Cambodia and Thailand: A Video

Here is a short video we put together of our trip to Cambodia and Thailand.

Manila

We prepared to leave Bangkok on a long journey home that would include a 24-hour layover in Manila. Having never been to the Phillippines, we made plans to spend a few hours seeing the capital city. At Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, we realized that we had one last chance to buy some mango with sticky rice - each time we had sought out a sweet treat from a street vendor in Thailand, we couldn’t resist choosing fresh banana roti. We decided that we should take advantage of our last opportunity, and saved it to eat at some point on our trip home.

Once we boarded our flight to Manila, we learned that Philippines Airlines didn’t have us registered for vegetarian meals. The flight attendant managed to scrounge up one meal that we shared. When we arrived in Manila, we were purposely misdirected a few times as we tried to find the metered taxi stand, and once we were successful, our driver made a determined pitch for a particular hotel, even though we had already booked one. When we finally convinced him to take us to our original destination, he had trouble finding it, and we spent a lot of time driving in circles. When we finally arrived, we were hungry and exhausted, but before we went to bed, we knew we had to try to contact the airline about our meals for the next flight if we wanted to eat on the long haul. We stayed up very late trying to figure out how to use the hotel phone, then being put on hold and transferred several times, but we were ultimately unsuccessful. We detail these small annoyances not to whine, but so that you understand how amazingly delicious and satisfying our 2:30 am meal of mango and sticky rice was. As we took turns eating from a single spoon, we put our bad evening behind us and enjoyed the last night of our honeymoon.

After a very short sleep - we looked on the bright side and decided it would help us sleep on the flight home - and a breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we packed our bags, left them with the hotel reception, and took a taxi to Intramuros, the old walled city built by the Spanish colonial government in the 16th century. We tried to take in the sights of the city as much as possible on the way, since we only had a few hours before we had to head back to the airport. Generally, we noted that the (brutal) history of Spanish colonialism left an interesting mark on the language, architecture, and religion of this Southeast Asian island nation - the mix was something that we haven’t seen anywhere else. The Philippines is the third largest Catholic nation in the world, most street and place names are in Spanish, and the currency is the peso. It was also clear that the traffic was more chaotic than in Thailand, and also more colourful, with flamboyantly decorated jeepneys (large school-bus-type buses used for public transportation) in every jammed, narrow downtown street.

We had little time to do research about Manila before arriving, so we felt lucky to have decided to spend our time in beautiful Intramuros, and to find Fort Santiago nearly empty.

Fort Santiago is most famous for being the prison and execution site of Jose Rizal, a Filipino nationalist and revolutionary.

The poet was executed in 1896 for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy against the Spanish government. We spent a couple of blindingly sunny hours strolling the peaceful grounds and sombre memorials. We visited Jose Rizal’s prison cell, the site of his execution, a museum dedicated to his life, and, in what we thought was an odd addition considering the significance of the first three, a separate museum dedicated to his furniture.

After a refreshing ice cream cone in Intramuros, we picked up our bags and made our way to the airport. There, we loaded up on snacks to see us through the flight, and we said goodbye to Southeast Asia, for the time being.

Bangkok

We decided to stay in the downtown area of Pratunam during our time in Bangkok, which would be the last major stop on our trip. When we arrived in the evening, we were glad to see that Pratunam had a large night market to keep James happy, and dozens of Indian restaurants on every block to keep our taste buds happy. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that many of these restaurants featured the Chinese-Indian cuisine that we had tasted in Kanpur, and we enjoyed eating manchurian and chilly paneer once again.

After dinner, we took a metered taxi to Patpong Night Market (and revelled in how cheap and hassle-free this was compared to taking taxis in Phuket). Antonia quickly grew tired of the endless rows of sidewalk stalls and especially the strip clubs behind each one, so she happily read a book in a cafe as James pressed on.

We had planned to spend the following day seeing the Grand Palace and the important temples in the surrounding area. We knew that the heat and the crowds on this tourist circuit would be punishing, but that the impressive sights would be worth it. On the way, our taxi wove through countless bright monuments, flags, and ornately framed photographs of the royal family that lined the congested streets. Antonia was immediately reminded of the colourful craziness of the Bangkok that she first stayed in nine years ago.

The grounds of the Grand Palace were so crowded and hot that we had to take several breaks in the shade, where we sat amazed at the lavish decor and squinted at the glare of the sun coming off every gilded, glitzy, and golden surface. 

We also paid a visit to the revered Emerald Buddha (although no photos of him are allowed).

Next, we walked to Wat Pho, Antonia’s favourite Bangkok temple. The main chapel was frustratingly crowded, but the giant Reclining Buddha was as magnificent as she remembered. After exploring the rest of the temple grounds, we were beginning to get hungry and more than a little tired, but we decided to see the Golden Mountain before going for a late lunch.

