Friday, June 26, 2009

Staying On The Good Side.

One of the things I "get" to do every 90 days is traipse to a border of Thailand and renew my visa so I will be legal in this country and not be shocked at the airport by having to pay $200 to get out of Thailand. (Yes, that did happen to someone a few months ago).

So.

I prefer to stay on the good side of the law and Thursday was the day Carolyn and I went to the border to renew said visa. There's a bus service in the middle of Bangkok that will take care of all the visa details if I shell out a little baht, so that's exactly what happened. Of course we don't actually live in downtown Bangkok, so that meant waking up super-early to get there in time:).

I don't believe a trip is really a "trip" until it involves coffee...


... or in my case, hot chocolate. For the record, this was some of the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted!

While it's typical to see these things all around Thailand, I've never seen one quite like this.

Some people think that Thailand is a backwards, third-world country, so perhaps these buildings clear things up a bit. Maybe:).


I've got to work on my timing, but in my defense this was taken from a bus going about 50 mph:). In the distance is a wat.

I think I sat on the wrong side of the bus the last time I went because this time the scenery was much more interesting:).

Being the perpetual tourist, here's the "I was in Cambodia" picture:). Carolyn and I did actually cross the border and we were hoping to buy something from Cambodia, but the only things we could buy in the "tourist section" was something to drink, smoke, or postcards. No thank you!


Little Asian kids are so cute, are they not???


Our chariot awaits! Seriously though, I'm so glad the colors are mild and toned down compared to some other buses that just scream loud colors! Thai people have a fascination with stuff like that:).

The building on the left is the passport control on the Thai side. This makes my stamp official:).


A checkpoint of some sorts... not quite sure what or why:).


Another pretty mountain of Thailand:). Oh, and a telephone pole - because we're experts of taking pictures of them:).

5 comments:

Nina in Portugal said...

Beautiful pictures!

And yes, little Asian kids are cute!!

Rachel said...

How happy I was to hear you say, "I don't believe a trip is really a "trip" until it involves coffee..."
Of course, I guess that you would just have hot chocolate, but saying the words makes you one step closer! ;)

Rebecca said...

That's so incredible that you can traipse (sp?) from country to country just to get your passport renewed. Sounds so exotic!

Yes and that one picture did clear up the fact in my mind that Bangkok is a backwards, third world country.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Unknown said...

What city is that in Thailand? Beautiful pictures. even the telephone pole.jeje.
Too bad you couldn´t get any souvenigers in Cambodia. I knew Missionaries that were to go to Cambodia once.
Cute kids. They are so brown. You must really stand out.Do you get a lot of stares?

Anne said...

We started out in Bangkok and worked our way to the border, so everything between Bangkok and Cambodia:).

We definitely get a lot of stares, and that's usually accompanied with "farong! farong! farong!" (foreigner)