We slept in very late the next day, and then went back to the coffee stand to complete the waking up process. This was the second morning in a row that we had visited the coffee stand, and I think the owner was hoping for some regular business from us from now on. Sorry, we’re out of here tonight…

After coffee we went to explore the new shopping center, called Terminal 21. We discovered quite by accident that it was a themed shopping mall. Each floor is decorated like a different international city. There a floor for Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco, Istanbul, and so on. We went around taking pictures of the different floors, and even discovered that the themes extended to the bathrooms. We tried the bathrooms in Paris and Tokyo, and they were great. It was a really well designed mall. At the top floor we bought tickets to see Mission Impossible 4 later on that evening. We were able to get seats on a sofa – the back row was made up entirely of four big sofas, with reclining seats. The price of our tickets was half the price of Japan, so it turned out to be a great deal.

We left the shopping center to go back to our hotel, finish packing, and then check out. The hotel said that they could watch our bag for us until we left for the airport, so we stored it with them and then went back across the street to the same massage place. This time we asked for a Thai oil massage. They put us together in a different room this time, with an elevated massage table that had a hole for your face. Kuniko’s masseuse seemed upset when she discovered that we were wearing clothes under our pajamas. “Take all off!”, she said. We obliged, and then they went to work rubbing oil on our backs and legs. It felt great – and they were very thorough. I spent most of the 90 minute massage thinking about baseball, however.

We finished the massage without incident, and then went back to Terminal 21 for lunch, drinks and the movie. After the trailers and just before the movie, there was a moment of culture shock as they asked everyone to stand to pay respects to the king of Thailand. Everybody stood while we watched some scenes from his long life of helping the Thai people set to inspirational music. For an instant I considered not standing – but then I remembered how strict they are in this country about disrespecting the king. You can end up in jail for a couple of years for badmouthing him. So I stood, and watched the one minute video. Weird moment, but as Kuniko said – “when in Rome…”

Our last stop before the airport was the balcony bar at the Westin hotel. We sat outside on the balcony with a clear glass table and clear glass wall – it felt like you would fall at any minute. We drank sidecars and watched all the activity below us and enjoyed recapping the trip. It was a good one for us – plenty of relaxation to get us started on the new year. We chit-chatted with the staff, entirely made up of beautiful girls who spoke pretty good English. They seemed happy to talk with us, because it looked like a slow night for them.

Finally we wrapped things up, picked up our luggage and caught a taxi to the airport. We still had a couple hours to kill at the airport, so we did a little bit of walking around until our flight was ready. We departed at 2:20 am and slept through all the way to Shanghai, and then slept again on the two hour connecting flight to Kansai airport. Piece of cake!

We woke up still full from our feast the night before, but we decided to go out and get some coffee to start the day. We found a small coffee stand on the other side of Asok station with some seating, so we ordered up some mochas. Thai coffee is pretty good, too – and a great way to get your day started.

As we sipped our coffee and talked about the plan for the day we watched people go by. Bangkok is a city that is filled with interesting people to watch. What stands out right away is the older Caucasian men with younger Thai women. When I first came to Bangkok I had expected to see it now and then, but you see it everywhere here. Everywhere. Bangkok is a city where just about anything goes, and it goes cheaply. Enough said. Besides that kind of relationship there are a lot of foreigners walking the streets, too. I think it is rare to see Thai locals just walking around – at least in the neighborhood where we were staying.

During the morning we went around to a couple of shopping centers that we had visited previously. Because of all the ex-pats that live in this very international city, it is so easy to buy just about any foreign item I could want. In Japan the range in quite limited, but I wanted to stock up on some local Thai sauces, get some items that are simply unavailable in Japan.

Loaded down with groceries we stopped on the way back at Cabbages and Condoms – another restaurant that we had enjoyed last time. Our plan was to eat there for lunch and thereby miss the crowds that surely would be there for dinner on New Year’s Eve. We were the only customers, so we could enjoy a private lunch outside under the trees and next to the waterfall. As usual the food was great, and we left with a free placemat and three or four condoms as souvenirs. Thanks, guys!

After a short break in our hotel room to let the food settle we changed into our swimsuits and went to the roof to swim in the pool. The weather was perfect for swimming and the pool was all ours for the afternoon. Swimming in their pool was one of the highlights from last time – and I think we enjoyed it just as much this time. Especially thinking how freezing cold it was in Kobe right then.

