it’s less-traveled and doesn’t have good transit connections. Ergo, my best plan was to take an express overnight bus to Bangkok and then an overnight bus or train up to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, just across the river from Thailand. Seems crazy, but that was cheaper and easier, so I started sorting it out.
This entry was posted in asia, bangkok, cambodia, lao, laos, phnom penh, thailand, vientiane
First, I needed to get back to Phnom Penh from Kampot, so I emailed my previous hostel, booked a night, and asked them to set up an overnight/sleeper bus to Bangkok the next day. That would mean more than 24 hours back in Phnom Penh, which I’d mostly seen, so I planned to take it easy and sort out plans while there.
I arrived back at Nomads & Encounters hostel in Phnom Penh and actually got assigned to my same bed from before. A guy who never went outside and was always asleep in the room was laying there sleeping when I arrived. Classic.
I hung out with the owners’ dog and ate dinner at the night market (tip: $1 for giant bowl of noodles at a sidewalk shop near this intersection. Look for tables outside.) On the way back, the temple was lit up and looked really pretty, but taking pictures into headlights with a smartphone is tough.
The next day, I picked up my bus ticket, made some tentative plans for Laos and for what to see during my day in Bangkok. I just walked around without a real purpose during the day and then encountered a vegetarian restaurant advertising “Sunday BBQ.” Of course, I went. It was $1.75 for some grilled kebabs on a stick, so I had seconds. 🙂
Back at the hostel, I showered when it got close to time for my bus, and then the strangest thing happened.
The hostel owners were rather busy when an Indian guy showed up to check in, and he was going to my old room, so they asked me to show him where it is, show him where the showers are, etc. Sure thing.
Then, he starts telling me a story, expecting sympathy, I suppose. He arrived in Cambodia 2 days ago, got a tuk-tuk from the airport, and told the driver where he’s going. En route, the driver offers to sell him some MDMA to help him party in Cambodia, he makes the idiotic decision to buy it & take the first pill, then wakes up 2 days later in the tuk-tuk driver’s house. His backpack is half empty, with clothes/laptop/smart phone/passport all missing, and got punched in the face for asking what happened to his stuff. They told him to come back with a bunch of money to pay for something he supposedly broke while high, then said they’d find him & kill him if he didn’t.
Of course, he didn’t want to go to the hostel he’d told them he was staying at, so he came to where I was. 0 sympathy for someone stupid enough to buy & take drugs from a stranger within 30min of arriving in a country where you don’t know anyone & don’t speak the language. Told him to go to the embassy the next morning and not to go to the police, who are known for being corrupt and would probably just arrest him for saying he did drugs/bought drugs. What an idiot.
The tuk-tuk to take me to the bus station showed up on time, and that was where anything stopped being positive. I had paid for a VIP sleeper bus, which has beds and blankets and pillows, so you can sleep. There were only 5 people booked on our bus, so they decided not to take the giant bus, just put us in a mini-van. I got 0 sleep, the A/C was broken & stuck on/dripping water on me, so I froze and had to wear my rain jacket. Awful.
We arrived at the Cambodia-Thailand border, they gave me a red card on a necklace to help the bus people on the other side find me in the crowd, and then I went through passport control. It was slow but quite simple.
On the other side, the bus people found me in the crowd, took me to their stall, and then couldn’t find me on the list of expected passengers. They had no idea I was coming, wanted me to buy a new ticket, and I only got in a mini-bus with some Thai family after one of them argued on my behalf to be allowed to take their empty seat. Thanks! Also, look at this money changing table with all of the phones they’re using for deals/the calculator feature.
When we got close to Bangkok, this family wasn’t going into the center, so I then got dropped off in the suburbs and had to take a taxi into the center, where all of the sights/my paid-for drop-off point/the train station are. Cool. I definitely sent an email to my hostel in Phnom Penh telling them about this shambles and asking them to make sure this doesn’t happen to others. However, I was now in Bangkok with about 8 hours to explore.
I bought my train ticket, paid to deposit my bags at the storage room, and sent out to be a tourist for the day.
Stop 1: the palace. There was a huge wait to get in, and I decided to skip it and press on.
Stumbled on the Ministry of Defence.
Then some cool temples further down the road (same road from the palace).
After going through that area, I decided to cross a foot bridge and head toward the famous Khao San Road area.
Stumbled on another little temple that I liked.
And stopped at what’s known as “The Giant Swing.”
I haven’t seen a squirrel outside of the US, so that was a surprise while en route to the Democracy monument.
Then down toward Khao San, with some cool monuments along the way.
Khao San Road – famed for being insane. It’s touristy, full of night parties (supposedly; I was there in the day time), and the place to see/find/buy/try anything you can think of.
I ate at this weird vegetarian restaurant that had anti-vegan propaganda (which I didn’t see until after ordering, or I would have left) about how soy makes you gay and stuff like that. 1-totally not true. 2-why would a vegetarian restaurant have “watch out, vegans!” type stuff posted around? Weird.
Around 7, I took a taxi back to the train station for the 8pm night train to Laos. The train actually ends at Nong Khai, on the Thai side of the border, and then you transfer to a shuttle train across the river and into Vientiane.
The train was pretty comfortable, each bed has a curtain to block out the light, and the attendant comes around to make your bed for you, which was nice. $35 for a 10-hour sleeper train isn’t shabby.
On the train, my group of 4 beds was completed by 2 Russian ladies and a Lao guy, none of whom spoke English. I heard some English 2 blocks over and went to talk to those guys for a bit. Turned out to be an English guy and an Austrian guy, going to Laos for a few days, and they didn’t really have any plans, so they decided to come to the same hostel I’d booked.
We arrived in Nong Khai, but our 70 cents ticket for the shuttle train over the Thai-Lao “Friendship Bridge,” and rode into my 82nd country (Thailand being 81, but I’ll see it more later).
At the Thanaleng station outside Vientiane, the “visa on arrival” process was pretty easy, not too slow, and seemed like mostly just a way to get money from tourists. I got my permission to stay for 30 days, found a van with 3 empty seats for us, and we rode into Vientiane.
It was 8:30 in the morning, and we knew we wouldn’t be able to check in yet, but we arrived at the Dream Home 1 Hostel (across the street from #2), dropped our bags, and went out to see the city.
36 hours after leaving Phnom Penh, I’d had some crazy experiences, blitzed through Bangkok, and picked up 2 new friends to explore with over the next few days. Welcome to Laos!
Next post: Vientiane, the cool-but-small capital of Laos.
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