Siem Reap

Day 59: Siem Reap, Cambodia
So I finally escaped the gravometric pull of Bangkok and made it out of town, better late than never because sometimes you can't control these situations. All energy flows according to the whims of The Great Magnet and only a fool would defy Him.
Having said that, in summary, Bangkok:
1) is relatively expensive compared to most other Asian cities
2) is a great city to party in
3) is similar to a casino where there are no clocks or natural light for the expressed purpose of making you lose track of time
I did buy some nice suits though for my job interviews* when I get back to Australia however I was seriously tempted to have one made out of blue velvet.
Why?
Because in Bangkok, you can get one, top quality, for the price of one month's gym fees.
So I'm glad I got there when I am being more realistic about my travel budget and not at the start of the trip.
Oh yeah, instead of going off onto these random tangents all the time I'm now going to put an asterisk next to the section which I would have otherwise diverged at, and run the tangent at the bottom when I have more time or when I have finished going through what I wanted to on the post. Sort of like footnotes...
So jumped on the Skytrain (aka Monorail) about 11am yesterday and made my way to the end of the line where I caught a cab to the Moe Chit bus terminal**. From there got onto the bus to Arayaprathet which is close to the border, which is about a 6 hour trip. When I got to Aranyaprathet I got a tuk-tuk*** to the Thai/Cambodia border, stupidly let the driver take me to a 'Visa Agency' where I paid double what the border would have charged me for a Cambodian Visa. I must have money to burn, or maybe more dollars than sense....
Crossed the border without fuss then got in a cab from Poipet (next to the border) to Siem Reap (US$35) and made it into town by 8pm****, I had a few guest houses I wanted to check out but the cab driver had other ideas and after 9 hours driving I couldn't be stuffed looking around and stayed at the place he recommended.
These posts on travel days are so boring.
Maybe because travel days are boring.


*Still undecided about timings on the work front but will be definitely be back in Oz for a mate's wedding mid November
**After downloading about 6 hours of podcasts for the trip (Hamish & Andy, Adam Corolla, Merrick and Rosso, Scott Dooley, Sunday Night Saffran)
***A motorbike with a carriage attached, will post a photo in the near future
****Forgot what tangent I was going off on here.....