slosh down the pepper!

Bangkok "Rendezvous" DAY ONE

49.7Kg, 22.9% fat
Good! I didn't put on weight despite eating fatty foods for the whole of 4 days 4 nights in Bangkok [BKK]! But neither did I lose any weight despite walking a few thousand metres in the numerous streets, roads, pavements & mudtracks in BKK. Nice trade-off.

DAY ONE / 27th April 2006, Thursday

1. Airasia FD3507 flight delay for half an hour. Reach Don Maung International Airport at 12.00 midnight (GMT +0700) Bangkok time. But clearing through the customs was a chore and took nearly an hour! The airport staff sure wasn't friendly: not only did he not answer my questions, but he even chatted on his mobile while motioning for me to fill up my hotel address in the 'Departure Card'. RUDE. No "fox" label sweets in a bowl placed in the counter (like those in Changi Airport) too.

2. Had a go at the public telephone system. Wah, that one got me. It was only till the fifth day in BKK that I finally understood the funny sounds. It's seemingly the opposite of SG. When you picked up the receiver, the first tone is "ringgg...ringg...." instead of "tooo tooo". [Thai telephone number = (country code) 02 - XXXX - XXXX]. The first 6 numbers are to be enterred first, with a rapid "ti .. ti .. ti.." numberpad pressing sound being made before you should enter the last 4 numbers, this time round with a slower "ti" sound with each number pressed. The holding tone is "tooo... tooo....". Phone calls at 1 baht each for 3 minutes. Cheap! But we also realised that the phone is not so smart to return change when we threw in a 5 bht for a 3-min call.

3. Welcome Sawasdee Inn is willing to hold our room till 2am, but the price has turned steeper at 500-600bht per night; no more 380bht due to seasonal price changes. Sought out Lamphu House (full house) & New Siam I Guesthouse. The latter was still available. Quite a thrill looking for accomodation at the very last minute :p

4. It was past 1am; no more Airport Bus (stops operation at 12MN). Took the public cab. Pretty cute, so many colors: pink, orange, yellow & green. Definitely cheaper than in SG. It runs either by meter or 'negotiation'. The display screen showed Distance (by meters), Time Taken & Amount. Hop-on surcharge at 35bht; airport surcharge at 50bht; expressway tolls from 20 to 40bht; every 0.5km amounts to 2bht. All in all, a 30km ride from Airport to Chanasongkram (Khao Sarn) took us through two toll gates (20 + 40 bht), costing us a total of 30mins and 300bht. Cab drivers will round up the figure to the nearest ten baht or hundred baht. And yea, they love to teach you simple Thai like "Thank You", "Hello", "Right", "Left", "Stop", "Crocodile" etc.

5. Reached New Siam I. Not satisfied with ground level room. Small yet only satisfactorily clean. We decided to try Wild Orchid which is just opposite.... looks pretty good and popular with foreigners thronging the bar. Still no good; WR thought there was a strange woody smell. Walked over to next door - Happy House. Very happy with it! Cheaper too at 495bht for a twin room with aircon and private bathroom with hot shower! Also comes with free towels + 20bht cash rebate for food and cocktails at its cafe. Receptionist Kim - nice smiley guy with a tall good bod but less than manly voice.

*I was MR. Lin on 28th April! :-s
Weird that the deposit was paid by WR but the room was registered under my name.

6. Plonk our stuffs in the room and went off to Khao Sarn [KS] area to look for food.. We kinda lost our way as we made a huge roundabout towards the north instead of progressing towards south where KS is. Nonetheless, WR realised it soon enough to bring us both back to the right path. KS is indeed touristy, with a lot of angmoh backpackers. There are mats placed outside the bars that allow guests to lie down, drink beer, chit chat, sniff drugs etc. Could see a few angmohs serenading some local women. I doubt the latter understood the angmoh totally but he didn't seem to mind, after all it seemed to be only prelude to the finale where language no longer mattered. A police station was also nearby, making the area pretty safe. It was almost 3.00am when we finally hit KS. Walking through the stretches of roads, we landed up in MacDonalds, with each devouring a fillet burger meal at 95bht.

7. Mineral/Distilled water expenditure - 1 litre - 12bht

Total expenditure for Day 1: (5 + 300 + 495 + 190 +12) /2 = 501BHT per pax [$21.50 @23.35BHT to 1 SGD.]

Labels: bangkok, travel

posted by slingwoof @ 5/03/2006 12:11:00 AM