We value our privacy

Saturday we left Phra Wihan and decided that Khantharalak was not the town for us. We continued on down highway 24, a 2-lane highway that skirts the southern edge of Thailand along the Cambodian border.

We came to a town called Sangkha and decided maybe we'd driven enough for one day. Sangkha is not a town large enough or interesting enough to be in any guidebook, so we pulled up to a guy working a foodstand and asked if there was any lodging to be had (kind of like Joseph and Mary, what with Katherine being pregnant and all). Luckily, we didn't have to stay in a manger. Rather, the only inn in town doubled as the short-term hotel/brothel. For $8.50, it was a bargain at twice the price.

Now that you know I take my wife to whorehouses, let's back up a bit. It's not like Katherine and I are totally naive, but it did take us a bit to figure out just what type of hotel we were potentially checking into.

There was one hotel in town, called the 'New Garden Hotel'. We read Lao, not Thai. The alphabets are very similar, but different enough to make it hard to read most things. As such, we were very happy to find the hotel. When we arrived, we were guided into a parking spot right in front of VIP room #1 (again with the VIP treatment). As we pulled in, the attendant immediately pulled a blue curtain to conceal our car, as shown below (first picture is at about 6:20 the next morning. Busy night.



Our trusty vehicle, safely concealed from the prying eyes of the world. The world just doesn't understand, and never will.


Okay, so our car is concealed by a curtain. We were focused on the room itself. 350 baht for the night. Hey, great price, and the room was relatively large and clean. Katherine had a question, though. Any chance we could get a room with a window? How strange that the room has no window. No, no windows. Okay, fine.

Huh, there's a mirror on the ceiling. Funny. Hey, maybe it's a brothel. Ha. Yeah.

Okay, looks clean, let's go ahead and check in and get some dinner. So we tell the guy we'll take the room, and start to walk out of our little slice of private heaven, when he says, no, I'll take the money here and check you in. I'll bring the change back. Huh. Usually you have to show a passport and stuff to check into hotels in Thailand.

Whatever, says Katherine, I've got to use the bathroom.

Hey honey, there's a condom on the bedside table. I'd definitely say this is a brothel. And when you get out here, check out the somewhat abstract art, knowing what we know now. Not so abstract when looked at the right way. Kinda sorta dirty.

Katherine comes out, checks stuff out, and decides that maybe using the sleeping bags is a good idea, but that the room is clean and cheap. Or is it? What did 350 baht get us? An hour?

Our attendant returns with our change and assures us that the 350 baht buys us the room until noon the next day.

So, a romantic night in a brothel, with my pregnant wife. First time I've slept in a brothel. First time in a few years Katherine's slept in one.

And now, our night at the New Garden Hotel, in Sangkha, Thailand, as seen through the mirrored ceiling.


We woke up well-rested at about 6:00 am the next morning and headed to the Cambodian border...again. Banteay Chhmar was in our future. But before that we had an hour working our way through Cambodian immigration and 2.5 hours bouncing through muddy, rutted roads, skirting by collapsed bridges, and generally compacting our spines in a hired 1992-ish Toyota with one of those little spare tires on the back left side (you know, the ones that you aren't supposed to use for more than a few miles or go over 20 mph with) and no shocks.

After about 80 minutes, Katherine had had enough. Unfortunately, the jarring ride was not conducive to naps.