After a wonderful three weeks in Cambodia, it was time to move on. The relaxing part of the trip should start now - that is, doing nothing. Decided that the first beach to hit in Thailand was Pattaya, that infamous sin city.
How to get from Siem Reap, Cambodia, to Pattaya, Thailand??? We, why not just go to a travel agent in Siem Reap and ask. No problem, here is a bus ticket to Pattaya, please give me a whole $17 dollars. Here is your ticket, reciept, you will be picked up tomorrow morning at 7:00 at your hotel. Wow, that seemed way too easy.
So, guess what, next morning at 7:05 a Toyota Camry pulls up in front of my hotel, I show the guy my ticket, and he drives me to a small bus station. More people arrive in the same manner, and at 8:00 a bus arrives, and we pile on. We stop at one more station, where the bus fills up, and off we go, heading for the Thai/Cambodia border.
After a few hours we arrive at the border. We all get off after showing our tickets. Most people are heading to Bangkok, and get a red sticker put on their shirts. The rest of us get labels saying where we are off to.
We line up to exit Cambodia, get stamped, then walk a ways across into Thailand. As we do, we switch to the left side of the street, just like the traffic does. We line up at Thai customs, and because I have a special visa, I get 60 days in Thailand, rather than the traditional 15 you get when you arrive by land (thanks, Erin!).
After we clear into Thailand, bus company guys walk us over to a waiting area. Most people pile into minivans for Bangkok. After a slight delay, a minivan arrives going to Pattaya, and off we roar.
Thailand sure feels more advanced than Cambodia, especially when nearer to Pattaya, we hit a modern 8 lane wide motorway (freeway).
We arrive at Pattaya about 7:00 in the evening, after a long day of travel. Some of my travel companions show me how to get and pay for a Baht Bus, and with a little work, get to the area of town I want to stay in.
Relatively speaking, a piece of cake!
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