Originally written on December 5, 2004

By 10:00 am we were packed up and waiting by the side of the road for the local bus to Phuket, from there we would catch the public bus to Kao Lak. The local bus soon arrived and we got into the large tuk tuk like bus. Luckily, we were one of the first stops, as within 5 minutes and several stops later the bus was full. Ten minutes later, outside of the resort area the local Thai people got on the bus, and hung on any which way they could, as the bench seats were already packed with tourists. It’s the local bus, but all of the tourists got the seats.

The bus made its final stop in Phuket town (our 1st destination) at the centre market. Part of the market was touristy with sandals, clothes etc for sale, and further down was a fresh fruit/vegetable and likely meat market (we didn’t venture in as we have seen our fill of smelly markets). We perused the shops and slowly made our way to the main bus terminal. Along the way Kirk purchased new sandals (his other’s were only a week old, but they are the prong kind that go between your toes and one foot did not enjoy its new surroundings. So, new Dr. Scholl’s sandals were bought at a good price (12 CAD), we had seen them in other stores for (19 CAD).

Happy with our purchase we proceeded to the bus terminal. There, the touts were out in full force, trying to scam/sell us seats on a mini bus or non-airconditioned crappy bus. All of the signs are in Thai, except one which has the bus schedule for every location serviced by the station. However, you do not know at which of these times this is a 1st, 2nd or 3rd class government bus. This is important as the 1st class buses make the fewest stops, and also have air conditioning snacks and a toilet on board. At the ticket window everything is in Thai, so you don’t know if the person behind the glass works for the government bus, or a tourist bus, and they do not speak English. With the lack of English signs, and the touts constantly harassing you and trying to push you to their bus (they are unfortunately the only ones who speak English), it is difficult to know which bus to take.

We settled on a bus, who knows how and hopped on. It was air conditioned, but no snacks or toilet. I think it was likely a 2nd class bus, as it made several stops. We were headed to Poseidon Bungalows in Kao Lak. On their website they wrote that it was easy to reach them by public bus, just tell the bus driver to drop you off at Lam Kaeng. After telling and showing him the name, the driver nodded that he knew where Lam Kaeng was, so we settled into our seats.

The movie was terrible, Frankenfish, a story of killer fish in the Louisiana swamps. (It still gave me nightmares that night though!). After the movie, what else but Thai Karaoke. I still have the chorus of one song stuck in my head, although I have no idea what it means. “Lao Lek Lao Lek Lao Lek”. After 2 hours we passed the town of Kao Lek and started to get worried that maybe we were going to be dropped off in the middle of no where. The town disappeared and 25 minutes the driver shouted Lam Kaeng and we hopped off the bus, which had a Thai police station, a small rural convenience store and an internet cafe. We looked around for signs that we were in the right place and found none. No Lam Kaeng or Poseidon bungalow signs. We asked around, but no one spoke English. We did not have a map of the area handy, and decided to go to the internet cafe to print it off the Poseidon website. The internet cafe was full of small kids playing online HALO games, and the owner told us that it was busy. Luckily we had a phone card and used it to calll the bungalow, they told us to head further north along the road. This was confusing as the bungalows were supposed to be close to Kao Lak, and we thought for sure we should head south. A man on a bicycle spoke English and knew the area well, but could not help us as we did not have a map. But he would drive us for 200 baht. Hmmm. Kirk spotted a bus going back towards Kao Lak and we decided to hop on and eat lunch in town and figure out what to do next.

After lunch we asked at the local dive shop where Poseidon bungalows were, and how much a taxi would cost. With this information in hand we got a taxi and were at our new home by 5 pm, in time for a sunset swim on the private beach. A great thai curry dinner at the bungalows restaurant and then to sleep.

Originally written on November 19, 2004

We awoke and got downstairs to order some bread and jam before leaving the Sunday guesthouse at 640 am in a dirty cramped mini bus. Just what we ordered!

From there we transfered to another bigger bus in makeshift bus station. When we got on the bus there was LOUD dance music pumping, and not the good dance music either, the kind with weird voices - very thai. We sat down and I evaluated the situation, the bus was quiet except for the LOUD blaring dance music, we were at the front, tired, and the seats where big. Still way to loud for before 7am. So I got up, walked up to the front and turned the volume on the radio down to zero. There was an audible sigh from the passengers, as I turned around I said “sorry”. Several cambodians smiled at me and no one was unhappy about the new peace. Unfortuneatly the peace was short lived. Some guy got on the bus and told us to move seats and move to the end of the bus, ostensibly so we could be together with the other foreigners. The catch was that we would have to sit apart. I casually mentioned that we had actually been assigned these seats (they were numbered). The wheels in his head began to spin. He changed his tactic, ‘this is not your bus, your bus is there’ (pointing to another one). We wanted the 7:30 bus, and it was 7:23 am so we were on the wrong bus. I said we’d be happy to move if we sat together near the front on a bus going to Siam Reap with our bags on the same bus we were travelling on. Again the wheels in his head churned, ok he said. Heather got on the next bus and figured out the seating arrangments while I negoitated with another gentleman to ensure we got our bags off the wrong bus and onto the right one — not as easy as it sounds. Meanwhile, Heather was duking it out in the bus to make sure we sat together, she won making another lady sit in the ‘jump’ seat. Once we were up and going they put on Jet Li movie (not so bad). Then some karoake thai style, but not loud (ok). Then when we saw “Best Chinese Classics” go into the machine we hit bottom. Thank goodness we had the mp3 player. Heather almost peed listening to David Cross explain how drunk he was in KC and trying to find the phone.

