Travel

When Mum and Dad visited we visited Angkor Wat/Siem Reap in Cambodia for a few days. Instead of paying the $AU400 per person round trip flights offered by Bangkok Airways (the only airline flying Bangkok to Siem Reap), we went by car. I drove my car from Bangkok to Aranyaprathet (on the Thai side of the border), then we crossed over and caught a taxi to Siem Reap. The following is how we did it. I collected a lot of this information from Tales of Asia and the ThaiVisa forum.

Bangkok to Aranyaprathet

We left Pathumthani at about 6am on Thursday 12 August. This was the first day of a 4-day long weekend in Thailand (Queens Birthday), so the early start was to avoid potential traffic jams as people left Bangkok, as well as arrive at the border in time to avoid long queues at immigration. We took the Rangsit-Nakhon Nayok Road which is 2-lane (in one direction) all the way to Nakhon Nayok. Then we turned right onto No. 33, which goes all the way to Aranyaprathet. This road us 2-lane most of the way, except with two sections (probably about 40km) of 1-lane road. Overall it was an easy drive: the 240km plus couple of toilet stops taking 3.5 hours.

I had read on ThaiVisa that a secure car park is available at the border. As you drive directly towards the border check point, the large Rong Klua market is on the left. On the right (as well as on the left just past the entrance to the market) are several car parks. As our car slowly passed the turn to the market the attendants run towards the car trying to get is to enter their car park. At this stage there was little traffic around. I turned into the first on the right, called Getaway. It had shade clothe covering parking spaces, plus a large, clean toilet block. Price was 100 Baht a day, and yes, the car was their in tact when we returned 5 days later.

Crossing the Border

As we organised our bags at the car, two "helpers" came spoke to us, offering to help (with bags, visas, getting across the border, taxis on other side). After reading the great info about the Aranyaprathet/Poipet border crossing on Tales of Asia I had a good idea of what we needed to do and declined their help. However they did offer us a Cambodia arrival form which I declined but should've taken as filling it in at Cambodia immigration was a headache. Anyway, from the car park it was a 50m walk to Thai immigration for departure.

The Thai departure building is on the left. There were spaces to queue outside, but at about 10am noone around. Inside the building was a queue of about 10 foreigners in front of us. It took about 10 minutes to get through for Mum, Dad and I, except Wan didn't have her departure card and had to return to the end of the line, adding another 15 minutes.

Once out of Thai immigration we proceeded across the bridge to enter Cambodia. There is a big Angkor style arch way, then on the left some small buildings and a tent for a health check. Spotting the foreigners a guy at the health check tent (two small tables and some chairs) directed us in to complete the simple forms. Then he showed us the way to Cambodia immigration (on the right side of the road, about 150m walk past the several casinos which many of the Thais are going to).

Note that we already had our visa – an E-Visa I obtained online about a week beforehand. This E-visa was simple and quick. You visit the website, provide the details of the people travelling, upload a passport photo, pay $US25 with credit card (the payment is handled by a third party, perhaps PayPal, and supposedly safe) and then they email you a PDF of the E-Visa that you print (two copies) and take with you. I received the email the day after applying. On mine there was a mistake in my name (I think I made the mistake). After letting them know in a response email they quickly corrected and sent me the updated PDF. The benefit of an E-Visa: no need to get a visa on arrival before passing Cambodia immigration (saving time on potentially long queues, and avoiding the need to pay extra 'tea money' to the officials). The cost: an extra $US5 processing fee (official price on arrival is $US5, but higher prices may be quoted). Although I didn't experience the hassle of getting a visa on arrival first hand, I would recommend getting the E-Visa to others.

Back to Cambodia immigration. It was a small building with about 10 foreigners lined up at two windows inside. An immigration office was handing out arrival forms – this is where it would be nice to already have this form as filling in passport details and hotel addresses while writing on your knee is not much fun. Note that our 'helper' from the health check was still with us, and lent us a pen. The entire process of filling in the form, queuing and waiting for the immigration officer to check us in took about 30 minutes. There was no request for extra money, except the officer handing out arrival forms (for a price he said we could avoid the queues).

