Getting there
The round-the-world part of my sabbatical did not get off to the most auspicious of starts. My night-time London to Bangkok flight was brought forward by about one hour, so STA kindly decided that I would appreciate eight hours shopping at Heathrow and switched me from an evening flight from Manchester to London to a lunchtime one. The main problem was, by the time I found this out (by trying to check-in to the evening flight online) I had only just got back from the wedding in Sheffield. I still needed to pack and the early flight was already taking off! Cue a bit of a mad panic and a hurridly drawn up contingency plan to drive to London for the Bangkok flight, before a quick dash to Manchester airport sorted it all out, as the BA staff were able to get me another seat on my original evening flight. Not the most relaxing last day in the UK, but it was pretty much in keeping with the rest of my brief visit!
Although I have been "travelling" for three months, I have only been in one place so far and it was actually a bit daunting to head off again, not knowing who I will meet or what lies ahead at the other end of the flight. Daunting, but also exciting: countries I have not seen before, new cultures to be experienced and new sights to see, new stories to tell and new photos to take! And I was also looking forward to starting to say "hello" to people again. It had felt like the previous week had all been about goodbyes, both in Zanzibar and the UK, so I was ready for a change. I had also said goodbye to technology (or at least some of it). I am now sans computer, so will be relying on internet cafes and whatever mobile coverage I can get to keep in touch with the rest of the world. I know how disappointed you would be if I could not keep my blog updated!
Bangkok and joining the tour
After a 19 hour journey, the last 90 minutes of which were spent in a taxi crawling through Bangkok's rush hour traffic, I arrived at my hotel just in time for the final five minutes of the tour briefing. Ten minutes later, we were heading out to a local restaurant.
I admit that starting my proper travels on an organised tour is a bit of a coward's way of doing it. Having a ready made group of friends sounds so much easier than pitching up at one of the many hostels in Bangkok and having to work to get to know people. The group seems like a good mix; everybody is in their 20s or 30s and quite a few different countries are represented. It is mainly solo travellers in the group, like me, plus three couples and a couple of girls travelling together from Denmark (Sabine and Camilla). The three solo blokes on the trip, (me, Jon (Canadian) and Kio (English)) will be alternating shared room and private room. The are also four girls travelling alone (Abbey and Tasmine, both English, Marlen (Swiss, but currently lives in Moscow) and Stine (Danish)). Of the couples, Nathan and Jo are from Melbourne, while Dennis and Janine & Peter and Stefanie are all from Germany. I'm not certain yet, but think I am the eldest. Again! But as I already knew and was confirmed in Zanzibar, age is just a number!
Once we get to Vietnam, some of this group will leave and other people will join our party. I think throughout the trip, there will be about 15 people on the tour, which seems like a good size.
On the second day of the tour, we set off at 7.00 on the four hour bus ride to the Cambodian border at Poipet (in case the floods had made travelling even more difficult than usual). As it turned out, on the route we took there were very few signs of the floods, apart from sandbags piled up outside shops and restaurants and lines of parked cars on the freeway (one of the highest points in the city). The floods have been a disaster though and Amy, our tour guide, who lives on the outskirts of Bangkok currently has her car underwater. The journey itself was very straightforward: tarmac roads, roadsigns showing the way, lanes being used properly; I must admit I thought I had gone deaf at one point when we hit some traffic and I did not hear a single car horn. The surrounding countryside in Thailand was made up of thick clumps of trees and lush green fields, with the paddy fields of the rice farms dotted here and there by the roadside.
Cambodia border crossing
Seven days. Five flights. Four countries. Three continents. One wedding. My body clock lost three hours for three days, then gained seven. No wonder I was so bloody knackered by the time we reached Cambodia!
In Cambodia, we had another 2.5 hours to travel to reach Siem Reap, our first port of call. Here, there have been die straight roads that stretch for miles flanked by vast plains of rice fields, with local farmers up to their waist in the water or children swimming, with the odd shrine or temple scattered among the populated areas alongside cattle and water buffalo grazing at the verges.
I thought the accommodation on the tour was going to be very basic, but the the first two hotels we have stayed in have been good. Let's hope this is a good sign for the rest of the tour.
Sorry, there are not many photos just yet, but I promise I'll make it up in the coming weeks!
Sawadee khráp.
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