Bangkok, take 3

Bangkok again? Won’t be my last time either, plenty to come in fact; oh joy. Well….it’s really not that bad

A lot of deliberation was put into our exit from Ranong. Had at first wanted a quick exit straight to Chiang Mai but direct flights are not offered. Thought about two separate flights, Phuket to BKK, then BKK to CMai and even found crazy cheap airfare by NokAir but were disappointed to discover that it was only cheap until you proceeded to purchase the ticket and were shown the fees and more damagingly, the fuel surcharge; after these the price had more than doubled and it was suddenly a much less attractive option. I have never been one for heavy air travel anyway, only when necessary; it’s not a very efficient transport option at all.

After quite a bit of arguing and drawn out decision making we found that the bus we were originally avoiding for its brutal 14 hour trip was actually only 8 hours and we could take it in a comfortable sleeper style bus: sold. Bought the most expensive bus option but was still much much cheaper than flying and slightly cheaper than the bus+night train combination.

In Bangkok…again, this time we decided to keep an adventurous spirit and try something new. Picked the neighborhood in the Silom area south of Lumphini Park. Lots of very expensive hotels around but many very inexpensive ones as well. Found the travellers (and “white guy with Thai girlfriend”) area off Thanon Rama 4 across from the boxing stadium and down the alleys. We’re staying in Lee Guesthouse building 3 which is by far the best of the bunch down a very quiet alley away from all the business. Only 120B for the cheapest room which would’ve been fine for us but we were also offered a larger room for 160B which we didn’t think twice about taking; still very cheap. Neighborhood is fairly nice here, lots of restaurants, travel agents, guesthouses, internet, laundry, etc. Selling point is the quiet alleys you can get but still retain a short walk to the park and commuter train and a slightly longer walk to Siam area.

Going to run some errands and such during the remainder of the day (which is much of Bangkoks usefulness, a supply center). At 4 we’re meeting up with some Couchsurfing.com people for a meet in Lumphini Park; supposed to be a large turnout (40 people) so it should be fun.

Plan we’ve established so far is to take the train tomorrow in the morning to Ayutthaya to see that sights then that same day hop back on the train to Phitsunlok, gateway to Sukkothai for some more sight seeing and soaking up some history. Onwards from there, Chiang Mai. We have the vague notion of renting a large motorbike and riding two up with some our luggage around the north, doing some of the loop paths and just generally going about in a similar fashion as I do when I’m on the bicycle. I’ve yet to really get a hold of how exactly we’re going to load the moto with our gear or where even we will get it but I’m sure if it’s meant to be then it will happen.

Ciao!

27.Mar.09 South East Asia 2009