2004 A Cambodian Coastal Adventure

A Cambodian Coastal Adventure
Part 1 - Pattaya to Bangkok

"Go and look behind the Ranges-something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go! "
---
Rudyard Kipling

This is a multi-part article with photos about a trip taken in early October 2004. Things are changing often in both Cambodia and Thailand so be prepared for the unexpected!

Overview

* Do not try to repeat this trip in a single day as night time travel on Cambodian roads is extremely dangerous and this trip requires at least 4 hours of pitch black night time travel. I only did it to see if it could be done but will never try to repeat this stunt again!
* This trip took me exactly 15 ½ hours. 2 hours from Pattaya to Bangkok (90 baht). 4 hours from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet (164 baht) and the Cambodian border town of Poi Pet. Most of the remaining journey was at night.
* Visa issues are always a problem. Make sure if you plan on staying in Cambodia for either business, teaching or just to stay longer than 30 days, you arrive with at least a 30 day, MULTIPLE ENTRY business visa. If you come in with a tourist visa you will have to leave the country and re-enter on a business visa. Border visas are always more that those issued at the embassy. Also make sure you request and get a multiple-entry as once you leave, you will not be allowed to re-enter the country. In the past all business visas were stamped “multiple-entry” but this has now changed. As of this mid-October 2004 what appears to be in place is multiple-entry business visas are only issued for 6 months or longer. On November 2nd, a 6-month, multiple entry business visa from Lucky!Lucky! Motorbikes on Monivong in Phnom Penh was $148. 3 months are available for around $70 but in reality are only a "single exit" as you can't get back into the country with it if it is issued in Cambodia.
* Thai immigration posts seem to change their operation hours frequently. During this trip in early October 2004 they were closing at 5PM, compared to 8PM only a few months earlier. What is bizarre about this is that the Cambodian side is still open to 8PM!
* Travel over both Thai and Cambodian roads are filled with far more checkpoints, both military and police or both, than ever before. Expect police and military to board your bus and ask for identity documents.
* Be extremely careful about the money you take on the trip to use or the change you receive. You will have a difficult if not impossible time of exchanging US $100 bills with a date of 1996. You will also have difficulty in exchanging the older, smaller “faced” bills of any domination. Even Thai 1,000 Baht are suspect and often scrutinized. On several occasions I was informed this was because of the “Russians”, of which there is a large community in the Pattaya area.
* There are many spellings for Thai words in English. Personally I have counted no less than 5 different English spellings on signs leading to Bangkok’s present International Airport, “Don Maung”. Words like Ekkamai can also be Ekamai. Sometimes they are separate, sometimes together such as Morchit/Mo Chit/Mor Chit, Aranya Prathet or Aranyaprathet.

Pattaya to Bangkok - First Leg

I awoke a bit before sunrise at the Diana Golf Resort just across from Pattaya Nua’s (North Road) "Pattaya to Bangkok Air-Conditioned Bus Station". Having used this hotel for many years as my base for adventures around Southeast Asia, today’s sunrise and brewing southern thunderstorms appeared to look like this journey might be another exciting one.

Gathering up my few things, I checked out and strolled across the small field separating the hotel from Pattaya’s north road and the express bus station to Bangkok and after arriving just after 06:30, I purchased my 90 Baht ($2.50USD) ticket to the “Bangkok Bus Station” (or as most foreigners call it, the Eastern or Mor Chit Bus Station).


As the next bus wasn’t leaving until 7AM and I had a few moments to kill, I grabbed my usual two bottles of water and a coffee. The newspaper stand wasn’t open just yet so I wasn’t able to pick up this morning’s Bangkok Post but as I was planning on doing a bit of writing along the way, this didn’t bother me too much.

