Siem Reap to Bangkok

Friday 26th March

Up early for minibus pick-up at 7:30. It was raining steadily, the first real rain we have seen in months, we have been so lucky with the weather this trip. The minibus deposited us in a shack used to store rental pushbikes, where we waited until more backpackers arrived.Eventually a 45 seater coach turned up and everyone scrambled for a seat because it was overbooked. The overspill were crammed into a minibus, leaving just one poor youngster who was sat on a plastic camp chair in the aisle.

We travelled through the rain across more of the seemingly interminable Cambodian plain. There were just a few scrappy towns and settlements in a fairly featureless brown landscape. The road was well made up, although progress was as ever slow as it was only two lane.

At Poipet, the crossing was relatively fast, after the Cambodian control we walked across the border to the Thai side. Our passports were stamped with visas without question. I had planned to take a tuk tuk to the bus station, but the coach operator said he had a minibus leaving immediately for Bangkok at 300 baht each (£6).We decided to accept the offer and were led to a modern gas fuelled minibus.

It was very cramped inside as there were 10 people plus backpacks, and we sat hunched in the back seats as we sped towards Bangkok along roads the Cambodians can only dream about.We had to refuel several times, so although there are many vehicles here using liquefied gas, their range seems very limited and refuelling is much slower than petrol or diesel.

It stopped raining as we approached the centre of Bangkok, where we encountered the Red Shirt demonstrators. They seemed very orderly, camped along the sides or middles of the roads with soup kitchens set up for feeding while listening to speeches blaring out of loudspeakers.

We were dropped somewhere that I couldn't find on my map. Christine found a tuk tuk, agreed a fare of 200 baht (£4) and we hared across the city until we reached Nana sky train station which I knew was on Sukhumvit Road very close to the hotel. The driver couldn't find the hotel though, but eventually asked someone who knew where it was.Christine had recognised the skyscraper that the hotel was in near the station from the website photos, and after turning round we found the Ambassador Hotel entrance up a side street. There are very few street name signs here, so navigation isn't easy.

The Ambassador Hotel was a bit of a let down after the beautiful Cambodian hotel we had just left. It is more like a 1980s office block, impersonal and rather dated, however we had picked it because it has a swimming pool and is very close to the sky train station.

We ventured out on the streets as we hadn't eaten since breakfast. The area is very liveley with street stalls selling fake clothing, watches, computer games and pornography. We ate on a terrace at the nearby Landmark Hotel overlooking the bustling street with the sky trains flashing overhead. The pavements were noticable for the disproportionate numbers of middle aged westerners attached to young Thai girls.It felt cool as the temperature had fallen just below 30 degrees C, but the food was hot and as good as we had remembered it.