Getting to Siem Reap

After getting through immigration and officially in Cambodia, about 10m away was a waiting area for free buses to the International Transport Centre where we could get taxis (or a bus) to Siem Reap. Our helper got on the bus with us and within 5 minutes we were at the transport centre, which had a couple of buildings and plenty of Toyota Camry's ready to take people to Siem Reap. Our helper said the price was $US12 per person (it was also written on the window of the taxi ticket booth). I asked for $US40 (there was 4 of us) and he said ok, but that we shouldn't forget his tip. I paid for the ticket (with $US100 note that I wanted to break up) and 5 minutes later we were on or way. I gave our helper 100 Baht. Even though I knew what was coming and could have done everything without him, he was nice and took us to all the right places (not trying to scam us) making things a little less stressful.

The drive to Siem Reap took about 2 hours. The taxi driver, who didn't speak any English, made it an interesting trip though. Firstly, it was a right-hand drive car driving on the right side of the road. Especially leaving Poipet where there was a lot of traffic, it was pretty stressful for Dad, sitting in the front seat, as the driver started to pull into the centre of the road to pass cars. The driver couldn't see oncoming traffic, but Dad sure could. On top of that the driver kept his hand on the horn. Any car, motorbike or pedestrian on our side of the road received about 5 toots to warn of our arrival. Even the cows were warned. We later realised Cambodia drivers use the horn for warning much more than in Thai (and in Australia), but still this driver was over the top.

As expected, as we got into Siem Reap even after showing him the hotel, the driver took us to a small street and stopped near some tuk-tuks. The driver got out and another guy poked his head in saying that he is not allowed to go on any further, so we have to catch a tuk-tuk to the hotel. We get in the tuk-tuks, along with a tout who tried to get us to book him for touring Angkor. We declined his offer and gave him 50 Baht (too much) when we were dropped at the hotel.

Return to Thailand

The night before we were to leave I asked a tuk-tuk driver outside our hotel if he could organise a trip to Poipet for us. He said his brother had a Camry – price $US25. We agreed and had a peaceful trip back. Actually gave him $US30 as he had some interesting stories, drove safely and only used the horn 5 times in the whole trip.

Getting back into Thailand was easy. Firstly on the right side near the large roundabout in Poipet was a small building were we got our Cambodia exit stamp. No lines, no wait. Then walked passed the casinos again and into Thailand. About 10 minutes in Thai immigration and we were finished. Went to the car, drove into Rongklua Market for some shopping then back to Bangkok.

If travelling to Cambodia (Siem Reap) again I would take this overland option, rather than flying, again. Although stressful crossing into Cambodia, there were no major hassles. The 2nd time should surely be much easier.

On August 10 Mum and Dad arrived in Bangkok for their 2nd visit to Thailand. They have 2 weeks here, and plan to hang around Bangkok, travel to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and perhaps spend a few days in Kanchanaburi. They flew direct from Melbourne to Bangkok via Jetstar (after driving from Mt Gambier to Melbourne, with a stopover in Ballarat for 1 night). Coming from the Mount, you can choose to fly either via Adelaide or Melbourne. They were quoted about $AU2600 (return for both people) from a travel agent (either via Adelaide and Singapore, or via Adelaide and Sydney). But in the end they tried Jetstar for a total of $AU1600. The $AU1000 saved is spending money for the next two weeks. I was a little worried recommending Jetstar to them, but the with a comfort pack (blanket and video unit) they found it a pretty good flight, mainly because of the no stopovers. Maybe I will try Jetstar next time ...

Photos from their stay in Thailand and Cambodia are in the gallery.

Well, the holiday is over and its back to work. We got back to Bangkok about 11pm Wednesday night.

It was a great time, not only in Adelaide, Halls Gap, and Flinders Ranges, but also spending time with the family on the farm and around Mt Gambier. And of course, eating some of delicious food, especially Mum's home cooking (I put on 4kg!).

Plenty of photos in the Gallery.

From April 10 to 13 this year was the Easter long weekend. This is a time when many people go on a holiday, often camping or in a caravan. Wan, Brenton and I went camping the Flinders Ranges, a large set of mountain ranges in central South Australia considered the start of the Australian Outback.

