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When we arrived at the border post of Khao Kong, there was one last transfer of bags from one form of transportation to another. This time the vehicle was a wooden cart pulled by a porter. Normally we say no to porters, but on this day,we were very happy to have someone else carry our bags.

The border post was nothing more than a small concrete building by the side of the road that connected Cambodia and Thailand. We were looking forward to getting back to Thailand which we view as an island of modernity and cleanliness in this part of the world. Our porter waited by the side of the road as we stood in line along the short flight of steps up to the customs building.

Suddenly, Gerry noticed a sign advertising a special deal at the Khao Kong Casino Hotel. According to the ad, you could get two nights in their "resort" hotel and a dinner and breakfast for approximately $45. We asked someone where the hotel was and learned that it was just 100 meters away along the road into Cambodia. At first, we wondered if we should take the risk of getting out of line. The border post was due to close in an hour and if we got stuck would we do?

We didn't know, but a nice luxury hotel sure sounded nice to us after our day of travel. So we collected our porter and walked with him over to the hotel. It was a very nice looking place with a really nice looking swimming pool. We went to the desk and explained that we wanted the special advertized at the border. It took some time to make ourselves understood and then a junior manager was summoned to tell us that the offer was no longer valid.

By now, we were almost sure to miss the last bus to Thailand, so in for a penny in for a pound. We explained to the manager that he should have removed the sign if the offer was no longer good. We had come over in good faith and now would be stuck if he didn't give us the deal. After some back and forth, he reluctantly agreed and had the porter take us over to an outlying building to show us our room.

The room was great, with tropical gardens outside the window, modern furnishings and fittings and a nice modern bathroom. We paid off the porter and washed off the day's grime before heading out to dinner. Our complementary dinner was very simple but was all that we needed and afterwards we were happy to go back to our room and watch some cable TV courtesy of Thailand.

The casino was obviously a mainly Thai-patronized place. It was also one reason why, as we learned later, the border offered instant visas. Things are changing even in Cambodia.

The next day we took things very easily, spending much time in the swimming pool while the other guests kept the casino busy. That was a fine distribution of labor as far as we were concerned. We also did some gift shopping, getting a kick out of being able to speak a few words of Thai to the shopkeeper because it was our only common language!

When we left the next day, we were relaxed and happy and had plenty of time to get ourselves to our hotel in Bangkok the same day. Little did we know, however, that on arrival in Bangkok we would be confronted with the disastrous attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center that happened an hour before we checked in.