28/02/10: Leading Off
Posted by: LiteraryHero
As most of you know, I took off three weeks ago for Bangkok. I didn't really have a set plan, but everything turned out great, anyway. I arrived in Bangkok on Saturday evening and had no place to stay, so I took the bus from the airport to the eternal hellhole called Khaosan Road. If you haven't been there, imagine a place packed with wasted white people wandering around and acting like total jerks. Dudes rolling around in an urban environment with no shirt on and people who look like they haven't showered in weeks. Trash piled up everywhere, and touts offering everything from massages to drugs to cheap tickets to Laos.
Not a place that I enjoy being, but it is a good place to find a cheap room easily and plan out the next part of the trip. Jisun and I got off the airplane at around 4:00pm then had to wait forever to get our luggage and again to get the bus. After a long flight, that can be pretty demoralizing, but finally we managed to get to Khaosan Road around 8:00pm. We walked down soi Rambutri (not the part parallel to Khaoson, the part across the street, behind the temple). Fortunately for us, nearly every guesthouse had a sign that said 'full' displayed, and those that didn't had a person behind the desk who personally told us they had no rooms. Finally we found a place with a fan and a shared bathroom for 350 baht (10.50$ or so), but at least it was clean, and the best point was that it was available.
Of course I don't remember the name of the place (Bella Bella?), but it was right next to a bunch of foot massage places, and here is a picture to show you the luxury.
We were only staying one night, so it wasn't a big deal. At least it was fairly quiet, fairly clean, and fairly cheap. The next day we had nothing special to do until our night time bus left for the south, so we a lot of time to waste. I gave Jisun the options of looking at some historical or cultural stuff and shopping, so she chose shopping. We did a lot of window shopping all over the city before heading back to Khaosan for a foot massage and a torturous bust ride.
We might have missed the cultural things in Bangkok, but we did ride a tuk tuk and get a foot massage, so I guess Jisun got some bit of a Bangkok experience.
After that, it was time to set off on the torturous bus ride down to Chumporn and then the ferry over to Koh Phangan. It was totally horrendous, but we did manage to make it. I made it to the dock in high spirits, as you can see below.
Unfortunately our journey wasn't anywhere near complete at that point. We got dropped off at Thong Sala Pier on Koh Phangan at around 10:30am, but still had to make our way to the isolated beach of Than Sadet. At this point we had two options. There was a truck that left from Thong Sala at 1:00pm which cost 150 baht per person (300 baht/9$ total), or we could pay about 1,000 baht (30$) to hire a truck to take us out there immediately. Even though we were both totally worn out, I am cheap as dirt, so we decided to wait until 1:00.
We miserably sat around for two and a half hours until the taxi was finally ready to go out there. It finally took us away, and then it was an hour long wild ride down bumpy dirt roads and unused tracks in the jungle. My spirits started to rise, and I started to feel really good about the whole thing. When we finally got to the beach at 2:00pm, we were immediately told that the room we reserved wasn't available, so we were given a bungalow on the rocks at no extra charge. This was considered an upgrade, and at this point I was so tired that they could have told me I was upgraded to a tent next to the outhouse and I wouldn't have minded.
The one downside to the bungalow on the rocks is that it seemed to be about five kilometers away, so I had to carry my heavy bags across the beach, over these rocks, through a cave (no kidding), and across all kinds of rickety bridges and uneven steps until we finally arrived at our bungalow. Naturally, by this point I was beyond caring about anything, but when I saw the place that we were staying at, my spirits immediately lifted and I knew that I had made a good choice in coming here.
I don't have any direct pictures of my bungalow, due to the fact that it is tucked back in between all these rocks and trees, but I can show you a picture of part of the pathway to get there. Take a look, and tell me that it doesn't look perfect.
In the background is the beach, and you can see part of the path we needed to walk to get to and from our bungalow. You can see the steps going up over that large boulder, but they weren't really used to get across. To the right and below the steps you can see a small hole between the two boulders. It was about four feet high, but that was the way to get to the beach. Very cool.
Not a place that I enjoy being, but it is a good place to find a cheap room easily and plan out the next part of the trip. Jisun and I got off the airplane at around 4:00pm then had to wait forever to get our luggage and again to get the bus. After a long flight, that can be pretty demoralizing, but finally we managed to get to Khaosan Road around 8:00pm. We walked down soi Rambutri (not the part parallel to Khaoson, the part across the street, behind the temple). Fortunately for us, nearly every guesthouse had a sign that said 'full' displayed, and those that didn't had a person behind the desk who personally told us they had no rooms. Finally we found a place with a fan and a shared bathroom for 350 baht (10.50$ or so), but at least it was clean, and the best point was that it was available.
Of course I don't remember the name of the place (Bella Bella?), but it was right next to a bunch of foot massage places, and here is a picture to show you the luxury.
We were only staying one night, so it wasn't a big deal. At least it was fairly quiet, fairly clean, and fairly cheap. The next day we had nothing special to do until our night time bus left for the south, so we a lot of time to waste. I gave Jisun the options of looking at some historical or cultural stuff and shopping, so she chose shopping. We did a lot of window shopping all over the city before heading back to Khaosan for a foot massage and a torturous bust ride.
We might have missed the cultural things in Bangkok, but we did ride a tuk tuk and get a foot massage, so I guess Jisun got some bit of a Bangkok experience.
After that, it was time to set off on the torturous bus ride down to Chumporn and then the ferry over to Koh Phangan. It was totally horrendous, but we did manage to make it. I made it to the dock in high spirits, as you can see below.
Unfortunately our journey wasn't anywhere near complete at that point. We got dropped off at Thong Sala Pier on Koh Phangan at around 10:30am, but still had to make our way to the isolated beach of Than Sadet. At this point we had two options. There was a truck that left from Thong Sala at 1:00pm which cost 150 baht per person (300 baht/9$ total), or we could pay about 1,000 baht (30$) to hire a truck to take us out there immediately. Even though we were both totally worn out, I am cheap as dirt, so we decided to wait until 1:00.
We miserably sat around for two and a half hours until the taxi was finally ready to go out there. It finally took us away, and then it was an hour long wild ride down bumpy dirt roads and unused tracks in the jungle. My spirits started to rise, and I started to feel really good about the whole thing. When we finally got to the beach at 2:00pm, we were immediately told that the room we reserved wasn't available, so we were given a bungalow on the rocks at no extra charge. This was considered an upgrade, and at this point I was so tired that they could have told me I was upgraded to a tent next to the outhouse and I wouldn't have minded.
The one downside to the bungalow on the rocks is that it seemed to be about five kilometers away, so I had to carry my heavy bags across the beach, over these rocks, through a cave (no kidding), and across all kinds of rickety bridges and uneven steps until we finally arrived at our bungalow. Naturally, by this point I was beyond caring about anything, but when I saw the place that we were staying at, my spirits immediately lifted and I knew that I had made a good choice in coming here.
I don't have any direct pictures of my bungalow, due to the fact that it is tucked back in between all these rocks and trees, but I can show you a picture of part of the pathway to get there. Take a look, and tell me that it doesn't look perfect.
In the background is the beach, and you can see part of the path we needed to walk to get to and from our bungalow. You can see the steps going up over that large boulder, but they weren't really used to get across. To the right and below the steps you can see a small hole between the two boulders. It was about four feet high, but that was the way to get to the beach. Very cool.
Tuttle wrote: