Bangkok 2

Last night I went down the road, took a deep breath and walked into a local eatery. When I sat down the stall lady whipped out an English menu and ruined my adventure. It was still nice; beer and dinner for less 3 euro. Spent most of my morning trying to work out how to get to my next port, Siem Reap in Cambodia. I'd been agonising over how to go there - by bus (which actually ends up as bus, tuk-tuk, bus, taxi) or plane. The latter is a right rip-off; 150euro for a 45min flight. The former is cheap, however takes upwards of 6 or 7 hours, lots of queuing and dirt roads but probably builds character and would be remembered fondly in 20 years time. The guide I was using contains a lists of instructions that run over several pages on how to negotiate this border crossing. So after much internal wrangling, I wussed out and decided to get the plane. That took most of my morning to arrange, and picking up my Visa for Vietnam from the embassy in the early afternoon didn't leave me with much siteseeing time. So I was left to randomly point to somewhere in my guidebook (that is, bundle of photocopied guidebook pages) and ended up going to "Jim Thompson's House". I definitly lucked out with it; not exactly awe inspiring but an oasis in the middle of a bustling and sweltering heat it was. It consists of a big teak wood traditional looking house turned into a museum, surrounded by real jungle, then surrounded by concrete jungle. It meant I was able to stroll around in relative shade and not worry about reapplying suncream for the billionth time. It was actually really relaxing and the guide explained all the interesting bits and pieces of this American guy who restarted Thailands silk industry or something.