For our trip to Bangkok, we went with the VIP express bus. Other companies (like the golden express VVIP – for very very important people) had minivans or big buses, all claiming to do the trip in 7 hours. From talking to locals and expats, all the time estimates seemed to be vastly inaccurate. Similarly a significant number of people told stories about getting stranded on the Thailand side of the boarder and having to effectively ‘pay’ again to get the connection to Bangkok. Apart from the failure to pick us up (Bruce ended up taking us there in the truck), the morning started very uneventfully.
Cambodian immigration was an interesting place, a few lines of sweaty tourists and locals at the side of the road. We had to get our fingerprints scanned, although I’m not really sure of the use of this when you’re leaving the country in 5 minutes time. The no-mans land between the countries is highly populated with casinos and slightly doggy establishments.
Lots of slightly vagrant individuals carting huge loads; a few sneaky hands taking their cut directly from their customers loads. An interesting dichotomy exists here; electric carts with rich gambling Chinese and Japanese tourists whizz past, followed by hordes of street children, who seem immune from the need of a passport to cross the imaginary Cambodian boarder.
It’s incredibly difficult to avoid scams if you’re entering Cambodia from Thailand using this border. The visa prices ‘change’ with regular frequency – after hours fee, handling fees, courtesy fees. The buses also form cartels, trapping tourists who refuse to pay the hyped up prices to get further into Cambodia.

Thai immigration was an interesting place; huge lines of tourists queuing for a ‘visa on arrival’. Occasionally people with odd nationalities would be told to go somewhere else to get a visa (not sure really where you could go otherwise). Despite the best of research we missed the point that you could only get a 15 day visa if entering by land (30 days by air). Our carefully laid idea for the next 4 weeks were quickly revised in the visa line, and a plan constructed if we were asked if we had a flight/ticket out of the country in 15 days. Our immigration man was busy watching thai soap operas between using his large stamp to care about formalities of ‘future travel plans’. I don’t think he looked at my photo or the page he stamped – completely random page with a upside down stamp. No customs – must have been at lunch 🙂
Our bus was waiting on the Thai side of the boarder thankfully. The trip took a few more hours into Bangkok; our packed lunch consisting of rice with ketchup and a small bit of omelette. Thankfully last nights left over pizza was a welcome addition.
We arrived at Mo chit bus terminal, a huge and rather confusing collection of huge buses, dilapidated mini buses and aggressive TukTuk drives. This northern bus terminal only serviced certain parts of Thailand, with 3 other terminals dotted over the sprawling city

We grabbed a taxi to the Mo Chit BTS (train) station; a service highly reminiscent of the MRT system in Singapore. A easy changes later we were in the Silom district, our hoostel just round the corner.
The Art hostel was a pretty eclectic place, various sculptures and recycled furniture in the foyer of a multi colour warehouse-like building. It was dead empty, meaning we effectively got a private room for the price of an 8 person dorm. Yay !

Off to find some food in the Bangkok chaos – mission to find a Thai place?!