Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit

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City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman Indra.

Thais abbreviate the full name of their capital to Krungthep but elsewhere most people know the city of angels as Bangkok.

Yet another stop in Bangkok for me with this single visit's duration being more than all 7 previous visits in 2006-07 combined. Really just using the city as a bridge between India and Southeast Asia as it's by far the cheapest route to connect the two regions. Also a nice place to decompress after 3 months of up-to-my-eyeballs-in-hassle India. Many travelers mistakenly think that Thailand is full of hassle but they've obviously never been to India, Ethiopia, or the king (rather, pharaoh) of hassle - Egypt. Once again I failed to do any sightseeing in Bangkok as it was simply too hot for me to be outside in the middle of the day when everything is open. Today I arrived in Koh Samui and will stay here 6 days before heading to Penang, Malaysia then Sumatra where I do plan to take in some culture and snap some pictures.

$US ≈ 29 Thai baht (B)

Accommodation and food All except one stop for one night on the way to Nepal in '06 I have always stayed at Rambuttri Village Inn. Wide variety of rooms but I took the standard single with AC, satellite TV (mostly Thai), and a hot water shower (yes, strange in sweltering Bangkok). The hotel also provides a towel, toiletries, and a small bottle of water every day. The rooftop pool is a sweet bonus for the 600B price. The 300 room hotel is always packed and reservations are recommended but the standard singles and doubles are not bookable and only available in person. Definitely cheaper places to shack up around Khao San Road but none better value than the Rambuttri. Can't recommend any place to eat as I always ate street food which was more like al fresco as most of the mom & pop places have plastic tables and chairs under a tarp so you can eat in relative comfort without frying under the sun. Menus are virtually identical.

Transport With completion of the airport rail link, cheaply getting from the the airport to KSR became much more tedious. First take the airport rail city line train to Makkasan Station (20 minutes, 35 baht) then bus #556 (used to leave direct from the airport before rail link) at the unmarked bus stop across from the station exit on the other side of the train tracks (14 baht). Don't take an Airport Express train which costs much more and saves a mere 5 minutes. Aside from leaving the airport, the only local transport of any consequence was taking local bus 53 from KSR to the main train station at Hua Lumphong. Best transport deal in town for 6.5B if you can figure out the diabolical route, don't mind profuse sweating since it's not air conditioned, and can spare an hour in rush hour traffic. Leaving Bangkok I took train 85 in a schwank air conditioned 2^nd class sleeper to Surat Thani for 698B. The train left on time around 7:30 pm but arrived ~2 hours late close to 9:00 a.m. At the Surat Thani train station there are buses timed to meet the morning train to shuttle passengers to the Don Sak ferry pier one hour away. From there the boats leave for Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao although I'm pretty sure it's faster and cheaper to reach Koh Tao from Chumpon (also on the southern rail line). Koh Samui is the first ferry stop and we arrived just after 11:00 a.m. Combo price for the Lomprayah bus and fast catamaran was 350B to Koh Samui, probably a bit more to the other islands.

Indonesian visa procurement My main task, actually only task, to accomplish in Bangkok. Indonesian embassies and consulates used to have a well deserved reputation for being somewhat difficult in dispensing 60 day tourist visas. These visas were essential because although visa on arrival was easily available at most Indonesian ports of entry for $25 the duration was only for 30 non-extendable days (now extendable for an additional fee... and hassle, still better to get the 60 day visa in advance if possible). Wonderful Penang, Malaysia was one of the few places foreigners could easily and very quickly obtain the 60 day visa which is where I got 2 visas in '06. Seems that things have changed and Bangkok is now a very good place to get the 2 month tourist visa without any fuss. It costs 1380B and you need your passport, copy of the passport data/photo page, 2 passport pics, and a copy of a ticket out of Indonesia (which was kindly returned to me with the visa). Fill out the application in the morning between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. and the visa is ready at 2:00 p.m. on the second business day after dropping off the materials. Many buses conveniently pass KSR to the embassy - take one going to Pantip Plaza just past the embassy. Lots of malls in the area if shopping is on the agenda. I am hoping that my second Indonesia visa procurement goes as well in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia in a couple of months.

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[Home and Away]

No visit to Thailand is complete without a visit to the highest mountain...
Doi Inthanon at 2565 m. The first time I was there in 1968 I had to hike two days to get to the top. I spent 6 weeks surveying the top. I returned in 1974 to build the 48 km road to the top and the radar station. So now you can drive all the way to the top in a couple of hours from Chiang Mai.