Because we were in the centre of the most popular tourist area in the city, though, it was now impossible to get a metered taxi or a tuk-tuk willing to negotiate a reasonable price. We were approached by a friendly bus driver who suggested some additional sites that we should see. He also mentioned that we should pay only 60 baht ($2) to be driven to all of them, and even found us a tuk-tuk driver who agreed to take us for that price. We like to think that we are pretty savvy travellers, and by now we were becoming quite skeptical. But while the bus driver and tuk-tuk driver were ironing out the details, we had hatched a scheme of our own: since we were not interested in seeing any of the other sites, and since 60 baht was an excellent price to complete our sightseeing and be dropped off afterwards, we would agree to the whole circuit now and “change our minds” later. If this was really the great deal that was being sold to us, the driver should be very happy to be paid full price for half the trip. So, after insisting on “no shops,” we hopped in the tuk-tuk and hoped that we were being taken for a ride only in the literal sense.

Our plan seemed to be working when we made it successfully to the Golden Mountain. We climbed the winding stairs around the mountainous temple and took some photographs of the city views afforded by the summit.

After climbing down, we informed our driver that he was off the hook, but that we would pay him full price just for dropping us off. We used an upbeat intonation meant to convey the great deal we were giving him, but he turned on the hard sell in an attempt to take us on the rest of the tour - and our suspicions were confirmed that this deal had been too good to be true. We insisted though, and moments later, we were being dropped off at Khao San Road by a very grumpy driver who sullenly collected his measly 60 baht from us.

Khao San Road is the backpacker Mecca of Bangkok. It consists of a few pedestrian blocks packed with shops, bars, restaurants, hostels, and massage parlours, mostly in dilapidated high rises. The scene really gets hopping at night, with stalls selling fake IDs, drugs, and “buckets” of Red Bull and vodka. While we didn’t want to spend too much time there, it is really something to see. Also, Antonia had spent her very first week in Thailand in one such dilapidated hostel, as waves of heat and culture shock washed over her. It also boasts some pretty tasty street food.

We were so parched, hungry, and tired after our adventures, though, that wanted to sit down. We found a reasonably-priced restaurant (which is not hard even in such a touristy area) and had a delicious meal of green curried tofu and vegetables, pad sew with tofu and vegetables fried with chili and basil, and refreshing fruit shakes. 

Not even fake IDs necessary here.

Antonia then had a foot massage while James perused the street stalls, and we ended the trip down memory lane with banana and chocolate rotis while we strolled down the street.

Back in our hotel, we showered and settled in for a relaxing evening after our exhausting day, but suddenly James realized that his glasses were broken, and oh no we had to go back out to Patpong market to shop for new frames (Antonia would like to note that she did not witness how the glasses came to be broken, and also that James’ exhaustion seemed to immediately evaporate at the thought of going back out to the market). Antonia went straight to the cafe to read while James spend a couple hours looking for replacement frames that would fit his lenses. Eventually, he returned with brand new specs, and we decided to celebrate with a post-midnight dinner at a nearby 24-hour Mexican restaurant called Taco Sunrise. It may seem strange that, with the pervasive availability of cheap, delicious Thai food, we chose to eat at this particular establishment, which was not cheap and likely not very authentic. But we love Mexican food and had been missing it, and we decided to splurge with guacamole and margaritas alongside our burritos to mark such a successful day. It was delicious!

Our goal the next day was to see a  movie in one of the very fancy malls in the upscale Siam Square district of Bangkok. 

After sleeping in a bit, we headed to Siam Paragon mall and planned to find some breakfast in the food court before buying tickets to whatever English  movie happened to be playing. When we glimpsed the showtimes, though, we saw an opportunity to see a movie, starting very shortly, in what was supposed to be the swankiest theatre in the world. We only had time to grab a Krispy Kreme donut (Antonia’s first ever - not surprisingly, she enjoyed it); lunch would be move theatre popcorn. We took the escalator past the Rolls Royce, Maserati, and Hermes stores and bought tickets at nearly $30 each (exorbitant for Thailand) to see 22 Jump Street. We were ushered into the lavish VIP lounge and our hostess took our food and drink orders (included with our tickets) before showing us into the world’s first movie theatre spa for our “free” 15-minute massages. The spa was luxurious, but the massages were torturous in that Thai way, in which the torture is supposedly good for you. When it was time to go into the theatre, we were shown to a room with just sixteen plush loveseats that reclined into beds - for a total theatre occupancy of thirty-two people. We took off our shoes and climbed into bed. Our food was shortly delivered to our seats. The temperature in the theatre was icy, but we were cozy under down duvets. The movie wasn’t great, but that hardly seemed the point.

On our way out of the mall, we found ourselves in a large crowd that was jostling for views of the royal family, who were making an appearance during a conference hosted at the mall. We decided to wait amongst the unsmiling guards and the signs imploring no photographs, and we were able to catch a glimpse of some royals and their entourage boarding the elevator. We think we may have seen the Queen, but we have not been able to confirm that.

Having had only junk food so far that day, we were in the mood for some real food, and walked to another nearby mall food court on the advice of our guidebook, which indicated that delicious, inexpensive, vegetarian Thai food was available at one of the stalls. But when we ordered what we thought was pad thai and pad sew, we received instead Chinese dishes that were drowned in a viscous, bland sauce. We ate as much as we could, and washed it down with green cream soda.