After spending the afternoon swimming we went across the street to get a massage. Across the street from our hotel there are many, many places to get a massage. The most popular massage places have six or seven beautiful Thai girls sitting on seats outside. I guess you just walk up, choose your girl, and then go inside and negotiation what kind of massage you’d like. However, Kuniko and I went to a different kind of massage place that (at least on the surface) seemed more legitimate. In the lobby they had signs written in Japanese targeting women, so it seemed OK. We both ordered a “traditional Thai massage”, so we went upstairs to rooms separated by curtains, changed out of our clothes into some loose pajamas, and then a masseuse came into each of our areas and gave us a pretty serious massage for about an hour. They did a very good job, and really worked us over. Every now and then I could hear popping and cracking from Kuniko, followed by giggles, and then more pops. A lot of stress and tension inside of Kuniko, I guess.

After the massages (only $10!) we went back and got some more shopping done. I got a new protection cover for my iPhone – the staff at the shop put it on for me, and they are the only ones I have seen that can do it without any bubbles or dust underneath. For dinner we went to a Chinese/Thai fusion place that was a little touristy. The decor reminded me of the tourist restaurants in China, but the food was great. We had river lobster and glass noodles, cracked hard shell crab served in fried garlic and black pepper, and sour noodles with lime and shrimp. We made a complete mess with the crab, though. Not easy to eat.

On our way back to the hotel we walked through the red light district, which I learned this time around is called Soi Cowboy. There are tons of dance/strip clubs along the street, and it was packed with customers on New Years Eve. As we walked through one of the clubs had an entire pig on a pig being roasted, and everywhere you looked were middle aged (and older) white guys surrounded by laughing Thai girls. Adding to the bizarre scene was a homeless guy with only one leg crawling through the dirty street on his hand and leg, begging as he went. We had to step around him to continue walking through. I could only imagine what the entire scene was like from his perspective.

Back at our hotel we had drinks at the hotel bar while we waited for midnight. The bar was pretty dead compared to last time we were there, so we went upstairs to our room and waited there for midnight. There was a very big fireworks display as the midnight struck, and I think we were asleep about ten minutes later. Busy day…

We got up very early the next day. The night before we watched from the poolside of the hotel as they launched fireworks in the night sky. I’m not sure what the occasion was, and I think there was only a total of six fireworks over the course of one hour, but it was nice. We were pretty tired from staying up late, but we got up early enough to catch breakfast at the hotel one last time. I filled up on the coffee, but we also had some local food (instead of the western dishes).

After breakfast we did one last walk around the hotel to see the local sights and some government buildings and gardens, and then went back to pack our bags. We checked out of the hotel and negotiated with a tuk-tuk driver until his price matched what we had left in my wallet – six US dollars. The tuk-tuk ride to the airport was fun. I love riding the tuk-tuks and getting the fresh air blowing through the car – it was nicer than the Indian version – there was no windshield.

Our flight from Cambodia was delayed an hour, so we received some vouchers for food and drink at a restaurant in the airport. We enjoyed coconut juice, mango juice, and we split a feta cheese panini sandwich while we waited. Then it was back to Bangkok on a forty minute plane ride, and back into the huge immigration line. Lots of people were stressed about the line, and security had to break up a couple of arguments about line-cutting and position.

By the time we had picked up our bags and cleared customs and immigration, there was another big line for taxis. I made a wise choice at the fork in the line and we saved about 20 minutes, but by the time we arrived and checked into our hotel it was nearly eight pm.

The hotel – how strange to stay in the same hotel. We know the neighborhood, we know where everything is, and it is odd to feel comfortable when we travel. We hardly ever go to the same place twice, but the point of our short stay in Bangkok was to relax. Staying in the same hotel brings back the good memories from the previous trip to Bangkok, and in a way kind of connected the two trips into one. It was hard to explain, but it felt good. We walked down the street like we owned it, and found a street restaurant that we had enjoyed last time. The food was still great, but there were so many customers that I think it probably got written up in a guidebook somewhere. We had crab meat fried in Thai curry paste, cashews and pork, and glass noodles with shrimp, and we were happy with everything.

On the way back to the hotel after dinner we did stop at a new shopping center that was built right across from Asok station – called Terminal 21. We only went into the basement shopping area to stock our fridge with beer and juice, but vowed to explore the shopping center another day. It made the area around our hotel that much more convenient. Finally we went back and went right to sleep.

We got up relatively early for breakfast, and I was pleased to discover that Cambodian coffee is awesome. Rich, intense, and somewhere between Vietnamese and Thai coffee (which makes sense geographically). After breakfast we met our tour guide, who apologized and said that he had another tour group that he had to take, but said that his friend could take us on the tour. His friend seemed nice enough, so we just went with it, and left for the tour.

We explained what we wanted to do, and the tour guide suggested some other things to see, and after some negotiations and back and forth, we figured out a plan. The first step was to buy day passes for the temples, and so we stopped at a roadside ticket office that was very sophisticated. We handed over $20 US for each of us, and they made a photo pass on the spot that we could produce at each place to prove that we had paid. It was at about this time that I realized that we were running out of US dollars. None of the places so far had accepted credit cards, and our original plan was to mostly use the credit card and use cash for small expenses. As it stood we had enough dollars to pay for our tour and our ride from the airport, but that was about it.

