From the Skywalk of the Mahanakhon Tower …
We’re on the bus early this morning with a 6:30a departure to travel from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi. Our run of leisurely 8a departures has come to an end!
We drive about 120 kilometers to the west of Bangkok and reach our destination at 9a. Kanchanaburi is the site of the bridge on the River Kwai where Allied prisoners of war were forced to build a railway bridge by their Japanese captors. The bridge was later destroyed by Allied bombers.
The first stop is a museum dedicated to the history of the construction of the bridge. Our itinerary calls this museum the Thailand-Burma Railway Center but the sign outside the building says Death Railway Museum. The Japanese used 61,000 Allied prisoners of war and over 200,000 Southeast Asian civilian forced laborers to build the 258 mile railway. Of those 12,000 POWs and 90,000 civilians died during construction of the rail line.
Across from the museum is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where 7,000 of the prisoners are buried, relocated from jungle grave sites on the southern part of the railroad after the war.
Next we have an opportunity to walk across the now reconstructed River Kwai Bridge. Several minutes later the track is cleared, a train arrives, we board the train, and take the Bridge Over the River Kwai.
An hour later we arrive at Wang Pho and stop for lunch at Praweenut Restaurant where the bus has driven ahead to meet us.
Our last stop of the day is nearby at the Taweechai Elephant Camp, an elephant sanctuary that offers a chance to see these magnificent animals up close.
At 3p we board the bus for the return trip to Bangkok.
Whenever we are on the bus for an extended period of time there is a good AirDrop session that happens among the iPhone users. The Airdrop session is generally silent. Out of the blue Mickey sends a picture and the sharing session begins.
On the first day a seating arrangement develops on the bus and it remains for the entire trip – even as countries and vehicles change. Our Thailand bus sits around 40 passengers in 10 rows separated by an aisle. Since we’re only 20 everyone has a pair of seats to themselves which makes for a convenient place to put your daypack or camera bag. Brad sits in the front nearest the guide and Georgia is in the last row with Ron. I always sit toward the back of the bus. Most people want to be closer to the exit and someone needs to sit farther back, so why not me.
Also, although the roads here are better than in India, they are still bumpy enough that I can get almost a day’s worth of steps just riding in the bus! Today is one of those days.
Tonight is dinner on our own, so Mickey, Donna, Shannon, Peter, Greg, and me go to Little Home Bakery for some Pad Thai.
For an after dinner adventure we head up to the 78th floor Sky Walk at the top of Mahanakhon Tower. The Sky Walk is a glass floor with a view of Bangkok 314.2 meters down! We step out into the floor to take pictures. It’s terrifying and exhilarating!
Tomorrow we head to Hua Hin for a weekend at the beach.
On the Chao Phraya River dinner cruise …
A casual day of seeing the sights in Bangkok turns into an adventure when we get stuck in traffic on the way to dinner.
But we start the day with breakfast at the hotel, then our Thailand tour guide Suthep takes us on a tour of Bangkok landmarks.
We begin at the Bangkok flower market. It’s the largest wholesale flower market in Bangkok with fresh cut flowers and fruits of all kinds. We sample the local variety of bananas and take pictures of the flowers and vendors.
Next we visit the Grand Palace complex. We walk the grounds and visit the Emerald Buddha. Then we walk to the east bank of the Chao Phraya River for a 5 minute ferry ride directly across the river to the west bank and a quick look at Wat Arun.
We split up for lunch to save time. Mickey, Donna, Shannon, Peter, Greg and me have Pad Thai at a restaurant called Eat Sight Story overlooking the river and with a beautiful view of Wat Arun.
We wrap up the day’s sightseeing with a visit to Wat Pho and see Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Inside the temple the 46 meter long golden Buddha is laying down.
After we get back to the hotel I head out to shoot a few timelapse sequences. I need 10 to 20 minutes to shoot a good sequence and moving from place to place with the group means we are never in one place for very long. I find a Starbucks a few blocks from the hotel for some ice tea while I’m shooting. There’s an interesting pedestrian plaza over a busy intersection, so I put the DJI OSMO Pocket timelapse function to work, enjoy some ice tea, and work in today’s blog post.
We leave the hotel around 6p to take the bus to the Chao Phraya River dinner cruise but get stuck in a massive Bangkok traffic jam. It takes an hour and a half to get to the dock. We miss the cruise departure, but Suthep immediately makes a plan. We are going to get on the dinner cruise. We race two blocks from the bus to the dock, then jump aboard an express boat and speed down the river. Ten minutes later we catch up to the dinner cruise boat. We pull aside and jump from the express boat into the larger dinner cruise boat. We make it in time for dinner and it’s worth it. It’s a beautiful night for a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand.
Tomorrow we visit Kanchanaburi and an elephant sanctuary.