About 10 minutes before the planned 7AM departure, I strolled over to the bus that was to be my ride north to Bangkok. Buses from this terminal leave every 20 minutes or so for either the western or “Ekamai/Ekkamai Bus Station” and the eastern/Mor Chit or “Bangkok Bus Terminal”. Things are always well organized and if you should have any additional luggage you need to check in the coaches’ baggage compartment, you can do so without worrying about someone snagging it as theft on these buses is practically unheard of.

As I placed my small bags down on the curve and turned around, there was a lady standing there staring at me. I immediately recognized her as someone I knew from one of the ex-pat hangouts in Jomtien and thought once again what a tiny little village I lived in.

We chatted for a few moments and exchanged some pleasantries. She was headed up to Bangkok for the day (Sunday) to see her family and I assumed would be back at work at “Phukey’s” in Jomtien on Monday. There was one other farang (foreigner) standing there as well who seemed to be staring at the both of us. As I did not know if she was traveling with him or not and was feeling a bit uncomfortable, I quickly disengaged the conversation and placed one of my small bags into the luggage compartment and boarded the bus.

Fortunate in having a window seat, we soon pulled out of the bus terminal and turned north on Thailand Highway 3 (Sukhumvit or Main/High Street). I couldn't help but notice the building thunderstorms to the south with their frequent lightning flashes as well as the weather to the east, dark and ominous, with swirling, grey shadows across the land as the sun continued to rise.

Heading north the streets were alive with activity, even in spite of it being only a little past 7 on a Sunday morning. Already the Monks were making their rounds, rice pails in hand, blessing those and saying their prayers for the generous and spiritual.

The bus I am on this particular trip is more modern than most that ply the routes to Ekkamai and Mor Chit. The seats are a bit newer and properly stenciled with large white numbers behind each seat. The air conditioning is blowing cool air steadily from its vents and it has more the feel of a larger coach than the smaller buses I use frequently to Ekkamai.

Laem Chabang Industrial Estate and Port quickly appears fifteen minutes later and after a bit of a wait at the intersection, a few minutes later we make our first stop to pick up more passengers at what the sign indicated to be the “Roong Reuang Coach Company”, which just happens to be the same name of the company issuing the ticket to me in Pattaya.

Fifteen riders board from this station and they all appear to have seats and in less than 3 minutes, we are once again back on the road.

Shortly after this stop, we stop again and take on more new passengers followed by a turn east off of Sukhumvit into an area named “Ao Udom”, which is a narrow, winding lane connecting Highway 3 and Highway 34, the actual highway normally used for bus and truck traffic north. Once we turn north on Highway 34, I notice a sign indicating Bangkok is 94 kilometers away.

Highway 34 is a motorway of sorts, or what an American might refer to as “Interstate”. In reality it is neither. Although it is divided with a medium, there are countless entry, exit and U-turn intersections that can at times make for a harrowing ride. God how I love BIG buses!

About 90 kilometers from Bangkok or about 30 minutes into the trip, we go under the overpass for Highway 331, which is a shortcut to the large industrial estates on the elbow of Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard, the joint military/civilian airfield of Ao Tapao/U-Tapao (pronounced “u da pow) and the Thai naval air and sea bases at Sattahip. If you want to see Thailand’s only aircraft carrier and it military in all its glory, this is the place to go!

It is also interesting to note that on the north side of this intersection of Highway 34, you will see a junkyard that makes you do a double take for it is here that you will see two vintage DC-3s, wing tip to wing tip, only a few meters from the fence separating them from the highway. One can only wonder what these two aging, camouflaged ghosts could tell if they could only talk about their war so long ago called “Vietnam”. (I wonder if the yard still has their maintenance records? ).

The terrain beyond this point is actually quite lovely now with the surrounding steep and forested hills seemingly asleep in the early morning sea mist. It is such a contrast to your senses to be at one moment staring at these tranquil hills followed a moment later with the shrill sound of the busses’ horn jolting you back to the reality of Thailand’s sprawling urbanization. Unfortunately these small hills quickly disappear, and even though we are still a good hour out of Bangkok, the girth of the city is obvious.