On Thursday Wan and I drove from Kongorong to Adelaide (about 5 hours), picked up Brenton from his work about 3pm, organised our camping gear and supplies at his house, then drove another 2 hours north of Adelaide to Clare Valley. This is a good place to stop on the way to the Flinders (which is another 3 to 4 hours drive, not because it is one of Australia's many popular wine regions, but because our friends Rob and Meg live there and we get free camping. We set up our tent at their place, enjoyed a BBQ dinner, and got on the road again by about 11am Friday. [Rob and Meg have a nice simple setup on their 100 acres, and about a week after visiting them they had their first kid, Willow. Check out their journey).

We drove via Jamestown, Orroroo, Carrieton and Craddick to Hawker and then arrived at Wilpena Pound (the heart of the Flinders Ranges) about 3pm. There are two caravan/camping parks: Wilpena Pound and Rawnsley Station. Both are pretty good - this time we stayed at Wilpena Pound for $27 per night (unpowered site, 3 people). You can also stay in the National Park, especially in places like Brachina Gorge, which is much more peaceful bush camping.

The weather was perfect for the trip. Everyday was about 28 degrees, with the occasional cloud. At night time it was not too cold, especially with the fire. What did we do there? A lot of time was spent relaxing with a beer at the camp site. On Saturday we went on an easy 3 hour trek up to Hill's Homestead and then to a lookout with a great view of Wilpena Pound. On Sunday we drove up through Bunyeroo and Brachina gorges, and then back towards Wilpena via Stokes Lookout. There are plenty of other places to go and things to do, but this weekend we all wanted to relax a bit. So after a couple of boxes of Coopers and half a dozen bottles of red we made our way home to Adelaide on Monday (and then back to Kongorong on Tuesday).

Photos are available in the Gallery, as well as at Brenton's Facebook page.

Halls Gap is a small tourist town in the middle of the Grampians, a mountain range in western Victoria. We spent 2 nights there at the start of April, staying in the Halls Gap Caravan Park in the middle of the town.

Halls Gap is about 300km from Kongorong. There were 3 car loads that went: Peter and Allison; Brett and the family in their car; and Wan and I in Brett's Jeep with Dad's new camper trailer on the back. Its a nice setup, taking about 20 minutes to put up and includes queen mattress on the trailer, plus floor space for about two more, as well as a large annex.

The caravan park wasn't too busy, with most people staying in cabins and caravans. We had the open camping ground to ourselves. In the early morning and late afternoon there were plenty of kangaroos around the park, coming up to our camper trailer. Peter and Ally slept outside in their swags, and had kangaroos almost walk over them.

On arrival, after setting up we had a walk around the park and town then settled down to some drinks and dinner. The next day we all made the trek to the Pinnacle, a lookout above Halls Gap. Before going home on Sunday, we all drove up to Stawell (home of the famous Stawell Gift) and visited a couple of wineries in Great Western.

Halls Gap, and the Grampians in general, are a great place to visit with many opportunities for bush walks, camping and mountain climbing. Check out the Photo Gallery for more pics.

On arrival to Australia, we had four nights in Adelaide, staying in the city at the Country Comfort Motel on South Terrace. Adelaide is a quiet city. Although the population is about 1 million, the centre of the city is small and everyone is quite laid back (to the extent that the city is almost dead on weeknights and Sundays).

Staying on South Terrace, within 5 minutes walk of King William Street is great because there is a free tram running from South Terrace to North Terrace during the day. Most shopping, cultural and entertainment venues are near North Terrace. Some of the things we did while in Adelaide included:

• Shopping (or at least window shopping) in Rundle Mall
• Visited the South Australian Museum (free entry)
• Wandered down North Terrace admiring the statues and old majestic buildings, and through Adelaide University to the River Torrens
• Lunch and shopping in the Central Market, which includes Chinatown and some good Asian grocers
• Tram to Glenelg Beach
• Coopers Pale and Sparkling Ales, as well as red wines at the Austral and Exeter on Rundle Street
• Dinner at the Red Ochre Restaurant (see me separate review), as well as at pubs and restaurants around Adelaide

On Friday we borrowed Brentons Pajero and drove up to Cleland Wildlife Park. Here is a great collection of Australian animals, most of which you can get close to and feed. We saw: kangaroos, koalas, Tasmanian devils, emus, echidnas, bandicoots, wallabies, wombats and all sorts of birds. There is also a snake farm. Well worth a visit if you are in Adelaide.

