As a travel enthusiast I often get to meet people who travel a lot. Whenever I get the chance, I always ask those people what is the most beautiful country they visited. Besides the answer that I always give - this is impossible to say, every country has its own charms - quite a few people named Thailand. I have not been there yet, but this year I decided it was time to pay this country a visit. And while I was in the area, I went to Cambodia and Singapore as well.
Thailand
Despite being tired from the flight, on the day of my arrival in Bangkok I already had a meetup with my Thai friend Jinwara. She was kind enough to show me her home town and give me recommendations about which dishes I had to try during my stay in Thailand. It was a good day.
The next day I went on a day trip to Kanchanaburi to visit the bridge over the Kwai river. This bridge is also a part of the Thai-Burmese railroad. We were lucky enough to see a train passing over the bridge (while the tourists were still on it):
After visiting this bridge, I went on to Erawan National Park. This NP is famous for the Erawan waterfalls that have 7 layers of falls and are considered to be the most beautiful waterfalls in Thailand:
As an experiment, I had not planned the Thai part of the trip in advance. I did know I wanted to visit a Thai island, but hadn't decided yet which one. The islands in the south should be the most beautiful, but going there would imply two travels of 12-16 hours and I didn't really feel like doing that for 3 days on the island, considering I still needed to go east to Cambodia too. So the decision was made to maybe visit these islands on another trip and to spend a night in Chanthaburi and go to Koh Chang in the eastern part of Thailand. Koh Chang is one of the biggest islands in Thailand. There are lots of beautiful beaches, like for example White Sands Beach:
I went for a swim in the sea with a view like this:
Not bad, eh?
Cambodia
I was already close to the border with Cambodia now and there is not a lot more to do in Eastern Thailand, so I booked package of a minibus to the border and a bus to Siem Reap (the town next to Angkor Wat) from there. However, when we arrived at the border town we were kept waiting at a restaurant/office until all other passenger from other cities had arrived. We were pretty much forced to buy the Cambodian visa from them for 40 USD, but I refused to do this because I knew that I could just buy them at the border for 30 USD. They tried to convince me this was not possible, but I didn't believe them. So after holding my foot down, I was taken in a minibus to the border together with 2 Russian ladies who also refused to be part of this scam and an American who had booked a ticket to the border and would look for a way to get to Siem Reap himself. Everything at the border went pretty smoothly (as expected) and we found ourselves waiting for the bus. After 30 minutes there was still no sign of this bus and based on the initiative of the American guy we booked a shared taxi to Siem Reap. So in the end I arrived 1.5 hours earlier than the girl in the bus who was going to the same hostel in Siem Reap, paid less money and had more adventure.
At the hostel I booked a sunrise tour to Angkor Wat and some other temples that were once part of the same complex. We had our own tuktuk driver who took us to all the temples all morning and waited for us while we were visiting them. Below you can find some pictures.
Up next was the southern part of Cambodia. I went to a town called Kampot with a VIP sleeper bus. The bus itself seemed luxurious with a private bed for each passenger, but the bus was old and soon we found out there were cockroaches and bedbugs everywhere. After discussing with the bus company for 1 hour, we got a better bus and went on our way to the south. Despite the distance between the south and the north (where Siem Reap is located), it was just as hot and humid there and during the day you were pretty much forced to have a siesta. That was no problem for me though, as I had more than enough time to explore the south. I visited an abandoned mountain village that was created by the French elite in the 1950s (Cambodia was a French colony back then), made a sunset cruise on the Kampot river and went to backpacker paradise Sihanoukville. I celebrated the Cambodian New Years Eve (14 April) on the beach, drinking from a coconut while watching the festivities. Once again: not bad, eh? ;)
Close to Sihanoukville there are some beautiful tropical islands. I decided not to stay there because the accommodation on these islands was either very expensive or very basic (no running water, no wifi, no nothing) but bought a boat ticket to do a day tour to two of the islands including some snorkeling. This was supposed to be the "Happy Boat" with tourists, dance music and partying on the deck and lots of other fun. But since this boat was already fully booked, without notice by the lady who sold me the ticket I was put on a not-so-happy-looking wooden boat with only Cambodians on it. As I love to talk to locals, it turned out to be quite an interesting day after all. I was "adopted" in a Cambodian family reunion in a family of which 3 members moved to the USA 40 years ago. This was perfect for me, because these 3 people spoke very good English and I could ask them lots of questions. During the lunch I even went on a photo with the oldest family member, who was from a village and had never seen a foreigner before from such close distance. :) The snorkeling was not so impressive compared to my previous experiences in Belize, but the islands were very nice. So all in all, the day was not what I expected it to be, but still a great experience.
