31 st January 2113
We had arranged for a shared taxi to pick us up from the guest house at 9.00 am to take us up to the Thai border at Choam, which is a small but international border post. Before we left the hotel we decided to check out the pool …. nobody mentioned it before it was time to leave!
Actually, when we saw it we realised why ….
There were no tanned tourists down there, just a mass of crocs!
If the guest house is on fire don’t escape out the back windows!
It worked out well with the taxi as there were only three passengers. Normally four in the back and two in the front passenger seat. At only $13 each for the 2 to 3 hour journey, a real bargain. We did stop at one point to tow one of the driver’s friends 2okm to Anlong Veng, but that did not slow us down too much, even with the improvised towing bar, cut from a nearby tree!
The border was as promised small and easy to manage.
Although we had to wait about 30 mins in case a bigger group could be found, we got a taxi to drop us right into the town where we had friends to stay with for the night. The family made us very welcome!
Our friend’s dad offered us his motorbike, so we took their son off down the road to get a cold drink and then backtracked into the farmland and the local canal, where the last water of the dry season was be netted for fish.
The locals were really friendly and offered us some fish and a shot of a local spirit …. boys only!
We then went back to the house to cook some fish, vegetables and rice.
We set up our mosquito nets over the mattress and settled down for the night.
1 st February 2013
When we got up in the morning our friends mum was already working hard, making charcoal. She used the rice stems and ash to build up a layer to starve the wood of air as it burned. The condition you need to form charcoal.
A friend’s car was picking us up to take us to the bus station for a ride to Bangkok, but first our friends son showed us a picture of his old play mate in our village.
The bus ride to Bangkok was about 7.5 hours and very comfortable. Great value at just 350 baht (about 7 uk pounds).
2 nd February 2013
After a few hours wandering around the big malls we had arranged to meet our friend for lunch. It was lovely to see her!
We miss her on the village volleyball court!
troopytracks 