Making floral arrangements at the Bangkok Flower Market
Bangkok Flower Market
At the Grand Palace Complex
Wat Arun
Lunch at Eat Sight Story
The Reclining Buddha
Suthep saves the day and distributes dinner cruise tickets
Transferring from the express boat to the dinner cruise
On the Chao Phraya River
On the bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok …
We’ve already reached the midway point of this trip. The days seem to fly by. On a typical day we have breakfast at the hotel, go sightseeing for several hours, have lunch at a restaurant, and do more sightseeing for the rest of the afternoon. Some days we go directly to dinner. Other days we stop at the hotel for a break before heading out to eat. After dinner we’ve got time on our own, so we try and explore the city or town. Both Ho Chi Minh City and Siem Reap had vibrant, walkable nightlife areas, so it was entertaining to grab a beer and walk with the locals and tourists down what we’ve been calling the street of chaos while dance music and light pulses out of the nightclubs!
Today we’re leaving Cambodia and heading to Thailand. We take Cambodian road NR6 out of Siem Reap to the Thai border city of Poipet (possibly also known as Poi Pet or PoiPet). The trip is about 150 kilometers, about 90 miles. But Cambodia doesn’t have a national highway system, so the trip down the two lane road takes about two and a half hours. Cell coverage is actually pretty good along the way.
As we drive Thara talks about life in Cambodia. Much like the Vietnam War was an ongoing theme during our time in Vietnam, here it’s about the ongoing recovery from the Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields” when over a million Cambodian’s were murdered by the regime in the late 1970’s. In Thailand we’re visiting the bridge on the Kwai River and the cemetery of the 10s of thousands soldiers and slaves that died building the bridge, so the impact of war is a central theme of this trip to Southeast Asia.
I’ve blogged about it before. I really enjoy these transfer days on a bus. It seems like it might be really boring, but I find sitting on the bus and watching the countryside go by to be incredibly relaxing. It’s a good time to catch up on the day’s blog post. Yes – that’s why today’s post is longer than usual! And sometimes I’ll focus on finding interesting things to photograph like towns along the way, motorbikes with unusually large loads, or strange farming vehicles.
We arrive at Poipet around 11a and pass through the departures office to have our exit paperwork processed and passports stamped. It takes our group an hour to get through the line.
Then, pulling our luggage, we walk past several casinos, over a bridge, and into Aranyaprathet, Thailand! Immigration processing to enter Thailand takes even longer than exiting Cambodia. Waiting in line we take bets to see how long the line will take. It’s about about two hours to walk across the border, pass through immigration, and meet our Thailand tour guide.
We board our Thailand bus and head about 20 minutes down the road for lunch at SK. Steak. The sign outside says park your horse and stay a while. Sitting with Marguerite, Mickey, and Donna we each get the recommended Chicken Curry Soup and Curry Puffs. My first curry since India. It’s actually pretty good.
It’s the dry season in this part of the world. But while Vietnam was lush and green here in Thailand many of the fields along the road to Bangkok are brown. Like Cambodia it’s arid and hot here. We’ll need to hydrate tomorrow!
We’re scheduled to arrive at The Heritage Bangkok hotel around 7:30p and we’ll head out for a late dinner around 8p. More on Bangkok tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
From the rooftop pool of the City View Hotel …
Today we visit Angkor Wat. After breakfast at the City View Hotel we board a small bus and head to the Angkor Wat Ticket Processing Center. It’s $37 for an all day access ticket. Of that $2 goes to support the local children’s hospital and $0.50 pays for the “happy room” as they politely call the restroom in Southeast Asia.
In the morning we visit Ta Prohm Temple, Chau Say Toveda, Angkor Thom, and the South Gate of Angkor Thom City.
After a late lunch at Chef D’angkor Restaurant we’re off to Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat is one of the largest religious sites in the world, built in the 12th century and dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu. Our guide, Thara, takes us to a small pond in front of the site for photos with a reflection in the water. All day Thara points out the best photo angles. The detailed carvings in the wall of the temple are incredible to see. And it explains why construction of the temple took more than 30 years. It’s a steep climb to the top of the temple for a view of the surrounding countryside.
It’s unbelievably hot here and after several hours we decide to head back to the hotel for some time at the pool and the sunset before dinner.
Tomorrow we take the bus to Thailand.
At the City River Hotel in Siem Reap …
After breakfast at the hotel we have a leisurely 9a checkout and get in the bus to head to the airport. Unlike some other trips there aren’t any extremely early wake calls and departures. And that helps given the 12 hour time change.
At Tan Son Nhat Airport it takes me a while to get through security. Turns out my DSLR microphone looks suspicious on the X-Ray machine. For a quick lunch I try a Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwich – pickled vegetables on a baguette. I get mine with chicken. Not bad for an airport lunch.
We fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap on Cambodia Angkor Air flight 825. Our 12:25p departure gets us to Siem Reap in Cambodia around 1:30p.
After a quick stop for snacks at the Lucky Mart, we check in at City River Hotel.
Then we take the bus to Tonlé Sap Lake and board a boat for a cruise to see floating villages. The boats in the region are all hand made and use truck engines for power. They are very load. We journey from the chaotic dock where hundreds of tourists are boarding boats, down a twisting canal, and eventually reach the lake. The lake is home to a small flotilla of homes. We stay out on the lake long enough to see the sunset. It’s a relaxing change of pace after a busy day of travel.
Dinner is at a restaurant in town called Mahob Khmer Cuisine. The ceviche, hot and sour soup, and grilled chicken are excellent.
Tomorrow we visit Angkor Wat.
View from the balcony ...
Michael S. Liberman