Day 126 – Arriving in Chiang Rai.

We stopped 5 minutes from the border for 20minutes for no reason. We eventually arrived at the border about 9am and were told we had to pay to leave Laos… I paid $35 to get in, I’m not paying to leave as well, we told them we had no money and walked through anyway. They had already stamped our passports and it worked! To get to our next destination, Chiang Rai, it took about a 2 and a half hours.

FINALLY we have made it! To bus terminal 2, which was no help. I knew from terminal 1 it was a 5 minute walk to our hostel but had no idea where we were from 2. Chrissy and I walked over to the tuk tuk drivers because I thought we might be able to negotiate a deal, they wanted 100B and no way were we paying that, so we walked over to the taxi driver who said 100B too. We decided to go with him but made him put the meter on. What a surprise, we turned up to our hostel and it cost 52B! You can’t make money out of me just because I’m a tourist!

We were absolutely knackered from the journey but finding some food and a drink was more important than having a nap right now. We made it part way down the road before collapsing in an air-conditioned café. I think it was called the Golden Triangle and it was an awesome choice, exactly what we needed! We then walked back to the hostel and chilled out. I decided not to nap so I’d sleep really well later. We didn’t really do a lot and ended up having dinner in the hostel too because we were too lazy to go anywhere else. We are staying in Fun-D hostel and it has been the most welcoming in a long time. I really do love Thailand!

Day 111 – CAMBODIA BOUND, HCMC to Phnom Penh.

Our bus wasn’t until 1pm so we had the morning to do what we want. We didn’t really do a lot apart from eat breakfast in a cute little café around the corner. We got picked up at 12.30 and was taken about 100m down the road to be put on another bus, we could have easily walked but who can turn down a free pick up, especially when you don’t know where the bus goes from!

We went with Mekong Express who is supposed to be the best company. It cost us $13 each, we had wifi and a small snack. It was no Thai Airways but the journey was alright. They took our passports and we paid them $25 to sort out our visa, the border was smooth sailing and after hopping on and off the bus about 3 times in 5 minutes we were ready and had arrived in Cambodia.

The bus then stopped for a half an hour break, by this point or pretty much when any bus we’ve been on has stopped we’d rather it just carried on. Back on the bus we arrived in Cambodia about an hour and a half later than expected. Well… I say expected I mean the time we were told. As usual they drop you really far outside the town/city you want to go to so the tuk tuk drivers make money. We got in one and he wanted to charge us $15, I got him down to $10 and knew we were being over charged but we had no idea where we were, how much anything was worth and just wanted to get to our room and grab some dinner. It probably was about the 9km he said because it took us a good 20minutes to arrive at The Mad Monkey hostel.

Emily and Cara (the girls we had dinner with yesterday) arrived earlier than us so we got some dinner in the hostel restaurant and then went to the rooftop bar to meet them. It’s weird being here and mostly using American dollars for currency, but as they don’t use coins anything less than $1 you get in Cambodian money… so weird!

Day 84 – Singapore to Kuala Lumpur.

6.30 alarm as I needed to be up and out to find a taxi to take me to the Golden Mile Complex as this is where my bus was leaving from at 8am. Everything went according to plan, the taxi only took about 10minutes and cost me a couple of quid, bargain. Before I arrived here everyone said Singapore is expensive and yeah my accommodation was the same price as what I was paying in Australasia but everything else is relatively cheap well compared to what I’ve been spending on a daily basis over the last couple of months.

The bus was double decker and I was on the bottom, they gave you a reclining chair with massaging facility as well as a plug socket, tv, films, water, was a pretty sweet set up! 

Within in 40minutes of leaving we were at border control where you got a stamp in your passport and then back on the bus. We then went across the bridge where on the other side you had to queue up again, another stamp and stare you down, walked around a corner put your bags through a machine and that’s it. Done, back on the bus and Hello Malaysia! Way easier than I thought it was going to be and stress free! Win win situation.

There were only two drop off points, one was at the airport and the other was in the city. I had no idea where I was but obviously I could see a McDonalds so I went and got a drink and sat in there to use their wifi to find out exactly where I was. The nearest train station was a 10minute walk and it wasn’t on the line I wanted anyway, so I decided to write down the exact address of where I’m staying and jump in a taxi. He dropped me right outside and the location is amazing. Sunshine Bedz (yes with a Z…) is a 2 minute walk to the train station, right above Mcdonalds, Starbucks and any other chain you can think of which also means I have 3 different massive shopping centres right on my doorstep!

After settling in I made my way over to the Pavilion shopping centre to have a look around, after an hour or so I turned to leave and it was raining! I remembered I walked past a Daiso, it’s a Japanese pound land, so I went back there and bought myself a cheap umbrella. If it was just a little bit of rain I wouldn’t have minded but it was pretty mental! I also thought that if it rains at the F1 tomorrow I could use it there too.

I rarely post things on Facebook but when I’m travelling it’s a good thing to do because as well as updating people at home, you discover other people you’ve met are in the same places as you. Like in Singapore, 2 of the guys I met on the Kiwi Experience bus are in KL for the F1 so I went over to Chinatown to meet them for dinner. Luckily it had mostly stopped raining by then and it was really good to catch up with them. We also have to live our lives before mobile phones and hope that the time and place you agree works. I was 15minutes late because of the train and luckily I managed to find them! We went to one of the many restaurants along the strip to have some noodles and beer.