What fascinates me is the number of trucks. Yes there are cars everywhere as well, but trucks dominate the highways. In particular, pickups of every design and manufacturer ply the roads of Thailand and unlike Europe, where they are no where to be found, they seem to mirror the economic and regulatory realties of their respective economies.

Having spent many years in both Europe and most recently Germany again, the contrast between their existence on the two continents is an icon for the differences in their respective economies, ways of thinking and laws. Thailand being highly entrepreneurial and not regulated whereas Germany's rules and regulations are daunting at best.

With these thoughts in mind, we once again make a broad, looping turn onto the intersection of two highways merging north. Just to the north of this intersection is where the famous Thai German Institute (TGI) is located. A few minutes later, the 4 candy stripped smoke stacks of a large power generation facility looms up from the horizon. At this point you know you know you are half way to Bangkok.

It is now 8AM and unlike the buses to Ekkamai, the buses to Mor Chit climb up onto the elevated tollway part of Highway 34. If you remain on the ground under this monstrosity of engineering achievement, your trip into Bangkok is free but the traffic will be far heavier and of course your trip much slower.

Shortly after climbing this engineering marvel, signs are now pointing to Bang Na and we soon cross a large river filled with ocean going vessels as well as barges both berthed along the banks of the river as well as tugs pulling heavily laden barges up river to Bangkok.

It is now easy to seem many kilometers in every direction from this height. Although the area is now dead flat, it is very lush and green from the seasonal monsoon rains. Massive warehouses and housing flats dominate the landscape and it isn’t long before another towering complex comes into view through the early morning haze and smog.

It is one of the newer, more famous university campuses that seem to be cropping up all over the region with a soaring skyscraper in the center of its campus. Closer to the highway is a very large and rather ornate Wat, with colors of red, yellow, green and of course, the ever present glistening gold roof.

It is now an hour and a half into the first two hour segment of this journey and the first of multiple, huge road intersections appear. This one happens to be the junction for the new international airport being built to serve the region. Signs point to a name that most farangs find either difficult to pronounce or impossible to read, “The Suvanabhumi Airport”. I wonder what genius selected this name, knowing this facility was being built for the sole purpose of tourism for the eastern seaboard as well as serving as the regional hub for destinations beyond Thailand. I guess “Eastern Seaboard Regional” would have been a bit too simple. I guarantee you there are going to be many confused travelers and travel agents both booking and arriving on planes into the Kingdom!

The bus soon stops and pays its Class 7 toll of 110 baht and we soon start our decent from “heaven” onto the streets of “hell”, where if anyone has spent anytime in Bangkok trying to move about the city in anything other than the Skytrain or brand new Subway, know what I mean.

Here of course is where the perpetual road construction is most obvious. I use to joke year ago about this in Germany and their Autobahns, but they couldn’t hold a candle to the Thai style scope and frequency of construction and expansion.

It is easy to see, even on this early Sunday morning, with countless cranes, workers, steel and concrete everywhere why so many Thais work as construction laborers around the region and in the middle-east.

In spite of the ongoing construction, the traffic is relativity light this Sunday morning which is the main reason I chose today to make this trip, always preferring to make long and difficult passages across the region on a Sunday or holiday. With a little luck and a strong back, it might be possible to complete this journey in one, very long day.

Billboard advertising in Thailand, and particularly in and around Bangkok is everywhere and the boards themselves are massive, reaching a dozen or more stories into the sky. Although Thai culture always wants things to be “beautiful” and Thais hate things that are ugly (including people), the boards are horrific monsters of bolted steel frames, many of which are empty and fouling the cityscape, awaiting their next “victim” mobile phone, cosmetic or airline company.

At a little before 9AM we glide down off the elevated highway and make our circuitous turns into the Eastern Bus Terminal, less than 2 hours after leaving Pattaya. Not bad for a Pattaya to Bangkok run and the first leg of this journey I would say!