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Published: January 28th 2011
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marching
they were being led by a drummer and flautist There were a few stops during the trip where the driver or another worker would get out to buy something for themselves and some where we stopped at small bus terminals or on the side of the road to drop off/pick up people. Other than that, the journey was pretty smooth and we made pretty good time I think, and were at the Bangkok bus terminal a little after 6 am. I didn’t look at my watch so I don’t know how long it took to get to Khao San Road (the “backpacker area”), but I do know that it was over 30 minutes. Ronald and I shared a tuk tuk with an Italian girl for 50 baht each and when I looked at my watch at 6:50, we were about halfway through our ride because of the horrible traffic. Yuck.
We wandered around asking prices for rooms and after a while Ronald and I decided to do what we’d tried to do a couple of times before: one person waits with all the bags at a restaurant while the other shops around. Ronald went first, then me. They all sort of have the same prices (see below if interested in specifics), but we ended up in the Nat 2 guesthouse which is on a street very close to Khaosan. We actually walked all the way to Smile Guesthouse because it is 350 with wifi and next to this nice little river sort of thing, but when we looked at the rooms we (at least I…) were appalled at the dirtiness – stained sheets with holes, dirty floor, dirty everything really. So we left and went to Nat 2 because Donna Guesthouse didn’t know until noon if they had a room or not. Those were nice and clean though.
Anyways, we went to the post office to mail some clothes home that we’d had made in Hoi An and were a little confused, actually. We first walked in to one side and the guy told us they had a limit of 480 g to send to the US. We thought this was strange until we realized we were not in the package place but the letter section. To mail a package we had to walk next door, which we did because Ronald’s clothes were all too heavy for the strict regulation of 480 g.
Ronald needed to work a bit but his Windy (this is like a USB that you put into a computer that is connected to the internet and it creates a wireless network for you to use) and his SIM for his 3G (a USB that uses a cell phone’s SIM card to create internet) weren’t working so we found a place with wifi, Mulligans, an Irish pub. This, not so surprisingly, turned out to be extremely expensive, but with 3 hours of free wifi, so we ordered a pitcher of beer (4 glasses) for 280 baht and some mashed potatoes and potato skins for a grand total of 530 baht.
After this we walked around a while and just sort of browsed the area. Not sure if we like being in such a touristy section though the kebabs are delicious…
Technical Details • There are tons and tons of tattoo parlors
• Many of the monks don’t wear sandals
• 1 large Chang bottle (beer) is around 55 baht in the Khao San Road area
• Guesthouse prices (for two people):
- Donna Guesthouse: 300 – AC, private bathroom, cold water
- Chada Café: 450 – wifi, shared bathroom, hot water; 550 – AC, wifi, shared bathroom, hot water; 650 – wifi, AC, private bathroom, hot water
- Sweety Guesthouse: 180 – fan, shared bathroom, cold water; 300 – fan, private bathroom, cold water
- Nat 2: 240 – fan, shared bathroom, hot water; 280 – fan, private bathroom, cold water; 480 – AC, private bathroom I think
- Hotel (all with private bathroom): 380 – fan, double bed; 450 – AC, two singles; 550 – AC, double bed
- Smile Guesthouse: 350 – AC, private bathroom, wifi; (fan rooms available, but didn’t ask prices)
• 400 gm of package + buying the box at the post office = 196 baht (about 6 dollars)
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I LOVE thailand
I absolutely loved my time in Thailand. Would be interested to hear your thoughts. See my blog: http://letscatchthewind.blogspot.com/ x