Bored with life and searching for something different I decided to visit someplace new this time. After a little consideration I determined it was time to do Cambodia. I was drawn by the descriptions of the Wild West nature of the country. Anything goes if the price is right. Tijuana, Thailand and the Philippines are great but I was still looking for more. More danger, more sleaze, more filth, more sick disgusting perversion than I have encountered before. I bought an airline ticket on EVA airways for $650 to Bangkok as a starting point and off I went.

I think I have acclimated somewhat to long airline trips. I truly suffered my first trip to Thailand when after 5 hours in the air I realized I still had 8 more hours to go, followed by another 3 hour flight. Then it was unbearable but this time I slept much of the way and the time passed quickly. During my layover in Taipei I got to use EVA's VIP lounge for the first time as I am now a silver card frequent flyer with them. Free food, free booze, free internet access and a classy place to hang out while waiting for my flight into Thailand. Pretty nice. Another flight and I was on the ground in Bangkok ready to start my journey. I breezed through customs in minutes and had only carryon luggage, I hit the ATM and was standing in front of the airport in less than 10 minutes from landing.

It was just before noon and I had planned to spend my first night in Pattaya taking care of some last minute travel arrangements and then partying the night away. Since I have always hated taxi drivers I took the airport bus to Ekamai bus station for 100 baht and then took the air conditioned bus to Pattaya for 90 baht and a baht bus to my hotel for 20 baht. Total cost 210 baht. Total time 3 hours. It would have been less time but the airport bus driver suddenly turned off of his route and drove several blocks out of the way before parking his bus in front of a building where he ran inside and returned 5 minutes later with an almost dead fish in a plastic bag. Lunch I suppose. In Pattaya I stayed in Sandy Spring hotel based on Khun_Mor's recommendation of the place, and a location that I consider ideal in that it is far enough from the action you aren’t walking in and out of the place in front of the last girl you slept with but still close enough to the action to be convenient. I just had a standard room and found it clean, roomy and comfortable plus it had a bath tub which is always fun. I brought a bottle of bubble bath. I was pleased with the hotel.

Before I could get to the important business I had a couple of chores to take care of first. Arranging ground transport from Pattaya to the Cambodian border the next day, and purchasing a plane ticket from Phnom Phen to Siem Reap and then from Siem Reap back to Bangkok for my return trip. There are many travel agents in Pattaya so I chose one at random that had a reasonably professional looking shop. I really didn't have the time to shop around so I figured I'd just ask and if the prices were in the ballpark I expected, it would have to do.

I needed to get from Pattaya to Hat Lek on the Thai side of the Cambodian border the next day. From Bangkok this is easily done by taking the air conditioned bus from Ekamai bus station to Trat. In Trat there are minibuses that run to Hat Lek every half hour or so throughout the day. But from Pattaya there is no really easy way to go by air conditioned bus. It can be done but takes 3 different busses and probably will take half the day, so I opted for a minibus instead. This was 670 baht ~$17. Some days they go all the way to the Cambodian border but the day I needed all she could do for me was minibus to Trat and then switch to the scheduled minibus to the Cambodian border which was fine with me. I also bought my airline tickets for my return to Bangkok with a stopover to see Angkor Wat, 6,700 baht (~$170) which was expensive but still cheaper than I expected.

At a drugstore down the street I bought a Thai SIM card for my cell phone. 490 Baht (~$12.40) including 100 Baht of prepaid airtime.

Chores completed, it was time to get on to more important business.

Sounds like the start of a great journey. I didn't know that you could actually get a SIM card at the drugstore. Was it hard figuring out the Thai instructions or do they have english instructions as well?

The clerk at the store installed the SIM card and tested it by calling it from her phone. There are very extensive English instructions but I have yet to read them.

For what it's worth there's a bus terminal closer to the BKK airport (Mo Chit) where you can also catch a bus to Pattaya and avoid the traffic delays of getting to Ekamai and the delays of the bus fighting its way thru Sukhumvit traffic as it heads out to Pattaya. Probably save some time but it does involve a short cab ride from the sirport to the terminal.

Yea, I know about Mochit and would probably go there in the future. Everyone seems to agree thet is the quickest way to take the bus and the cab fare probably isn't that much more than airport bus. Taxi drivers have a tendency to piss me off all over the world so I usually avoid them if possible, thats why I took the airport bus. I arrived on a Sunday afternoon so traffic on Sukhumvit wasn't a big issue. If it did turn into a major hangup I could bail out of the airport bus and take the skytrain, but I probably will go through Mochit in the future.