Bangkok here we come

Bangkok here we come.
    Today we made the long overland journey to Bangkok, Thailand. But first, we went for a ride to nowhere and back on a local tourist attraction, the bamboo railroad.  This is one of those, "you have to see it to believe it" deals, so I'm hoping to be able to up load pictures and maybe even a short video clip.

   After breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel, Star, we check out and loaded the van with all of our stuff. The hotel manager very graciously presented us each with a gift of a nice scarf.  Off we went for the short ride to the "train yard". Some background information is necessary here. This section of narrow gauge rail had been abandoned and the cars allowed to decay until the were totally useless.

But some ingenious locals conceived of a way to put this scattered and dismantled equipment to good use. They constructed the bamboo railroad for their own transportation between villages before it became a hit with tourists.  Constructing light weight platforms of bamboo which rode atop salvaged railroad car axles and wheels, they had something akin to the old hand cars one used to see in some old time movies. Except, these were not hand powered by pumping a lever. Instead there were powered by a small one cylinder engine attached to the drive axle by a v belt and pulley. To go faster the "engineer" pulls the pivoting engine towards him, tightening the belt. To slow down he loosens the belt. A wooden brake shoe provides a means to stop the contraption, we hope!
  It was a wild ride indeed! You won't find this at Disney! We all piled onto the flat bamboo platform and sat down. Seat belts? There weren't even any seats, just a small cushion atop a piece of carpet. I guess this is the closest I'll ever get to riding a flying carpet! There wasn't really much to hold onto either. And then there was the issue of what to do when you met another car coming the other way! No problem GI, we just stop and dismantle the car and let them through, then reassemble the contraption and take off again.  Not sure of the top speed of this thing but it sure seems fast when are that close to the ground.  In any case it was a blast and we were glad we did it.

  Back in the van we started the long and relatively uneventful trip to the Thai border.  Along the way we stopped to photograph a group of young monks, apparently blessing a family household or receiving a blessing, not sure exactly, but the line of orange robes made a nice picture.  Reaching the
border we went through passport control, said "soak so bai" to Cambodia and transported our bags to our new Thai vehicle.  This van was totally "tricked out" with a TV, stereo etc. But the best part for me was the reclining seats. Now we were zipping along on multiple-lane highways instead of the dusty and bumpy roads we had been on before. Stopping for lunch, several of us had fresh coconut water as our beverage. This is served by slicing the top off of what we would consider a "green" coconut. What little actual coconut "meat" that had formed inside we scraped out and ate with a spoon. The coconut "milk", as I have typically heard it referred to was nearly totally clear and not milky at all and we drank it through a straw.

  We hit Bangkok rush hour traffic for a bit, but soon were at the hotel. Everything in Thailand seems a bit bigger and more affluent than Cambodia, but I already miss some of the charm of the Cambodians, with their quick and easy smiles.  Here it is much more cosmopolitan. Many more westerners here.

  After a quick check-in at the hotel Viengtai, we meet in the lobby and walked through what seemed like an endless array of street food vendors, souvenir shops, outdoor foot massage salons, and restaurants to get to the river front just in time for sunset. Got a few nice shots, nothing spectacular but it was fun watching all the people. One section of the park seemed reserved for struggling street performers to practice juggling, break dancing, playing musical instruments, etc. In another area an
outdoor aerobics class was going on. There were people everywhere.

  On the walk back to he hotel, we stopped to take pictures of the traffic coming around a bend in the road in front of an impressive looking building. Wanted to get a tuktuk in the foreground. Tuktuks here seem to generally accommodate only two passengers but are more substantially built. These are not just carriages adapted to be hauled by a motorcycle. These are designed and constructed as three wheeled vehicles and most have a sign on top that says "taxi".