So we spent the first half of the day going through Angkor Wat, the Banyan temple, and Baphuon temple. The grounds that contained all these temples was absolutely huge, and without a car it is impossible to do. The driver let us off and arranged for us to come back at certain times, so we were free to see and do what we pleased. I prefer that to a talkative tour guide who drags you all over the place, but the downside was that we sometimes didn’t understand everything we were looking at. Luckily our hotel wi-fi solved that problem when we got back.

Angkor Wat was impressive, but not quite what we had expected. I think Kuniko said it best – when your last trip was the Taj Mahal, the next place isn’t going to be quite so grand. But we did enjoy walking through, exploring the inside and seeing the carvings in the stone. Inside we met lots of noisy tourists who seemed to miss the signs asking for “quiet, please”. We spent almost 90 minutes at Angkor Wat, and then we hiked back to the parking area and took off for the next temple. Banyan temple was even more impressive – rundown spires with faces carved into them, and steps up and down forming kind of a maze. I could have spent all day looking through it. Also it was nice and cool in the dark underneath the stones, and it made for a nice break from the heat.

Our last stop was Baphuon, which looked more like a pyramid that a temple. The structure was surrounded by a moat (not quite as large as the one around Angkor Wat) that we crossed by an elevated stone pathway. It was beautiful coming in, and then we climbed the steep steps to the top and you could see nothing but jungle all around. There weren’t so many people here, so it was a good chance to take our time and enjoy poking around.

After walking from Baphuon we were getting a little burned out on temples. It was nearly 1 pm, and between the heat and the previous day’s travel, we were wearing down a bit. The driver wanted to take us to a touristy restaurant (cash only) so we talked him into taking us back to our hotel instead. I think he was worried about getting only half the payment for half the day, but we paid him in full and said goodbye. I think he was a little disappointed that he couldn’t take us “shopping” at one of the kickback shops that are just about everywhere. Sorry, man.

To conserve the US dollars that remained we ate lunch poolside at the hotel, and charged it to our room. The lunch was quite good – I had Cambodian BBQ steak with rice, egg and vegetables and Kuniko had coconut soup with cabbage, shrimp, squid and crab meat. Together with a couple of cold Angkor beers it was a nice wrap up to our sightseeing.

After a nap we decided to do some sightseeing around Siem Reap. The town is a popular place for tourists – especially young backpackers and adventure-seekers from America and Europe. Everything about the town was geared towards tourists. Although it was a tourist town, the shopkeepers and touts were pretty friendly. A smile and a ‘no thanks’ was all it took to get them to smile back and leave you alone. In India people were a lot more aggressive about making sales. Now and then we even bumped into our original driver from the airport. He was giving tours to other people and he stopped and smiled at us and said hello. Small world!

There was a lot to see around town. We walked all over the place, using the GPS in my iPhone for guidance. One thing we saw that was very popular was huge fish tanks full of flesh eating fish. People could sit and dangle their legs inside, and fish would nibble on the skin and “clean up” your feet for you. I didn’t try it (even though the signs said “No Pirahna!”) but there were a lot of people that did. We walked by a high school aged girl who was trying it, and she squealed and pulled her legs out once the fish went to work. An older guy was there with a camera taking pictures of it – but we weren’t sure if they knew each other or not.

Another interesting place was “Pub Street” – a street lined with restaurants and pubs that catered to tourists. Competition had brought the price of a mug of draft beer down to fifty cents, and so we sat and burned a couple of dollars on some beers to rest our legs a bit. Kuniko made friends with some cat that lived in the restaurant, walking between tables and legs hoping for scraps. We came back later that night to the same restaurant (called “Cambodian Soup Kitchen”) for dinner, and the Chinese guys next to us threw half a BBQ chicken on the ground to watch the cats fight over it. They managed to avoid the looks of horror from Kuniko.

Cambodian restaurants serve a lot of BBQ, and we were able to try it while we were there. We ordered frog as well as chicken for dinner, and both were excellent. The chicken was a little overcooked, but the frog was perfect (although a little bony). The sauce that came with the BBQ was really good – one was a spicy chili sauce (with sugar and garlic) and the other was a black pepper sauce that had some kind of strange flavor that we couldn’t quite identify. Delicious!

We finished off the night walking around town more taking in the sights – a riverside night market, a huge outdoor restaurant serving tour groups, ex-pat bars and disco parlors, all surrounded by jungle, poverty and cheerful local people. It was a strange vibe for a city, but we enjoyed our short stay there. Any longer would probably be too much.

