Having wrapped up our our three days of revisiting the Angkor archaeological park and also taking in a performance of Phare Cambodian Circus, we were finished in Siem Reap for the time being, and in fact finished in Cambodia, and ready to move on to Thailand.

At 6:30 in the morning, we leave our Airbnb and catch a ride to the bus terminal, to board a bus to Bangkok. This is an actual supersize bus with plenty of leg room, not one of those 15-passenger vans that we were crammed into the last time we made this border run. There are three other English-speaking passengers: two young men from Canada traveling together, and one fellow who seems to be American.

The latter, however, decides at the last minute to get back off the bus and spend another week in Siem Reap. — perhaps with a side trip to Phnom Penh. Because his visa expired the previous day, and he thought it would be better to get that taken care of before heading to the border. We’re not sure that was the best choice, although the border at Poipet is deservedly notorious for being extremely busy at times, which might have made his hassles quite lengthy. But either way he’s going to have to pay a little fine for overstaying his welcome. And at the border he would pay only for one day, as opposed to an entire week. But nobody asked for our advice.

Our tour guide, if that’s what you’d call him — i.e., the employee from the bus company who came along to chaperone us — stands and addresses the passengers in an almost robotic monotone as if he’d memorized his spiel phonetically. Which he may have — he doesn’t seem to speak much English. He gives each of us a croissant and a can of chilled, sweetened coffee. While we’re willing to consume the croissant, we’re not big on either sugar or excess caffeine. So we offer our coffee to the Canadians, and they graciously accept.

After an hour or so we arrive at the Poipet – Aranyaprathet border, and deposit our bags with a bus line representative who loads them onto a cart and hauls them over the border for us. We are reunited with them in very short order, because this turns out to be just about the quickest, easiest, most painless border crossing we’ve ever experienced. There is nobody in line either exiting Cambodia or entering Thailand — in the past, we’ve spent an hour in line on each side.

Once we breeze through and pick up our bags again, we have to locate the next bus to get on. The bus we boarded in Cambodia does not cross the border, so we have to connect with a Thai bus on the Thailand side. And our original guide is no longer with us to guide us, so it’s a bit confusing, but finally we locate the loading area and our bus, and everyone gets aboard.

Our new tour guide gives us our lunch, which is included in the price. It consists of rice, egg, cucumber, and some bits of vegetables. Not a gourmet repast, but not bad.

In mid-afternoon, the bus pulls into Bangkok and drops us off in a rather odd spot, on a street. No bus station or any other such facility nearby, no park, no benches, nowhere to sit. Just on the street. But here we are. We pose for a photo with the Canadians and wish them a happy trip, then grab a ride to our Airbnb,

The Airbnb house is located on a quiet (for now) side street near one of the city’s 1600 or so canals. When we arrive, we see that the room where we enter, the dining room, has big windows and glass doors. Seated at the table is a young woman working on her laptop who, when she sees us, smiles, opens the door and cordially welcomes us. She is a guest herself, staying about two weeks. Her name is Rocio and she hails from Argentina. She is a musician, singer and composer, so she and Dennis have a lot to talk about.

We go up the stairs to our room. It has no AC, which we already knew, but it is well ventilated and has a ceiling fan, and there is also a floor fan we can use, so it will be a cool enough respite from Thailand’s heat. All in all, it will be comfortable and pleasant quarters for our next few days in Bangkok.

9/10/2024