The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Thailand

We arrived in Bangkok about midnight and had booked and airport hotel for the night, as the airport is located about 45 minutes from the centre of the city. The place we stayed in, The Great Residence Hotel, was indeed great. The room was big, as was the bed. They also had a check out time of 1pm which suited us quite nicely.

From the hotel we headed via taxi into the Khao San area of the city. We had heard that this was a good place to stay for backpackers, and after visiting several guesthouses, we decided to stay in one on Rattubuttri Road as it was meant to be a bit quieter than Khao San Road itself. After settling in we headed out to have a look at some of the stalls which seemed to line all the roads in the area, and discovered the lack of bargaining in the Khao San area. We had grown accustomed to bargaining for things but the stall owners would not budge on price and indicated that there is an agreed price on things for the whole street... Sounded a bit like price fixing to me...

We met up in the afternoon with my brother Neil, who arrived in Bangkok on the same day we did, and sat at a cafe and had a few local beers, like Chang, Singha and Tiger. Tiger beer has definitely been our favorite in Asia so far, but we have tried to try all the local beers first (Tiger is from Singapore). As for beers in Thailand we have worked out the following so far;

Singha - tastes a bit like Extra Dry - cheapest we have had is 50 baht ($1.60) for a 640ml bottle
Chang Draft - Bec's Favorite Thai Beer - I found it like a Crown Lager. Cheapest about 60 baht 640ml
Chang Export - Same as the draft but 5% instead of 6.4% - same price....
Chang Classic - bland version of the Draft.... tasted like Tooheys New a bit...
Leo - - Bit like Heineken - My Favorite Thai Beers - 60 baht 700ml bottle @ 7eleven
Tiger - Singapore but everywhere. Very light like a XXXX Summer...

After a few drinks we headed to a eatery area that had been setup at the start of Rambuttri Road, and ate some beautiful Thai dishes including a massive Pad Thai Chicken which was 30 Baht (just under $1) The streetside dining in Bangkok is amazing and cheap, and a good relief after being in Phuket.

Our nights sleep in the guesthouse was horrible. The bed was hard, the area was noisy and there was no curtains on some of the windows. We decided as soon as we got up that we would move on to another guesthouse, so in the morning, we headed for a bit of a hunt for a better place. We ended up booking a room for two nights at the New Siem III hotel, which was at the other end of the same street. This room proved to be a great choice, as it was quiet, cheap and well maintained.

Day three in Bangkok, and once again 41 degrees Celsius, we made the mistake of going out at lunch time after a sleep in... and it was horrible. We hardly got out of our room before we were sweating. We had a look at some of the markets, but ended up just finding a place for lunch with some fans! At this stage we decided to see about heading north to Chiang Mai, and ended up booking a sleeper train for the following day. In the late afternoon we decided to head to the World Plaza shopping centre, which lived up to its name of being the third biggest shopping centre in the world. Here we got lost a few times before having dinner and cupcakes from an amazing shop called Cupcake Love, before heading to the movies to see the Avengers. The movie was great and the cinema was even better. The seats are so comfortable, about $6, and even the food is cheap unlike Australia.

After packing up our gear the next morning we headed down the road to the tourist centre that provided us with the train tickets, only to run into Neil again on the corner buying a coconut smoothie, and arranged to meet up with him after lunch. We got to the tourist centre and attempted to book their mini bus to the train station for 4pm, only to find out that they were not running it. Instead we decided to just grab a taxi, but the tourist centre was good enough to hold our bags for the day.

From here we decided to have a bit of an explore by walking down to the river. Unfortunately it was jut as hot once we got down there, and we had both expelled about 10 litres of water due to the heat. After a short time we headed back to the tourist centre and settled in for the afternoon with a few beers and good free WiFi which we used to call home. Neil met us at this location before we headed off via taxi to the train station.

We took a taxi to the train station which ended up costing 200 baht (which was great considering the mini bus was meant to be 160 baht per person). Just as a side note... the tuk tuks in Bangkok are a rip off.... well they pretty much are everywhere... When we went to the movies we payed 80 baht to get there via tuk tuk and we had to do a kickback for them by going to a jewelry store (a kickback is when they stop at a store they work with... we have a look and the tuk tuk gets a fuel voucher). On our way back we payed 75 baht for a nice air conditioned taxi which took half the time.

Bangkok train station was much more what i was expecting for Thailand train stations. It was a massive area with only a few seats, and what seemed like 2000 people sitting on the ground waiting for their trains. Some quick research on my phone with Wiki Travel told me that for 20 baht you could get a shower at the train station, so Bec and I both took this up after a long day in the sun, before boarding our train to Chiang Mai.