On Saturday morning Mum and Dad arrived in Adelaide and we all went up to Barossa Valley for some wine tasting. The first stop was Chateau Barossa, a new winery built by the guy who owned Chateau Yaldara. The wines were not special, but the highlight was the large rose garden outside. It was opened by the Queen Elizabeth II on here previous visit to Australia. Lunch was at a snack shop in Tanunda (Wan tried a Hamburger with the lot and was full after 1/3 of it). Then on to Jacob's Creek Winery which had some nice wines.

Back on Adelaide we had dinner at the Gilbert Hotel. It was great food and atmosphere until I noticed the last couple of mouthfuls of my chicken schnitzel was uncooked. Not sure how much of it was uncooked but luckily there were no side effects the next day.

On Sunday we made our way to Mum and Dad's home in Kongorong near Mt Gambier (about 450km south of Adelaide).

This New Years I was invited to the home of May and Jum, two sisters who work with Wan. They come from Yasothon, a province in north-eastern Thailand. I had a great time there, except for the time spent driving and feeling sick. Unfortunately that was about two-thirds of the entire long weekend.

The first thing was getting there. Being a 5 day long weekend, there was going to be a lot of people on the roads. Having to work on Tuesday 30th of December, we left on Wednesday 31st (New Years Eve). There were two cars going (I was driving Wan and her friend Nee), although not driving together. We decided to leave early in the morning to avoid the heavy traffic. Unfortunately 5 million other Bangkokians had the same idea. We left Thammasat University at 5am and within 5 minutes of entering the main road (Pahonyothin, Highway Number 1) we encountered traffic jams (i.e. traffic stopped or travelling a mere 10kph). There was at least 4 lanes of traffic all the way, some times 6 lanes. It took us about 6 hours to travel the first 110 km's. The many petrol stations and food stops along the highway were full. After Saraburi (normally a 1 hour trip from Pathumthani, this time more than 5 hours) the traffic improved and we managed to get up to reasonable speeds of 80kph. We took the bypass around Khorat, staying on Highway 2 until slightly after the Phi Mai turn off, then made a right turn onto road 207. At this point the traffic lightened, although now we were on a single lane road. Traffic jams came in spurts, most often due to accidents, traffic lights or police check points.

Police check points were setup in almost every small town. You also saw police stationed at major intersections. From what I saw, the police were not stopping people (e.g. for speeding), but rather there in preparation for accidents. Some of the check points also doubled as places were you could stop for a rest. I had the feeling there major focus was on safety, rather than collecting money from traffic infringements, which I thought was good.

Including several food/toilet stops, we finally arrived in Yasothon at 6pm. A 13 hour trip. Not something that I had planned, and I probably wouldn't have done it if I knew it would be like this, but didn't have much choice once we got started. Because we were going so slow, the first 6 or 7 hours were in fact easy driving. But by the time I arrived in Yasothon, my right ankle/leg and bum was killing me.

The others left Bangkok at 3am, but still hit the traffic and it took them also about 13 hours.

Given the long day on the road, New Years Eve was not going to be big. After eating hot pot with all the family and having a few beers, I was in bed by 10pm! I was awoken at midnight by some very loud fireworks being set off nearby. I got up to see them for 5 minutes, and then hit the sack again.

The next morning the extended family were up early for a trip to the local Wat to offer food to the monks. Then after breakfast we drove to Mukdahan, a town/province about 100km's from Yasothon and on the border with Laos. There we went to Phu Pha Thoep in the Mukdahan National Park. This was some rock formations which were nice to wander around for an hour or so. For lunch I had some delicious (and spicy) Som Tam and Laap Bplaa, as well as a local delicacy, Moo Yaw. After lunch the others were shopping in Mukdahan town, while Wan, Nee and I went for a drive further north to Kaeng Ka Bao, a popular spot on the Mekong River and the Second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge. We also stopped at a large Christian church - apparently Christianity is reasonably popular in this area, as well as the provinces north of Mukdahan. It was another long day, arriving back at Yasothon at 7pm.