My final stop in Cambodia was the capital city Phnom Penh. The city itself is not so interesting, but there are some landmarks related to the history of Cambodia. You may have heard of the Red Khmer regime that was controlling the country from 1975-1979. This was not the nicest regime. They wanted to make Cambodia a communist state and made everybody work on nationalized farms. Intellectuals were seen as suspicious and put in prison immediately. Over the years, the regime became very paranoid. Even wearing glasses was enough to arrest and kill you under suspicion of being an intellectual. To illustrate the paranoia, of all the people who got an important role in the government only 1 out of 3 people was still alive 3 years later. In total more than 3 million people (25% of the total population!) were killed between 1975 and 1979. Near Phnom Penh I visited the prison in which people were held and interrogated and one of the "Killing Fields" where people were sent to get killed. At both places I had an audio tour, with background stories about the regime and personal stories related to these places. All these stories were very impressive and made me - even for though I am sometimes considered as a "cold" Dutch guy - a bit emotional.
Visiting these places is not nice, but it's an absolute must to go there if you visit Cambodia.
Singapore
Before going back to the Netherlands, I spent two days in Singapore as well. Singapore is one of the cleanest countries in the world and it really is - as one t-shirt I saw in a shop - a fine country. And with that I don't mean that it's fine, but that there are high fines for everything. You can imagine that smoking and littering are subject to huge fines, but even eating or drinking in the subway, feeding monkeys in a park or even spitting on the street can earn you a fine of up to 1000 dollars... The country (or city) itself has some interesting places and you can do a nice walk through nature. Singapore is also a city with lots of immigrants and it was fun for me to visit the Arab, Indian and Chinese neighborhoods in just a matter of hours. A disadvantage of this is that the city itself is lacking a bit of soul in my opinion: it's mostly a place where people work and I couldn't really find anything that is typical for Singapore other than the cleanliness (and all the warning signs about fines everywhere). But this does make Singapore a perfect place to start a trip in Asia: it's like a light-version of Asia where you can experience typical Asian experiences or foods in a clean, western environment. And that has its charm too.
Thailand
Despite being tired from the flight, on the day of my arrival in Bangkok I already had a meetup with my Thai friend Jinwara. She was kind enough to show me her home town and give me recommendations about which dishes I had to try during my stay in Thailand. It was a good day.
The next day I went on a day trip to Kanchanaburi to visit the bridge over the Kwai river. This bridge is also a part of the Thai-Burmese railroad. We were lucky enough to see a train passing over the bridge (while the tourists were still on it):
After visiting this bridge, I went on to Erawan National Park. This NP is famous for the Erawan waterfalls that have 7 layers of falls and are considered to be the most beautiful waterfalls in Thailand:
As an experiment, I had not planned the Thai part of the trip in advance. I did know I wanted to visit a Thai island, but hadn't decided yet which one. The islands in the south should be the most beautiful, but going there would imply two travels of 12-16 hours and I didn't really feel like doing that for 3 days on the island, considering I still needed to go east to Cambodia too. So the decision was made to maybe visit these islands on another trip and to spend a night in Chanthaburi and go to Koh Chang in the eastern part of Thailand. Koh Chang is one of the biggest islands in Thailand. There are lots of beautiful beaches, like for example White Sands Beach:
I went for a swim in the sea with a view like this:
Not bad, eh?
Cambodia
I was already close to the border with Cambodia now and there is not a lot more to do in Eastern Thailand, so I booked package of a minibus to the border and a bus to Siem Reap (the town next to Angkor Wat) from there. However, when we arrived at the border town we were kept waiting at a restaurant/office until all other passenger from other cities had arrived. We were pretty much forced to buy the Cambodian visa from them for 40 USD, but I refused to do this because I knew that I could just buy them at the border for 30 USD. They tried to convince me this was not possible, but I didn't believe them. So after holding my foot down, I was taken in a minibus to the border together with 2 Russian ladies who also refused to be part of this scam and an American who had booked a ticket to the border and would look for a way to get to Siem Reap himself. Everything at the border went pretty smoothly (as expected) and we found ourselves waiting for the bus. After 30 minutes there was still no sign of this bus and based on the initiative of the American guy we booked a shared taxi to Siem Reap. So in the end I arrived 1.5 hours earlier than the girl in the bus who was going to the same hostel in Siem Reap, paid less money and had more adventure.