We walked back to our hotel in the dissipating rain among throngs of people and past numerous interesting food, flower, and lottery stalls. As the skies cleared to reveal a lovely sunset, we decided to celebrate our last night in Bangkok with overpriced drinks on the rooftop bar of our hotel. The server ignored us for so long, though, that we were able to scurry back to our room without having to buy anything, but after enjoying the views of the city.

Phuket

We had originally planned to spend our beach time on Koh Lanta, the more relaxed and less expensive beach a four-hour drive from where our plane from Chiang Mai would land in Phuket. But there were a few things that we wanted to see in Phuket, and our plane arrived very late at night, necessitating at least one night in Phuket anyway, and it just began to make sense to spend all of our time there. Plus, it was the low season, so we were able to find a great deal on a four star resort on Kamala Beach, one of the quieter spots on Phuket Island, which is known for its parties and clubs - not generally our scene.

We were concerned, though, about things being too expensive in Phuket, and especially at our swanky resort. We booked it only after reading a review that said that it was close to a 7-11 (as almost everything in Thailand is), so we thought that in the worst case scenario, we could at least scrounge some instant noodles for sustenance. We also made plans to deal with Phuket's notorious 'taxi mafia' and their exorbitant price-fixing. Since the airport is nearly the only place where you can access a metered taxi, we would use one there and then get the driver's business card so that we could call him whenever we wanted to venture around the island. We landed in Phuket and found the metered taxi stand, but when we asked the driver for his card, he told us that we didn't need it because we had our own taxis at the hotel. We tried to insist that we would rather give him our business, but it became clear that he was so scared of the taxi mafia that he wouldn't even drive onto the resort grounds, other than on this initial drop-off. We stuck to our cheap guns, though, and promised him that we would walk 20 minutes down the main road to a meeting spot away from the eyes of the mafia when we needed him.

Our first task the next morning was to scope out the food scene, and determine exactly how far away this all-important, life-sustaining 7-11 actually was. We had browsed the menu of the hotel restaurant, and while it wasn't too bad compared to Canadian prices, it was certainly much more than what meals should cost in Thailand. We had spied the 7-11 on our drive into the resort, and we set out to fill up on supplies. It turned out to be about a 15 walk down the highway - without sidewalks, beside dusty traffic, but doable. We also found a couple of nearby restaurants with reasonable prices, at least for the touristy area in which we had found ourselves. We were so relieved; we could eat without breaking our budget. We also felt smugly pleased with ourselves for hacking the fancy resort tourist-trap. We high-fived as we loaded up our 7-11 basket with instant noodles, yogurt, cookies, drinks, and a $5 bottle of Thai rum to sneak to the poolside. And we couldn't resist trying the pancake-with-syrup-flavoured potato chips for breakfast.

After an afternoon spent relaxing by the pool, we took a walk down the beach to look for a spot to eat dinner. We decided to follow a little path that led into a park that featured a monument dedicated to the 2004 tsunami, and soon we found a whole, bustling, very nearby town complete with a 7-11 that was a five-minute walk down the beach instead of a 15-minute walk down the busy highway. We felt like we had stumbled upon a miracle, and were so happy that our hack was suddenly made that much easier.

The next day we decided to take a look around the nearby, larger town of Patong. Patong is known as a party town and is the hub of tourism, and, unfortunately, as we discovered, sex tourism, in Phuket. We wandered around the shops and past the shady massage parlours and rows and rows of bars in the oppressive heat, then decided to take a break in the enormous and air-conditioned Jung Ceylon mall. 

We spent the afternoon in a refreshingly frigid movie theatre watching Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. When it was time to return to Kamala Beach, about a fifteen-minute drive away, our metered taxi driver was on the other side of the island and wouldn't make the trip to get us. We were left at the mercy of the taxi mafia if we wanted to get home, and we spent the next hour walking up and down the main street negotiating with drivers while dodging invitations to girly shows. James' negotiating skills finally resulted in a price that was only about twice as much as we paid to get there.

The next blissful week and a half was spent alternating beach time with pool time, swimming with hanging at the pool bar, napping with doing aqua-size led by the resort's 

fitness instructor. 

Part of being in Phuket at the low season meant that the beach was officially 'closed' due to high tides and strong undercurrents, but like most of the tourists, we ignored the warnings and played in the fun waves.

In the evenings, we walked into town for dinner and then retired to our room to watch our favourite TV channel - strangely but wonderfully, it showed only two things: reruns of Law and Order, and magic shows. 

We did venture outside Kamala twice more during our stay. Once was to go to Splash Jungle, a water park. We debated whether we should bother going at all because it was expensive and mostly aimed at children, but we had a lot of fun going down the big-kid slides and floating down the lazy river countless times.

The last time we left Kamala was to go to Phuket Town to see a soccer game between Phuket FC and Almeria, a visiting Spanish team. We killed time before the ticket office opened by playing on some exercise equipment in a nearby park. 

Six dollars got us great seats near the centre line, and luckily, just under the overhang, because torrential rains came down for most of the game. 

The cheers for the hometown team were not dampened, though, despite an eventual 3-1 loss.