Border crossing

So I managed to exit Cambodia on my cancelled passport. I also only realised as I was about to cross the border that my last entry to Cambodia was exactly on the day that my passport only had 6 months left on it, so was technically no longer valid. The Cambodian border guards really didn't know what to make of my various passports and 2 visas to cancel, so they gave up and stamped me out of the country in my new passport. I was really counting on being too difficult to be bothered with. The Thai side stamped me in in my new passport, after going through the whole old/new passport thing again. I didn't mention the fact that I no longer have a country of residence. I've struck problems with this before so now I lie. 


I found a minibus/transit van quite quickly and off we went towards Bangkok. Three minibus changes and a whole lot of rather fast driving later, I arrived in Bangkok. As I hadn't booked anything, I headed straight to a guest house recommended on one of the main websites. It was a pit but a sleepable pit so I slept.


Highlights: 1) 7eleven convenience stores - my first in about 4 years. I didn't even realise I had missed them until I was in one again, and a really big bonus; the Thai version of 7eleven has steamed buns with all sorts of yummy curry & bbq pork fillings. I particularly like the rabbit green curry ones. Ahh, it took me back to the gimbap triangle days of South Korea. 2) Surviving the road race that was the elevated expressway.


Lowlights: 1) About 50kms of elevated expressway into Bangkok. Along with heights, my other great fear is going fast in cars. Put these two together, throw in a whole pile of concrete, traffic and a driver with formula one ambitions, and you have my version of hell on earth. Once we got on the thing, my heart sank through the floor boards, and tried really hard to get back down to ground level purely through wish-power. It was an horrendous trip; 3 lanes to dodge and weave through, 140kmph minimum and teeny-tiny side barriers that don't keep in any vehicle taller than a sedan (vans do fall off and squash everyone before bursting into flames all the time). I was pretty close to bursting with fright by the time we got off the thing. 2) The manky hotel, but by comparison with the number one lowlight, it really doesn't rate high on the low scales.