At the hostel I booked a sunrise tour to Angkor Wat and some other temples that were once part of the same complex. We had our own tuktuk driver who took us to all the temples all morning and waited for us while we were visiting them. Below you can find some pictures.
Up next was the southern part of Cambodia. I went to a town called Kampot with a VIP sleeper bus. The bus itself seemed luxurious with a private bed for each passenger, but the bus was old and soon we found out there were cockroaches and bedbugs everywhere. After discussing with the bus company for 1 hour, we got a better bus and went on our way to the south. Despite the distance between the south and the north (where Siem Reap is located), it was just as hot and humid there and during the day you were pretty much forced to have a siesta. That was no problem for me though, as I had more than enough time to explore the south. I visited an abandoned mountain village that was created by the French elite in the 1950s (Cambodia was a French colony back then), made a sunset cruise on the Kampot river and went to backpacker paradise Sihanoukville. I celebrated the Cambodian New Years Eve (14 April) on the beach, drinking from a coconut while watching the festivities. Once again: not bad, eh? ;)
Close to Sihanoukville there are some beautiful tropical islands. I decided not to stay there because the accommodation on these islands was either very expensive or very basic (no running water, no wifi, no nothing) but bought a boat ticket to do a day tour to two of the islands including some snorkeling. This was supposed to be the "Happy Boat" with tourists, dance music and partying on the deck and lots of other fun. But since this boat was already fully booked, without notice by the lady who sold me the ticket I was put on a not-so-happy-looking wooden boat with only Cambodians on it. As I love to talk to locals, it turned out to be quite an interesting day after all. I was "adopted" in a Cambodian family reunion in a family of which 3 members moved to the USA 40 years ago. This was perfect for me, because these 3 people spoke very good English and I could ask them lots of questions. During the lunch I even went on a photo with the oldest family member, who was from a village and had never seen a foreigner before from such close distance. :) The snorkeling was not so impressive compared to my previous experiences in Belize, but the islands were very nice. So all in all, the day was not what I expected it to be, but still a great experience.
My final stop in Cambodia was the capital city Phnom Penh. The city itself is not so interesting, but there are some landmarks related to the history of Cambodia. You may have heard of the Red Khmer regime that was controlling the country from 1975-1979. This was not the nicest regime. They wanted to make Cambodia a communist state and made everybody work on nationalized farms. Intellectuals were seen as suspicious and put in prison immediately. Over the years, the regime became very paranoid. Even wearing glasses was enough to arrest and kill you under suspicion of being an intellectual. To illustrate the paranoia, of all the people who got an important role in the government only 1 out of 3 people was still alive 3 years later. In total more than 3 million people (25% of the total population!) were killed between 1975 and 1979. Near Phnom Penh I visited the prison in which people were held and interrogated and one of the "Killing Fields" where people were sent to get killed. At both places I had an audio tour, with background stories about the regime and personal stories related to these places. All these stories were very impressive and made me - even for though I am sometimes considered as a "cold" Dutch guy - a bit emotional.
Visiting these places is not nice, but it's an absolute must to go there if you visit Cambodia.
Singapore
Before going back to the Netherlands, I spent two days in Singapore as well. Singapore is one of the cleanest countries in the world and it really is - as one t-shirt I saw in a shop - a fine country. And with that I don't mean that it's fine, but that there are high fines for everything. You can imagine that smoking and littering are subject to huge fines, but even eating or drinking in the subway, feeding monkeys in a park or even spitting on the street can earn you a fine of up to 1000 dollars... The country (or city) itself has some interesting places and you can do a nice walk through nature. Singapore is also a city with lots of immigrants and it was fun for me to visit the Arab, Indian and Chinese neighborhoods in just a matter of hours. A disadvantage of this is that the city itself is lacking a bit of soul in my opinion: it's mostly a place where people work and I couldn't really find anything that is typical for Singapore other than the cleanliness (and all the warning signs about fines everywhere). But this does make Singapore a perfect place to start a trip in Asia: it's like a light-version of Asia where you can experience typical Asian experiences or foods in a clean, western environment. And that has its charm too.
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