Day 1
Another relax + chill out day. The only thing that’s on the agenda is the cooking class.
There was another Chinese who’s studying in Singapore joined. Met Chinese in a row is a treat, since no one’s able to guess that I am from China for some reasons.
We started off by touring the market and shopping for some fresh ingredients.
We had a feast for sure. It’s definitely a good value ($12.5). I had a beer ($1) which turned to be two since I won a free beer!
Since it’s Christmas, I decided to join the roof top happy hours at a hostel. We had quite a few shots and beers ($5 pp at the end) and played a drink game where I lost and had to drink that locally brewed rice liquor that was way too bloody spicy. I had to choke down 4 glasses of water to resin off.
Later, they went off to a clue with the birthday girl. For some reason I decided not to join (the spicy shot certainly didn’t help). I initially thought only two were going and I also didn’t believe there’s anything going on in this sleepy town. Oh well. missed out.
Day 2
Another late start. I decided to walk around a bit in the old French quarter.
Found this super cute coffee shop and got an iced coffee ($2.5) and chilled there for a few hours.
Saw a KFC later, couldn’t resist!
Went to this Photo Gallery where the mission is to bring awareness to the abused children. (The owner was an abused growing up in Spain) Good cause, despite having to deal with corrupted officials in Cambodia.
Later that night, we went out to see the circus in town.
The show wasn’t bad, but I am not sure $14 is justified. Further, I really dislike the fact the way it’s trying to play victim and asking for further donation and support despite already steep price for essentially 45min show.
We went out for dinner later.
The restaurant was definitely on the high end of the price. The selection was quite limited and the service was really slow. Though the owner let us do karaoke there for free. I am not sure this is what I expected from a 4.9 star reviewed restaurant in town.
Also, despite the taste is okay. As my last day in Cambodia, I do want to say, objectively speaking, Khmer cuisine is not as rich or refined as its neighbors. (I think the cooking class yesterday also showed the singularity of its flavor profile)
Nevertheless, I still want to say that the potential of this country is there. However, it needs to work on self sustainment. Most importantly, needs confidence in its government and the desire to be the greatest empire again.
Day 3
Travel day again to Bangkok Thailand. It turned out to be a very long day.
Met up with a few people from The Place hostel from the last 4 nights
bitter sweet and said farewell
The mini bus ($28) was supposed to pick me up at 1:30 and didn’t show up until almost 2 hours later due to tire problems.
Turned out it’s also not those border crossing bus that I expected. Basically it’s just segment after segment for a total of 3 different buses. We also had to hand carry our luggages across the border.
The most frustrating part is the discriminating against certain passport holders. We had a girl from China that’s on the same bus, not only she had to get Visa on Arrival but also she had to print out physical proof of her onward ticket as well as accommodation. Note that the paper copy is never mentioned anywhere on the official website and in this digital age, I can only think this is just bureaucracy at best.
She was even cursed at the border for stalling all other passengers that are waiting to leave on the same bus. If they really don’t want to deal with Chinese customers, then just don’t allow then to buy ticket or charge a premium. Harassing a little girl at the border is just so unmanly. Granted, I was too intimated to help more. In hindsight, I really should have stayed with her. I felt immensely guilty for giving her false confidence. When I had to face unexpected issues, strangers always stayed with me to help me through. After all, it was me to encouraged her to just show her phone where the immigration wants to see paper copy.
There’s no money exchange anywhere to be found at the border either. The toilet at the border was closed and all the other ones require 5baht which I didn’t have.
We got to Bangkok almost at midnight. We quickly grabbed a bite.
At 1am, I finally checked into my Japanese style hostel (super quiet and private). ($10.04)
Day 4
History day today! Took a water taxi to the historical part of Bangkok.
Went to a Arts gallery, wasn’t too impressed hence didn’t take any photos either. At least it was free.
The National museum ($200b) is simply the highlight of the trip. Loads of artifacts and super well presented.
After the museum, which almost took me a full day, I strolled around a little bit around the river bank.
I took the Metro just to try out the shiny infra improvement, a bit pricy (35b + 32b for the airport sky train)
Met up with a friend from Battambang and did some mall time.
The supermarket in the mall actually had the biggest King crabs I’ve seen. Though everything’s more important than US supermarkets in the US… oddly.
