Bangkok

One of the best things about my previous job is all the great friendships and relationships that were developed. I'm thankful that I still keep in touch with some of the people there and that the friendships continue outside of the office. In actual fact, a lot of the people have left and moved onto other firms but we still do a fairly decent job of keeping in touch. It was decided to head to Bangkok for a weekend of night markets, eating and massages.

Wonderfruit

 

Bangkok

Despite spending majority of the year overseas I find myself closing out the year with a fair amount of annual leave. Unfortunately, work policy has once again changed, with the carry-over leave amount being reduced back to 5 days. 

So here I am, in December, with 12 days of 'use-it-or-lose-it' leave. It also feels like that the "Work from Home" initiative is slowly losing its legitimacy. So with that being said, I decide to spend the remaining 3 weeks in Bangkok and Sydney. 

All, in all, I've spent over 7 months outside of Hong Kong in 2023. 

Phuket

If the flight ban remained, the contingent plan was to do a "wash out" either in Singapore or Thailand. Fortunately, the flight ban from Australia was lowered. Due to the lack of perceived urgency that work needs me back in Hong Kong I figure it would be a good opportunity to do some travel before returning to Sydney and onwards to Hong Kong. First block of annual leave for 2022. First night stayed in a SHA+ hotel, while waiting for negative PCR results, I'm sure this process will all sound so unfamiliar in the future.

Phuket Wedding

Phuket. A small gathering, family, close friends of the Bride and Groom. To be honest, I'm not sure why I was extended an invite. Perhaps it was because due to my association with friends. "You can't invite such-and-such without inviting Derek". Which, when I read it out aloud sounds absurd. In any case, I was thrilled that I had made the cut. 

Back to the wedding, an intimate affair, I had met most of the blokes on the trip at the stag party last month and it was good to catch up with them again. The ceremony was held in a lovely chapel reachable by land and water, and it was the water entrance that the bride made. Gorgeous ceremony topped off by a reception that featured a samurai sword to cut the cake.

Our last evening was an all-nighter, we stayed up and consumed everything in the mini bar. I am shattered.

Phuket

Third weekend of travel, desperate for rest and relaxation and the company that are heading to Phuket are a bunch of old friends that I haven't been collectively together since I left Sydney at the start of this blog. Cannot wait to see everybody. Managed to finally use up the final day of carry-over annual leave.

A&W

It's definitely the season for weddings, and this time the destination of choice is Koh Samui. It has been almost ten years since I last traveled to this part of the world and other than the upgrade in accommodation, the island of Koh Samui still has all the charm from the last visit. Cheap street food, suit peddlers, massage stores and the constant Muay Thai advertising.

The weather threatened all weekend and despite being the wettest wedding that I've attended it did little to dampen the festivities. 

The Yips

Pardon the accuracy of this account. It has been close to a year since the actual event so the details may prove to be just down right wrong. Since arriving in Hong Kong I've been adopted by two groups of friends. The multi-cultural Hong Kong group, majority of these guys relocated to Asia to start graduate programs with the large investment banks. The other group is an extension of the London group, consisting mostly of Sydney based ex-patriots. From the later group, two University sweethearts decided to tie the knot in Thailand. To be honest, I was a little taken back that I had received an invite to the wedding, especially since I had only known the couple of a year or so. Not one to complain and feeling honored that I was invited, I booked flights and joined the group in Thailand for the destination wedding of the year.

This is where the details escape me. What usually happens is that if I'm too lazy to write a post (mostly, always) is that I will jot down a handful of memorable points to kick start the creative juices. For reasons unknown to me, I only drafted the following points: "Stressed about work", "Horrible weather", "beautiful", "excess alcohol" and "so much fun".

So here goes - I remember that we spent the initial few days in Bangkok, where of course we stayed at the Lebua for the stag-do processions. The wedding itself was held over in Krabi. The reason I was stressed out about work because in my haste I had accidentally forgotten to re-schedule a meeting keeping me worried the entire trip (this would come back to haunt me). Horrible weather, seems rather self explanatory, I believe it was the start of the Monsoon season and during our stay in Krabi we were presented with only clouds and rain. In fact the night of the reception was cut short due to inclement weather. This brings me to the next adjective - Beautiful, which is exactly what the wedding was, irrespective of the weather the ceremony was extravagant and the international turn out was sensational.

