Chantaburi, Thailand
May 2018
Crossing the border from Cambodia to Thailand was a fun, unplanned journey that worked out perfectly. We got a share taxi from Battambang to the border at Prum, which took about two hours, then (after stopping to eat some fried bananas and rice cakes, and to change our Camdodian riels into Thai baht at a liquor store) we walked across to Thailand and applied for visas. We then jumped on the back of two motorbikes for about five minutes of fast riding, now on the left hand side of the road, and were dropped at a waiting open back minibus with bench seats, which immediately left once we had climbed in back. We were soon joined by a monk and a young man. A storm came and went as we drove through beautiful green mountains. We were then dropped in Chantaburi at the bus station, where we caught a taxi to our hotel overlooking the river.
Chantaburi is peaceful and pretty with a fast river and very old Chinese houses along the riverfront. The shops along the ground level of the houses blend public and private space. Peeking in the open doorways you see people watching tv and eating in their shops, surrounded by shrines, old clocks, incense and pictures of the old King.