Time flu really fast, and a day ended again.
Lesson of the day. Don’t stay too far away from the typical backpacker areas. The word hostel can be used rather loosely or plain not intent for travelers.
I had this Indonesians in my hostels basically are just looking for jobs, one particular is trying to sell shoes back to Indonesia and asked me if there’s any jobs available in China.
Day 5
Lazy day at the hostel. Woke up early to chit chat with a few Asian guests from my hostel. The vibe is very different than the typical European style hostels, most of them aren’t really into experiences at all. Anyhow, I managed to read quite a few pages of the lonely planet Thailand which gives me a rough guide how I want to travel.
I decided to move to a different hostel (THB369.71) because of the location also for better backpacker vibe.
Once Again is really the coolest hostel I have ever stayed. Hands down the best bedding, dorm layout, flooring plan.
The staff told me some cool craft beer place next door,
Joined a girl group for sunset,
Soon after, it’s dinner time!
I think the so famous Khao San is definitely a bit underwhelming, at least comparing to the Walking street in Saigon
Finally we found a relatively chill bar for the night, I got a beer for $170THB. I don’t know if it’s the price of the beers or just the hot temperature. Everyone’s feeling really tired and lacked of energy. The Saigon District 1 energy just isn’t in Bangkok for some reasons.
Day 6
Spent the morning just socialized at the hostel. Chatted with a few Irish and a Canadian. Time went by rather fast, though I originally wanted to go to a morning and flower market but ended up just staying indoor entire day instead.
There are loads of very local (meaning, cheap and good) restaurants next to the hostel. I could easily see myself staying for a couple more nights just chilling out due to such convenience!
Spent entire day debating between going to Ayutthaya for NYE or staying in Bangkok. Everything in BKK was completely booked (hostel wise) besides, do I really want to be partying? I decided to pull the trigger and spent 30k Marriott points on a nice hotel, initially. Then a last minute cancellation at the hostel showed up that I was able to book another night at the Once Again hostel! Bingo for the party! Yay!
I joined our hostel’s dinner night.
After that we went to the nearby market to get snacks.
I got some fish maw ($50THB), an avocado&passion fruit smoothie ($60THB) and date juice ($20 THB)
Chilled out at the hostel a bit more and called a night.
Day 7
Another lazy day just wait for the NYE party at the hostel. The only thing that I did was to go to the Weekend market. Took a metro there.
Time flu by pretty quickly at the market, and it’s lunch time already.
Don’t know if I was hungry or just food was really good, I decided to get something else
Yum! Gotta love Thailand!
Got back to my hostel party late, saw the beer hall I really wanted to check out. Decided to splurge myself for the NYE ($400 THB)! Good beers though (forgot to take any photos)
It’s time to party!
After that we decided to go out on a bridge to see the fireworks
I would say this is probably one of my more exciting NYE!
We got dinner after (though I didn’t eat) and took quite some effort to get back to the hostel due to the apps no longer was able to get a transport for us ($400THB / 4)
One thing I was a bit irritated was the 2 Germans who ended up going back with me and another French girl. The managed to negotiate the fare down to $350THB, but didn’t give us the money back since it should be $87.5 THB per person at this point. I did mention it’s probably easier if it was just $100THB, they instead said I could pay up if I want to… Not exactly nice, though I also said don’t be an ass either. Don’t like to leave a sour taste on NYE, but it did. Especially, typically I get along with Germans quite well.
It was a long night, by the time I hit the sack it’s already 4am. The amount of liquid I’d consumed made me having to get up to use the toilet quite some so often which affected my short sleep cycle. I had fun though.
Expenses
| Week 5 | ||||
| Day | Food&Drink | Lodging | Transportation | Other (tickets/tours etc) |
| 1 | $18.50 | $14.40 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| 2 | $21.10 | $14.40 | $0.00 | $15.95 |
| 3 | $6.01 | $10.04 | $28.00 | $0.00 |
| 4 | $8.91 | $11.76 | $3.85 | $14.88 |
| 5 | $18.38 | $10.87 | $3.09 | $1.47 |
| 6 | $16.06 | $10.87 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| 7 | $25.15 | $11.25 | $9.10 | $0.00 |
| $114.11 | $83.60 | $44.04 | $32.30 | |
| Grand Total: | $274.06 |