What a difference .....a border makes

I'm in culture shock! On leaving Cambodia, I travelled by noisy, filthy bus on a hideous, potholed dirt road to get to the Thai border. I then had to struggle with four pieces of luggage (helmet, laptop, holdall and rucksack) for a kilometre through "no mans land", bizarrely passing a number of big casinos. Dirty, sweaty and exhausted I suddenly emerged into a completely different world. A new and pristine VIP bus awaited to whisk me down a sleek highway to Bangkok. The bus was spotlessly clean and had air con, fabulous reclining seats and even a trolley dolly. We stopped every 2 hours for breaks at the cleanest public toilets I'd seen for a long while. I could scarcely believe the luxury and comfort, while my fellow passengers did not seem to find it at all remarkable.

What a difference 17 years makes as well. I was last in Bangkok in 1990, and it was a very different place then. Now there are gleaming skyscrapers, elevated roadways, a metro and skytrain system, and a strong sense of prosperity from the fashionably dressed commuters. I was so excited by all the transport options that I tried out the new metro, skytrain and the fabulous ferry-bus just because I could.

There's a Dunkin' Donuts and Boots on every corner, and even Tescos has come to town. It's sad to see that some of the more charming, traditional ways of living are changing, but there's no doubt that Thailand is no longer a developing country.

Khao San Road, the famous backpackers street, no longer peddles bootleg cassettes and fake degree certificates to ragged, rucksack-toting youngsters, but is now like Ibiza on speed.

One downside to all this new wealth is long traffic jams of cars and a seeming addiction to fast food, resulting in numbers of alarmingly obese people - definitely not something I saw when I was here last.