Bangkok, Enter Thailand

Off to Bangkok in the afternoon, and stayed at a hostel called “Lub D”. This place is like an upperclass Hostel, with large sturdy bunks, power sockets, light and shelf at each bunk, big lockers, design interior throughout the building, movie room etc. Its like a 4 star hostel. But at the same time, its in Silom which is quite far from the key sights and Khao San, and I didn’t meet a single person there (not that i really spent much time there). There are 2 vegetarian restaurants just down the road on Silom, one being an average Indian place.

Tuk Tuk’s sound fun, but they are so frustrating that unless your going a short distance to a set place, they’re not really worth the hassle. Most taxi drivers are legit and on the meter youl get most places for under 100 Baht. I went to both Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew and the grand palace. And took the Public Canal boat back towards Silom, where I met Sinead from England and joined her to the welcomed aircon of shopping center MBK. There we watched Wolverine: Origins (awesome) for about $4 in mega-comfy chairs! Then braved the crazy busses (they really are fun) to Khao San and met up with Decha who I met in London

At the end of Khao San, just behing Burger King, are 2 Great Vegetarian (90% Vegan) restaurant cafes! Both with great cheap food and free Wifi. May Kaidee’s offers cooking classes at 9am and Ethos is such a chilled setting with music, floor tables and coushins and you could hang there for hours. Both have fans running to keep things cool.

After dinner we joined the Bucket club. Thailand is famous for its Buckets, like plastic sand buckets, filled with your favourite cocktail for around 300 Baht. Good way to kick off a night! (and keep it going). Officially liquor licences finish at 1 in Thailand, but its quite loosely enforced. Cops came around at one point, and we all had to stand up as the staff began to pack up, 5min later, once the cops were out of site “OK everybody sit back down!”. Awesome.

A few doors down is a club called..’The Club’. Free Entry, House music, buckets and glow sticks. Nice. Stayed here till around 3.30, then sat chatting in a bar/cafe till around 5.30am before finally going to back to Silom. Where I had to check out of a few hours later.

Moved to the opposite end of accommodation with a budget 150 Baht box room near Khao San, just near the to veggie places. Its literally a bed and a fan, but its cheap. Out again that night and booked my boat to Koh Tao the next night.

Being a long weekend, Lots of Thai people were out and traveling, and it took me almost 3 hours to get back to MBK and the near by Seimi shopping center. No Tuk Tuk drivers would give me a straight answer, and Taxi Driver’s didn’t want to go there because of the traffic. Finally one guy accepted, then got a text message (his wife?) and decided to boot me out “new taxi”. OK… Walked a lot, got sent on 2 wild goose chases by Police to buses that didn’t exist, and eventually got another taxi. After all the hassle though, it timed me perfectly to run into Rob and Tommy, Decha’s mates who I had just met the night before and organised to meet them in Koh Samui. I later tried my luck on the bus, and after waiting 25min got home in 15. Much faster and much cheaper than a taxi/tuk tuk or sky train could be!

Back to Ethos for dinner, and some take away for the 12hr journey ahead!

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