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Day
8
(December 2, 2010) Trip to Bangkok
Before
This day is the longest road drive: first a taxi will take us to the
Thailand border and then, after the procedures, we will take the car
parked there and drive to Bangkok for around 4-5 hours. We will deliver
the car at Bangkok’s airport and take a taxi to our hotel in the city.
We will choose what could we visit once there and depending on arrival
time. The evening will probably be for walking along Khao San Road and
its market.
The spots in our route marked in the map are:
A.- Siem Reap
B.- Poipet's border crossing
C.- Bangkok
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After
Today is a simple day for us: we just must reach
Bangkok.
Our taxi was scheduled for 8:30 AM, but when we go out 10 minutes
before that time, it is already there waiting for us.
A gentle two hours ride leaves us right at the border in Poipet and 20
minutes later we’re back in Thailand. The only special fact we can
explain in this morning is when the taxi driver stopped in the middle
of nowhere on our way to Poipet and told us he was going to go to
toilet. We could see him just peeing at road side a couple of meters
from us.
Our car is waiting for us in the secure
parking in Aranyaprathet but we spend a lot of time on getting out from
there because I cannot find the ticket. Remember my doubts about what
to do with it? I remember them too and I’m sure I left the ticket
somewhere in the car, but it finally appears inside a small pocket of
my bag. We leave then to Bangkok at 11:45 AM. The estimated time for
arrival is 3 PM and if I reach the hotel a bit later than that is just
because of the traffic jams in the city.
In our way I’ve been called by the man from the car rental company and
we agree on delivering the car directly at hotel’s door. As I’ve been
driving these last days so well in this country I’m not afraid on
driving in Bangkok.
When we reach the capital we’re meeting traffic, denser when
closer, and the skyscrapers. The cars have the most extravagant colors,
the best is the strong pink of the cabs, the one in the strawberry
chewing gums.
I don’t find problems on driving on the dense traffic of Bangkok, but I
do find problems for orientation. We cannot see street names and we
just use a hospital appearing at our map as close to our hotel to reach
that area. We’re stopped quite a lot on that area and we arrive to
President Palace Hotel’s door at 3:45 PM. There is the man from
Siam-rent-a-car, who takes the car and pays me back the deposit of
5,000 Baht by cash. We’re very happy with our experience with the car
and that company but some time later I remember we’ve left some goodies
under the seat: muffins, bread and chips.
The room
is the big surprise for this day. I expected a good room, but not that
good: it’s like a 40 sqm flat, with office, living room, bedroom and a
huge bathroom, with a bathtub at one side and a shower on the other
side. There is also a big flat screen TV. We love the President Palace!
 
We like as much as per just going out to take one
lunch, which is also a dinner, and come back to our room to enjoying it
in a well-deserved rest and a wonderful views of the big city at night.
That meal, in a restaurant named “Café 11”, is the most
expensive
of this whole travel. We seat at the terrace of this restaurant
attracted by the offer we read in a blackboard: cocktail by 180 Baht
and the third one for free. We take all three cocktails while waiting
for our food, completely alone, at 4 PM. We eat two prawn cocktails,
spaghetti Bolognese and filet steak and one chocolate brownie for
desert: 1871 Baht. It might doesn’t seem too much for everything, but
the value for money (portions were small, service was extremely slow,
being the only customers!!, … ) makes us say we won’t come back.
Tomorrow we will have the chance of visiting this
fantastic city.
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