Bangkok - We Are Finally Here!

Jeepers that turned into a long day. After leaving the border city we had not gone very far and a screaming warning noise started emanating from the bus. We were in seat 1A and 1B so we had front row seats for this. The driver stopped on the side of a busy two lane, in our direction, road. There was a discussion between the two drivers and the attendant and off they went outside to check the engine. Turns out it was overheating. Oh great. The first fix was to turn off our air conditioning. That meant we were soon over heating! 🥵 After 15 minutes or so they came back onto the bus and we continued minus the screaming noise. Phew, that's good, problem sorted.

Maybe not, because then a U-turn was carried out and we went back the way we had come. Stopping in at a service station so they could perhaps give the bus some much needed water. Maybe the bus is not so flash after all, or someone didn't check the radiator recently. Eventually we got back on the road heading towards Bangkok. I'm guessing the issue added an hour to our travel time.

The roads in Thailand are wider and with more lanes than Cambodia. Oncoming traffic was no longer an issue. However, there was much more traffic and that made for slower travel. At 4pm we had one last toilet stop and they said we had 2 hours still to go. That might be hopeful in this traffic. We took the opportunity to withdraw 5,000 Thai Baht (THB) at the 7 Eleven ATM so that we could buy a bag of peanuts and 2 coke zeros. They were only 47 THB but we needed cash for the next couple of weeks. We will also exchange our remaining USD to THB when we get a chance. The bus finally pulled into Bangkok at 6.30pm and once we had our bags we set off on foot to our hotel. An 800m walk in 30+ degrees was not too bad and took us about 15 minutes. A short video clip of a section of the walk has been uploaded. 

Our check-in included a refreshing cool towel and a small drink of unknown origin. Our hotel room is much smaller than Siem Reap. At least I'll be able to reach Sarah's bed to nudge her when she snores. 😂

We needed bottled water and something to eat so thought we might just grab both from a nearby 7 Eleven. They had the water but nothing looked appetizing so we headed down a side alley seeking food. We found what we thought was a street vendor selling Pad Thai and vegetable spring rolls. 70 THB for the chicken pad Thai with an egg. We just ordered 1 as we weren't that hungry but got 2 servings of the spring rolls and 2 coke zeros. Total cost 230 Bhat about $12 NZD. Turns out they have tables and chairs so we are sitting and enjoying the atmosphere of a bustling food street in Bangkok. There's disco music playing and we walked past multiple marijuana stores on the way here. Across from our table there are 8 people sitting on lounge chairs receiving massages and behind Sarah's chair there is a dog fast asleep. What a City!