Excess Alcohol most definitely refers to the BYO efforts of the bride and groom. Knowing that the after party would be held in the private villa the couple brought over so much Duty Free Alcohol that come morning, the entire pool reeked of alcohol and our hangovers confirmed this. Despite this mammoth effort, the amount of residual, unconsumed alcohol was staggering. Most of the guests left Thailand with at least two bottles of leftover alcohol.

The last point sums up the entire trip. It was a blast and potentially one of the most fun weddings that I have attended. Congrats to the new couple!

Border town

The mid-90s Toyota Camry tears along the highway leaving nothing by a faint trail of dust in its wake. We sit, slouched and broken from sheer fatigue on what appears to be a seat that has been well used. Thankfully there's air-con. A muffled drone fills the car, a combination of the car's engine and the hum of our car moving at 100 kilometers per hour. Occasionally a car will overtake us but for the majority of the drive we pass countless trucks and motorbikes. We alternate between broken sleep and the clichéd gaze out of the car window. There's very little conversation, the Taxi driver is focused on the road and we each sit with headphones in our own head space. The music of Julia and Angus Stone keeps me entertained, I can only guess what the other two are listening to - Adele, Chris Brown, JJ Lin, who knows...

Our adventure into the Kingdom of Cambodia started a day earlier on the morning of Tuesday the 2nd of August when we casually checked out of our Bangkok apartments. Determined to get to Cambodia by road we unanimously voted against the ridiculously early 7:30am coach and agreed on a 2500 Baht private Taxi. Private taxi meant we decided to depart Bangkok at the more accommodating time of 2:00 pm. The drive from Bangkok to the Thai border town of Aranya Prapet took a little over three hours and was comfortable and I can say that I slept through most of the journey. We were abruptly awoken by the driver who informed us this is as far as he could take us. We had arrived at the Thai border town of Aranya Prapet. Almost instantly the taxi was surrounded by locals in green shirts each bidding for us to use their service, we hadn't even left the car but they could smell a tourist a mile away. The service of course was to help us cross the Thai/Cambodian border. In return for a small fee, they would fill out the necessary paperwork and show us where to get the Cambodia Entry Visa. Despite their pitches and desperate protests we decided to sort the Cambodian Visa out for ourselves and headed towards Cambodia.

Leaving Thailand was easy enough, pass through immigration, get your exit stamp and literally walk out of Thailand. The Cambodian Visa was slightly trickier, the Visa issuing office was separate to the entry point. Which means you buy the Visa (20 USD) take or provide a photo, wait for the Visa to be issued and finally walk to the Immigration check point. The confusion was quickly sorted by following the large number of backpacking tourists that were doing exactly the same thing.

So there we found ourselves in the dusty Cambodian border town of Poipet. The change in scenery was a welcome sight. The main road was all dirt, there were people were pulling carts of loaded with fresh produce, traffic was continuous, both leaving Cambodia and leaving Thailand. There were beggars about and almost every foreigner was being approached by some local trying to sell something and every corner had a casino. It was raw and and very confrontational. The steady stream of tourists were all heading onwards to Siem Reap we wanted to be different, we wanted to stay the night here in Poipet. Since we had not arranged accommodation we wandered around town and inquired about walk-in rates at the various Casinos. We eventually decided to stay at Grand Diamond City. At 1000 Baht a night with a complimentary 500 Baht Casino Chip it was a no-brainer (we would later spend a lot more than 1500 Baht at this Casino).

Poipet is a strange town. It has a hauntingly, transient feel and yet there's a certain charm. During the day it's all hustle and bustle, there's always a backpacker on the main road, there's always a haze of dust at least 1 metre high and there's always noise. Yet, once night falls, the town shuts up and only local street boys roam the streets with the occasional street food vendor.

Our first night in Cambodia and for dinner we had the tasty Khymer BBQ. After which we met some local street boys would acted as tour guides and Foreign Exchange merchants who kindly took us out to some local party on the back of their bikes. As with most of the trip so far in involved a bottle of liquor and some soda water. We ended up at the Casino later that night and gambled the night away.

The following morning still half asleep we head to the Poipet Bus Depot to start the journey towards Siem Reap. The thought of catching a bus with backpackers for the next 3 hours does not appeal to us so again we opt for a taxi. After purchasing the 40 USD taxi voucher a driver approaches and motions for us to follow him to his car, a mid 90s Toyota Camry.

"Do you know mister, of this place?" - Julia & Angus Stone