Escaping Bangkok

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Today we foud the free tourist information place, its not far from Khoa San road and you can get free maps and inforamtion. (The TAT which are on every street charge 100 baht for a map and will try and sell you everything)

The lady in the free tourist information said you can the 53 the train station and you can go to Thornburi train station to bu ythe ticket which is closer.

We walked to the ferry by the ubiversity and got the ferry to Thornburi station, It was deserted and had not been used since 1967.

It was like something of a zombie film, you could imagine the tumble weed justblowing past you in the wind, before the zombies jumped out of the empty ticket booths.

We asked some Thai person in a uniform near by, where we could buy a ticket and in traditional Thia style he pointe din a direction. We walked for a bit and found no ticket place and were feeling a bit out of sorts, we were the only non-Thai people in the place and no-one could speak English we decided to go back.

We got the ferry back and founf the 53 bus stop near the university. We asked the driver and he said ''yes'' when we said is this for hua lampong station. The bus stopped after a bit and everyone got off and the ticket lady pointed forward.

We wrongly presumed the station was just up the road. We walked for 4 or 5 kilometres until we finally reached the station. We realised on the trip to the train station on the 8th, you have to get off the bus and get on another 53 (included in the original price of 7 baht) to get to the train station)

Once there we were helped by a 'state railways of Thailand' lady to help get the ticket. We bought the ticket for 531 baht each (although we double checked this the official information desk) as there was a warning to ensure you got the information from the right place rather than trusting 'state railways of Thailand'.

We were finally booked on a train for the 8th of February on a second class sleeper train.

When we got off the bus to take the short walk to Khao San Road, we were walking past the sports field, when a man and a woman, came inbetween us and started pouring corn in our hand and telling us to throw it to the birds, we kept saying ''no'' and they kept opening more and more bags and making us throw corn to the pidgeons. Suddenly we were seperated by a million pidgeons, with the woman pouring corn into Matts hand and the man pouring corn in Leanne's hand.

They wanted us to pay 100baht for this even though throughout we had been saying no and trying to refuse. After a small argument we managed to get away without giving the scammers any money. Little bit scary though as we didnt know the consequences of not paying a pidgeon lady.

Later we met an Australian couple from Melbourne whilst having dinner who had said Chiang Mai was alot quieter.

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Photos

Tourist information booth
Once you could call from booths like this for FREE tourist information. Now it's all run by TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand) and costs, from which the Government take a healthy cut.

Tourist information Bureau
The only free information place in Bangkok. It is not advertised and there are no signs. It's conviently located between a UN building and a UNESCO one.