We had been told the bus would arrive at 12:30 pm, but who believes those times anyway. The bus broke down an hour out of Phnom Penh, overheated. Water was pouring out of the large dirty radiator. Luckily, there was a tube of superglue (no joke) in the bus drivers tool set. Once applied we waited while it dried (the whole time water was pouring out). Once done, water was taken from local rice patty, by large buckets (that just happened to be inside the engine hood) and added to the radiator resevoir by using smaller bottles filled with the paddy water from the buckets. Various bathroom stops (pulling over where there are bushes or a hill) and a 15 minute lunch stop which turned into an hour break eat into the time. During lunch the driver took a hose to the radiator to cool it down, all better! Back on the road we stopped again only once to splash water on the radiator to get the temperature guage back down to ‘middle’ on the dial. Incidently, the odomoeter read over 2 million, the spedometer zero the whole drive. Anyway, we arrived in Siem Reap at 2pm to a scene out of some movie. A dirty, dusty, parking lot filled with tuktuk drivers with signs, right in your face. All of them yelling at you, tuk tuk 500 riel, take you anywhere. No disturb. What do they mean???? And I mean in your face, they where so close with their signs that you phyiscally couldn’t read the sign because you couldn’t see all the letters. Heather and I became German almost immediately, not talking any English, and trying to ignore the 30 or so people trying to catch our attention. Once we had our bags it became obvious we would not be allowed to leave without a tuktuk driver. Somehow we chose a driver, we have no idea how it was decided. It turns out the reason why the fare is so cheap, is that the tuktuk man wants to be the driver, I.e in and out of Angkor for day. We got him first to take us to the bank as we envisoned 2 days of living off of our remaining liquid assests of 6 US to be difficult. We got enough money for the 3 days we will be here (quite pricey! almost 80 US a day) and began our search for a place to sleep. On the 4th try we found a place that had a room available, 20 with AC and 13 with just the fan. Personally, I think they were trying to milk us for more money thinking that 13 was to low for our stature or something. They where very hard to get a price out of until I saw the room. Maybe they wanted to read my reaction to see how happy I was? Kirk ‘Stone face’ Montgomery didn’t give them anything to work with. The room is nice and very big, great water pressure and a nice fan. Most importantly it has sheets instead of towels for sleeping under. Off to the internet to check how the tuktuk system works here and and also how to leave this place without dealing with insanity again. Dinner at some place with 0.80 cent pints playing the best of the worst elevator music. Over dinner Heather and I came up with the worst elevator songs of all time:

* 1. Music box dancer, david foster
* 2. Endless love
* 3. Bridge over troubled water, garfunkel
* 4. Stand by me
* 5. Bodyguard theme song/ michael bolton stuff/ titanic theme

Dinner was a big pizza served on a really heavy portion of a tree trunk. Back to base for an early start tomorrow.

Originally written on November 15, 2004

Woke up and dealt with various money issues surrounding how to pay, commision on exchange of TC’s CC’s seeing as how the resort only accepted “the cash”, after we had lunch (heather a wicked good clubhouse and the best fries in all of asia so far, me a crappy ham sandwhich and no fries as they forgot them). Over lunch realize no reciept for purchased ticket, had to go back to place and get it. Then back to room to pack with enough time before the bus came for a leisurely swim. When the bus did come we were the last to get on meaning we got shafted on seat selection. Heather took the 2nd last seat (2nd last row in the bus) and I took the last seat, the middle of the back row. A fantastic journey ensued, hot, sweaty and bumpy. But at least it was short (only 4 hours). We arrived in Saigon after dark at about 7pm and a quick walk to our Hotel Quanh Thanh. We checked in and showered immediately. Out to dinner at Allez Boo, unremarkable. Dead tired and to sleep.

Originally written on October 25, 2004

The bus ride to Vientiane was uneventful, and a little longer than the ride to Vang Viang some 8? days earlier. In Vientiane, we stumbled upon a great buffet in a nice resturant for lunch. All you can eat Lao and sushi food, with chocolate milk too. The place was rammed, so we knew it was the right thing to do. After lunch we went to the Lao History museum.

The museum started out as a history of the ethnicity of the peoples, some dinosaur talk, geology and other typical museum stuff. Then it quickly turned into Communist propaganda and with displays on the workers, Lenin, and various ‘famous’ lao revolutionaries and the fight against the evil forces of the west and the ‘american puppets’ (boo capitalism). When we came out I didn’t know if I should call the guards ‘comrade’ or not. » Read the rest of the entry..

Originally written on October 24, 2004

We got up early and got in the Tuk tuk to take us to the bus station. The bus ride itself was much less eventful (no babies or pooping, snakes). Heather slept and I listened to “Against all enemies” by Richard A. Clarke. Amazon blurb: From the first thrilling chapter, which takes readers into the White House center of operations on September 11, through his final negative assessment of George W. Bush’s post-9/11 war on terror, Clarke, the U.S.’s former terrorism czar, offers a complex and illuminating look into the successes and failures of the nation’s security apparatus. » Read the rest of the entry..