We started off the adventure by getting up early – almost 4 am and trudging outside in the cold towards the nearest train station. Packing for this trip was a little tricky, since it is nearly freezing in Kobe and a balmy 30 degrees in Cambodia. Any big jackets that we wear on the way to the airport will have to be lugged around southeast Asia for a week, and that’s no fun.

We made it to the airport right on time, got in line at our airline, and caught a quick flight out of Kansai airport to Shanghai. It is really a quick trip – just a little over two hours. I had decided to skip the in-flight meal since we had a big dinner the night before, but when they served up Chinese fried rice I couldn’t resist. Pretty good, too.

At Shanghai they have a strange transfer system. I guess the idea is that transfer passengers shouldn’t go through normal Chinese immigration, because normal Chinese immigration require a visa for many countries, and I think that was a confusing issue for both the authorities and the passengers. So now the transfer passengers gather in a meeting spot, and then are led through a separate immigration and security area, and then are let into the boarding gate area. We went through these odd procedures along with a woman that had sat next to Kuniko on the flight from Japan. She was friendly enough and she spoke English, so we exchanged some smiles and small talk during the ordeal.

The next flight to Bangkok left right on time, and we were surprised to see that we had the same lady sitting next to us again. This flight was a little longer – about four and a half hours – but I read a book most of the way. Once we arrived in Bangkok the heat hit us right away. Time to change out of that long underwear! Unfortunately we had to wait in a huge immigration line – it took almost 45 minutes to get through the line and get into the main airport.

By now we’re pretty familiar with the Bangkok international airport. We’ve killed lots of time there, and we know how to quickly get to all our favorite shops, bars and restaurants. This time we had just a couple hours to kill, so we had lunch/dinner at the Mango Tree, which is an above average restaurant. They make cocktails, too, but I don’t recommend them. The food, however, was excellent. We both had Thai soup and noodles – mine with a yellow coconut curry base and Kuniko’s with a spicy peanut and seafood base. Yum.

After the meal we made our way to the counter of Bangkok Airways, a budget airline that flies domestic within Thailand and some international – in our case, to Siem Reap in Cambodia. There was a little scare when they asked for us to produce the same credit card that we used online to buy our tickets, and I had completely forgot to remind Kuniko to bring it. But by chance, she had it with her, and we were able to get the tickets. Near disaster, that one.

The flight to Siem Reap was only 40 minutes – we took off and then pretty much started our descent, so piece of cake. When we landed we got off the plane using the mobile ladder system, and everybody just kind of walked across the tarmac into the main terminal. There were a few security people to make sure nobody dashed off into the jungle without going through immigration, but the whole thing felt pretty casual. The design of the airport terminal was really nice – very modern surrounded by gardens, palm trees and grass. It kind of reminded my of San Diego airport.

Inside we started the visa process. Entering Cambodia you can either buy a visa online for $25 US or on the spot at the airport for $20 US. I couldn’t really see the advantage of buying online – it seemed like even though people could skip the visa line, the immigration line itself was still pretty long. We presented our $40 for two visas in cash, a passport photo of each of us, the guy wrote out a receipt, then took our passports and passed them down a long line of office workers who processed the visa. After five minutes, the guy at the end of the line called out our names, and there was a nice new visa stamped inside. Strange system. Anyway, we got through easily, although the people around us seemed to be really stressed about the process.

The luggage took a long time to come in, so we spent about twenty anxious minutes waiting for it to show up, and then went outside to catch a cab into town. Kuniko wasn’t sure, but she said that we didn’t make arrangements with our hotel this time, so we should just take a regular taxi. There was a desk where you could arrange a cab, and as we stepped up to it, a guy to the right was holding a sign that was printed with “Kumiko Kageyama”. Although the name was not exactly correct, we were surprised. Kuniko said that maybe we did arrange for a cab, and we introduced ourselves to the friendly guy. He took us to his air conditioned car, and we were on our way.

In the back of the cab Kuniko and I discussed in Japanese about what the situation might actually be. Perhaps the hotel automatically sends a driver? Shouldn’t they have confirmed by email or something? The driver himself explained after a little bit. He said “a friend of his” at the hotel had seen that we didn’t arrange a cab, so he gave him Kuniko’s name, and he drove out to the airport in the hopes of picking us up. Clever. But he was a nice enough guy, and the end result was the same – we were getting a ride to our hotel. On the drive in he asked our plans for the trip, and offered his services as a tour guide. For $30 US he’d take us wherever we wanted to go the next day, using his car. We talked it over between us in Japanese, and decided that was a fair deal. Once we got to the hotel, we arranged for him to pick us up the next morning at 9 am, and I made a very wise decision and told him we’d pay him for the ride from the airport the next day along with the tour payment. Then we checked in and went to our room. The room was nicer than either of us expected (our expectations were pretty low). By then we were pretty wiped out, so we turned on the AC and went right to bed.