AngeLog

Planes, trains and automobiles

Well, to be more precise, it has been 2 planes, 2 buses, 1 taxi, 1 Skytrain, countless MRT (subway) rides and many, many kilometres of walking.

As the researched showed, food on Gulf Air was excellent. It was a shame they insisted on feeding us three times during an 8 hour flight that was the equivalent of our Friday night’s sleep. We didn’t sleep very much.

Arriving at Singapore airport at 4am was a little bizarre – even the tourist information wasn’t open (and they’re open 20 hours a day!). It was probably this lack of sleep that led to a little miscalculation on how long it would take to go from Singapore to the airport to get our bags, then to the bus station for a bus to the border and then across the border to Sunai airport for our Air Asia flight.

Border immigration was pretty hilarious. We get off a bus on the Singapore side, race everyone up the stairs to get our passports stamped and then race down the stairs to find our bus… only our bus wasn’t there. We decide that we’re probably allowed to get on any bus for the 1km trip across the bridge to Malaysian Immigration but we shouldn’t have tried to get on a bus full of Malaysians destined for the express lane at the other end. Eventually we find our yellow bus and are packed in.

We find a crazy taxi driver at the other end who displays all sorts of interesting driving habits to get us to the airport on time. Air Asia is like Jetstar and demands you be there 45 minutes early. We ran into the departure hall and just made it on time. As we left the check-in desk we noticed that we ran straight past a bag x-ray security check but the guys working there just chuckled. What’s the point of a bag check if you let crazy people like us run past it?

Leaving on a jet plane

Was there ever a plane that wasn’t a jet plane?

Holly and I depart tomorrow evening in the care of Gulf Air. I’ve had reports from friends that this airline actually know how to do aeroplane food so I know you’ll be on the edge of your seats waiting for the ‘Plane food’ post.

Itinerary is vaguely as follows:

Singapore, Johor Bahru, Kuching, more Kuching (hey, the Lonely Planet says ‘one of the most refined, attractive cities in Asia’ so why not?), days exploring the jungle of Western Sarawak possibly to the Western-most point, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Johur Bahru, Singapore airport.

Check out the proboscis monkey!

Bangkok

Note: This post was written some months back but has sat quietly in draft form until a time that I can’t remember what else there was to write about.

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Most people told me it wasn’t going to be pleasant, but of course I didn’t really believe them. Our first night in Bangkok at the beginning of the trip wasn’t particularly pretty, but I put that down to spending it jetlagged at a dodgy train station.

Spending a few days in Bangkok really wasn’t very exciting. The heat was horrible because with it came intense pollution and that special type of claustrophobic feeling that only a gazillion overpasses can really give.

But at the same time, Bangkok is a huge place and I didn’t explore nearly enough of it. Being the end of the trip with our bags already full may have had something to do with it.

The taxi drive (and driver) from the airport was crazy – I’ve always thought that indicating while doing over 100kms in heavy traffic was silly too. After being in Cambodia, the neon lights, traffic jams and crowds of people were almost too much to cope with.

Our hotel was one of those huge 1200 room places which are fine as long as you’re not paranoid about fire. Amusingly, there were ‘no jackfruit’ signs posted on the walls in the style of ‘no smoking’ signs. As for smoking – hell, do that wherever you damn well please.

Good bit of Bangkok: Night markets. We bought funky clothes, bags, tiger balm, scarves, pashminas, chopsticks, placemats, cushion covers, t-shirts and then finished off the night in a crazy German style beer hall. We could’ve even had pork knuckle.

Bad bit of Bangkok: Tuk-tuk drivers who tell you the markets don’t start until 9pm when they actually start at 3pm. This particular driver decided to drop us at his friend’s restaurant instead. It took ages to get there but turned out to be just around the corner. We hardly had time to get angry because we realised that the Australian Open tennis final was on at a tiny pub around the corner. Lleyton Hewitt was playing so we weren’t the only Aussies there.

Good bits of Bangkok: The food court on a high floor of the shiny new shopping centre. It was the best $3 laksa ever. In fact, it was probably just the best laksa ever. And I loved the high-techiness of getting a card with a barcode, eating what you like on it and then just paying on exit.

Phnom Penh – The rest

We did eventually make it to the Royal Palace one hot afternoon. It really wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but maybe we just weren’t in the right mood to appreciate it. And it didn’t take me long to tire of taking my shoes on and off as we entered different temples on the site.

But possibly the funniest moment of the entire trip happened on the way to the Palace. As we walked along a main street that the palace shares a wall with a van drove past. I don’t remember it being a commercial van – I’m pretty sure it had a couple of rows of seats – but this was hard to tell because I was so distracted by it being absolutely chock full of cabbages! I’m sure some were even resting on the driver’s head! It was definitely a clowns in a Mini scene, and it definitely overshadowed the sombre visit to the Palace.

Street 242 was the place to go for upmarket shopping. Nicole bought a funky red dress from one of the shops and I looked at everything wanting to buy something, but not really finding anything. There was a very cute bakery that had things I hadn’t seen for weeks like lemon tarts, but I’d prefer to have the wonderful mangosteen fruit (which we were reguarly buying at the markets for a few dollars a kilo) easily accessible at home and do without lemon tarts altogether.

We decided to sample some of day spas of the area too. It was the first time I had somebody scrub me down, wrap me in plastic and a blanket and then leave the room, but I’d do it again.

There’s a second hand bookstore on 242 as well, but while it had more books than the one on Norodom Blvd, there wasn’t anything I liked as much. So later I went back to the Norodom store and bought The Girl With A Pearl Earring as an easy read to tie me over for a couple of days in Bangkok. It was a nice change from reading Chandler’s book on S-21 and Douglas Rushkoff’s Bull (which was most enjoyable).

Phnom Penh – By Night

It was a Saturday night and we were walking uptown from our guesthouse. The park along Sihanouk Boulevard up from the Independence Monument was full of sweet looking families and young couples playing badmiton as the sun was setting. It was like a film clip for a bad love ballad of the ’80s, complete with naked kids playing in the fountain at one end. It was a reminder to the fact that Phnom Penh is also home to many wealthy locals.

At the end of the park were two giant posters – one of the King and one of his son. They seem to be pretty popular around here.

We headed towards a scary looking theme park so we could walk uptown by the river instead of the quickly darkening back streets. Turns out that walking isn’t really catered for in that neck of the woods. The narrow footpath (when it existed) was either covered by motorbikes, cars, people or food stalls. It was impossible to walk through. We crossed the road and found ourselves tip-toe-ing through mats placed down for people to eat road side takeaway from. It was definitely easier to walk along the river, but we were then faced with the problem of getting back to THE OTHER SIDE. The road was so full of continuous traffic – motorbikes, tuk-tuks, cars, cyclos and bicycles – that the idea of looking left, then right, then left again was utterly ridiculous. Instead we preyed on some young local girls who were about to cross the road. We stood very close and crossed when they did, which made them giggle but got us across the road. The way to do it is just slowly step into the traffic and continue to walk slowly and consistantly across the road with the traffic going around you. Easier said than done. Who needs a theme park when you’ve got cheap thrills like this?

We stopped for a drink in the safety of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club and watched the traffic from three storeys up before heading off to another fantastic dinner, this time at a place called Friends. By eating here we were doing our bit for the locals at the same time as having excellent food and inventive cocktails. The place is used to train disadvantaged kids up in hospitality – they run the entire place and all profits go back into the organisation. Their tapas menu tempted us with zucchini and cheddar fritters, smokey eggplant dip and sweet potato chips with curry mayonnaise. And then there were seconds… and the strawberry and green pepper margarita. Mmmm.