Siem Reap,Cambodia to Udon Thai, Thailand ( Day 7 17-Feb-2010)

This was probably the longest league of our journey in this entire TransIndochina 2010. We wake up early in the morning and get ourself ready for a long and tiring day. We had our usual breakfast at our hotel restaurant at 7 am sharp and to our amaze our pre-arranged car was already waiting for us. We will move north west to Poipet( Gambling heaven for rich Thai Chinese & Cambodian) in a 2 hours car journey before we could cross over to the town of Aryan, Thailand. From here we will take a bus to Korat for a pit stop before taking another bus from Korat to Udon Thani by pass Khon Kaen with a mind of crossing into Laos on the same day! We did our lunch break at 12pm in the sleepy town of Aryan.....we had some simple fried rice and coffee. We boarded our bus to Korat at 1pm sharp.

Border Crossing in between Cambodia & Thailand

Bus Terminal in Aranyaphet, Thailand

Our bus from Aranyaphet to Korat at the Korat Main Bus Terminal

Nothing much to say about the bus journey as we all try to catch as much sleep as possible realizing that it would be a long day. True enough we arrived at Korat Main bus terminal at about 4.30 pm and staright away we bought another bus ticket to Udon Thani as we understand that we would not be able to cross the border to Laos today........so we choose to make a non schedule pit stop at Udon Thani. Our bus schedule to Udon Thani is 5.30pm and we had our toilet and ciggie break at a small cafe located inside the bus terminal. We departed from Korat as evening fall and our journey to Udon Thani is a far and boring one with the bus making quite a number of stops in between to pick up and drop off some passenger.Our dinner was a quarter of grilled chicken(40 bath) shared among 3 of us.We reached Udon Thani about 10.30pm and check in to a motel opposite the Udon Thani bus terminal 1. We will rest for a few hours before we take the early morning bus to Vientiane, Laos. 

Udon Thani Bus Terminal 1

Our hotel in Udon Thani

Street in Udon Thani at night

We did a quick tour of Udon Thani at night after our dinner(Braised Pork leg Rice@30bath per plate) at a street stall nearby our motel. Udon Thani is quite sleepy at night and the weather is chilling.....we don't even need to open our fan at our room.We called it a day at about 12.30 am as we need to board the earliest bus tomorrow at 8 am to the capital city of Laos, Vientiane. End of day 7 the longest day in the entire TransIndochina 2010 journey. 

Remarks:- Udon Thani is the last city in Northeastern of Thailand before you will reached the Thai/lLaos border. My personal preference is you stay here for 1 or 2 days to discover the city but I don't have the luxury of time during my trip. Drop by here if you are doing the same journey as me.....Udon Thani will surprise you with its charm!

The ancient city of Angkor ( Day 5 & 6 15 & 16-Feb-2010)

After my Visit to Cambodia in the previous year(2009).....I am back again to Siem Reap again......amid a little bit different this time around because.....I am a backpacker or flashpacker! Well not going into very much details on this stop of my journey as most of the info on this famous place is all over the internet. Therefore I think it would be much better if I share with you what I have seen in Siem Reap myself. Basically I am a veteran in Siem Reap having been here for the past 5 years and each  time with different group of people. How amazing it was.......:) Without wasting much time and I am much better equipped this time around with my Nikon DSLR and Sigma lens....I am all out to shoot until I drop! Here it goes:-

Faces of Cambodia Part 2

Lotus Flower lake in Siem Reap

Lotus Flower lake in Siem Reap #2

Local boatman in Tonle Sap lake, Siem Reap

Evening at Tonle Sap lake

Evening at Tonle Sap lake #2

Fisherman in Tonle Sap lake

Angkor Wat

3 buddies in Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat In the water

Angkor Bayon faces

Buddha face inside a tree

Kids selling souvenirs 

Small kid & Riel


Remarks:- The above photos was taken at Tonle Sap lake and around Angkor Wat complex. These was some of my favorites photo taken during this stop on my Transindochina 2010 journey. Our pit stop in Siem Reap on day 5 & 6 of our journey was mostly spend on visiting interesting & historical places such as the Ex-7 wonders of the world Angkor Wat, the gigantic Tonle Sap, the Angkor night market, the old market and so on.