That night we headed to the Yasothon nightclub for some whiskey, live music and dancing.

Early the next morning I wasn't feeling well. At first I thought it was the whiskey (although we didn't drink much, a bottle between 6 of us), but then I started firing at both ends. About 10am, Win drove me to the local hospital where I spent the day and night with a saline drip.

The night in hospital and 4000 Baht for private room and medicine was well worth it. The next morning (Saturday) I felt fine, and in an attempt to avoid the traffic going back to Bangkok on Sunday, we left Yasothon about 11am. Another 13 hours drive though - this time the traffic was mostly between Yasothon and Khorat (from Khorat onwards it wasn't too bad).

So overall, the things that I managed to do - Phu Pha Thoep, Kaeng Ka Bao, Friendship Bridge, disco - were good fun. Unfortunately too much time was spent in the car and hospital!

Photo Gallery

SIIT held its Annual Seminar (end of year trip) in Cha Am town (in Cha Am province). Most of the staff and faculty from SIIT went down to Cha Am on a bus on Saturday morning.

After speeches and lunch, Saturday afternoon we went to a Royal Project for planting trees, where everyone got to plant a single tree.
This was a little disappointing for me, mainly because I was expecting that we would be planting lots of trees (i.e. doing some hard work). Instead we spent a good 45 minutes waiting for the previous group to finish, then listened to a talk and movie for 45 minutes then spend 30 minutes planting a tree each. The holes where already dug for us - we just had to unwrap the tree, put some dirt around it and splash it with water.

A couple of us had a swim Saturday afternoon, but the water was freezing for Thailand's standards. Dinner and shows were held on Saturday night, as were some drinking sessions on the beach.

We stayed at Long Beach Hotel, Cha Am. This was a large tourist hotel with standard rooms, and all the facilities you could need. It is in a great location, about 50 metres from the beach.

Photo Gallery

No, I don't mean the Test match in Adelaide. At about this time I should be arriving in Dunedin in New Zealand to attend a conference (PDCAT'08). It was to be my first trip to New Zealand. Although I had four days of conference to attend, I was looking forward to the visit - enjoying some good food, some famous white wines, Speight's Brewery and catching up with colleagues.

Unfortunately, here I am still in Bangkok. Both Bangkok airports (Suvarnabhumi and the old Don Muang) have been shut down for about 5 days due to the protests by the PAD Thai's. No, not the delicious dish, pad thai, but the People's Alliance for Democracy.

From what I can gather, there are two main political sides in Thailand: the Democrats (and PAD) that have the support of the middle/high class based mainly around Bangkok; and the PPP that have the support of the poorer, rural folks mainly from the north (Chiang Mai) and north-east, i.e. Isaan. I'm not sure how the south of Thailand fits into this - of course, there are other significant problems there (1000's of people killed from fighting between Buddhist and Muslims). The PPP have the numbers (i.e. win elections), whereas the Democrats/PAD have the power (money/army). Throw in a guy who made billions from satellite communications (IPStar), and probably millions from dodgy deals as a prime minister, his brother-in-law (the current PM) and Samak (the previous PM sacked because he enjoyed cooking), and you have a recipe for confrontations between the two sides. It hasn't been too violent yet (handfuls dead from small scale grenade attacks), but there is a lot of tension that things could turn ugly soon. The only saviour may be the King, who has his birthday this Friday.

This is of course an over-generalisation of some very complex issues within Thailand. In practice, apart from a missed conference, it hasn't affected my life here much. I don't have any additional concerns for my safety, and life is proceeding as normal. The only thing is that I might start carrying my camera with me more often, in case I come home from work and find the streets lined with tanks again.

Last weekend was extra long, with May 1 (Thursday) Labour Day and May 5 (Monday) Coronation Day and for me, May 2 annual leave. Hence I had five days driving around in my new car in Khon Kaen and Loei. I stayed at Wan's house near Chum Phae, and visited a few local attractions like caves, mountains and bats. I also made the hike up Phu Kradung, a popular mountain in Loei. We spent 1 night on the top of the mountain and saw waterfalls, cliffs and lots of leaches.

Photo Gallery