Sunday 22 December 2013

12 hours in bangkok



After a 30+ hour journey ( toronto->vancouver->sydney->kuala lumpur->bangkok) i arrived in bangkok early saturday morning. Quickly hopping in a cab (which proceeded to get lost and cost me about twice what it should have- the first of many small scams perhaps ?) i arrived at the Hi sukhumvit hostel to meet up with stringer! 

After our reunion we quickly packed her up and decided to trek into the city, backpacks and all. We took the skytrain froom sukhumvit to as close as we could get to Khao San  road, then were convinced (tricked) by a tuk tuk driver to hop on his cart. He explained to us that because of the protests that were going on, he had the best route for us. Long story short, his route involved taking us way down the river to a woman who was selling boat tours for 1800 TB. After quickly realizing the situation we had predictably put ourselves in, we walked back to the main road and hopped on a local transit bus.

We walked to the Grand Palace, snapped some pics with the stoic guards then grabbed a coconut and hung out with some pigeons in a park. I hadn't slept for more than a couple hours in almost 4 days now, so was in desperate need of somewhere to comfortably hang until our night bus to chiang mai at 10 pm. 




We grabbed some street food on khao san road ( pad thai and spring rolls of course) then found a small hostel called "Chill out Bangkok" where the Australian owner let us do just as the name suggests, chill out. The guy running this place was super hospitable, let us just hang out with some much needed AC and wifi for the entire day. He warned us about a ton of different scams the locals will try on you, taught us some lingo, and shared insight on some of his favorite thai destinations. Oh and also conveniently had some kittens to entertain us. 

We headed from here to the Mo Chi bus station then hopped on our 12 hour bus north to chiang mai. We were both pretty relieved to be leaving Bangkok, even after only 12 hours. I'm sure we will have to give Bangkok another chance at some point on our travels, but a sleeper bus and tales of a quieter more relaxed northern thailand were all we wanted at this point.


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