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February 07, 2006
Bangkok to Krabi
After arriving at Bangkok’s aging airport, where the immigration queues seem to only get more and more disorganized with time, I cleared the authorities with no problems in about 45 minutes. Then it was a 380 Baht metered taxi ride to the Ambassador Hotel where I’ve been staying on my previous visits to Bangkok. This time I went for the cheapo room in the main wing, #408 at ~US$50 per night for three nights. This time around my impressions of the establishment went from ‘ok’ to ‘shit’. They kept forgetting to stock my room with towels, the television had intermittent reception, and the lobby lounge people now were adding 17% in taxes and service charges, unlike my previous visits. (I was spending a lot of time there blogging, processing photos and uploading photos to the website gallery which I was several weeks behind on.) They also refused to take my American Express card, which was on deposit. I called up Swisscard and they told me the expiry date they entered was incorrect and my paranoid mind thinks they did that to make an extra few bucks. (AmEx changes 3% to the vendor, while Visa and MasterCard charge 2%.) An illuminati conspiracy, clearly. My only revenge was scamming a free breakfast buffet (380 Baht.)
Other than that, I hit the Bumrangdi Hospital for some cosmetic stuff (penis reduction, etc.) and spent many hours down at the hotel pool. The swimming and sunbathing area was much more relaxed. They guys running the area knew that I liked two towels, to sit in the water reading at the shallow end, and that my Singha beers should be served in buckets full of ice. No silly taxes, either.
I did pop out onto Sumkhumvit Road to take some pictures (not too exciting) and buy four dodgy Video CDs that I might like but probably will not. Video CDs from this region are generally of poor quality, frequently subtitled in Chinese, Thai or whatever, and sometimes don’t even play all the way through. The titles include Underworld: Evolution, War of the World (the Scientologist version), Fantastic Four, and Doom all at 100 Baht each. Screw the MPAA.
One big mistake was not arranging transportation down to Krabi in southern Thailand well in advance, which kept me in Bangkok a full four days. In the end I had to settle for an 800 Baht overnight private minibus service, which to date had been avoided. There are many horror stories about getting ripped off, uncomfortable seating, overbooking, wrong destinations, and remote drop off points with extortionist taxi drivers waiting in lay. I caught my first of three busses at the hotel—a 10 passenger poorly air-conditioned minivan that drove us around central Bangkok for over two hours picking people up. (Actually, I was the third to last person so others must have suffered more.) At about 6:30pm they drop us off at a centralized, private bus station where they split us up into destinations. About an hour later many of us board a monster double-decker 60pax bus that is actually fairly comfortable. I sat up front top side on the left isle seat beside an Irish woman whose name eludes me. Our bus was delayed while there drunken Irish-folk (two guys and gal) argued incoherently with the drivers for a good thirty minutes. In the end they boarded the bus. The Irish woman, who was on a year long RTW trip spoke about various topic until about 11pm when we finally fell asleep.
Side note: The Irish women used to live outside of Cologne, Germany which I’ve been to many times including Jon and Jen’s wedding in the spring of 2002. My good friend Dave and I went up to that festive occasion via first class train carriages. It’s a long haul and Dave got totally inebriated—to the point that he was only semi-lucid and knocked over a beer onto the two passengers in the cabin with us. They had been politely ignoring us up until then, but after my profound apology (Dave was completely unaware of the drama) one of the fellow passengers asked “So, I guess I have the right to ask: Are your Irish?” I recited this story to my new Irish travel mate and she actually thought it was funny. :D
Anyway, at about 1230am we pulled into a soup kitchen, probably owned by the driver’s family, for food. One of the drunken Irishmen hopped out, puked his guts and then passed out on the ground until we were ready to leave. At about six in the morning we pulled into Surat Tani where we again awaited new busses to take us to new destinations—Krabi for me, Koh Samui for my new Irish friend, Ranong for this other Australian guy, etc. After an hour of sleepily pacing about the station, an older former 40pax government bus pulled and several of us jumped onto it. Soon I was fast asleep and was surprised to find myself in Krabi at 9:30am. (The lady who sold me the ticket said I would arrive about 3pm.) So I quickly grabbed a 150 Baht motorbike driver and was off for Ao Nang (aka Ao Phra Nang) Beach that, according to my Rough Guide to Thailand, is the diving hub of Krabi.
After about thirty minutes of wandering around fully packed I settled into room Bream Guesthouse the 300 Baht per night. I’ve got a fairly clean room about 50 meters from the beach with shared facilities. (Cold shower, but it’s 30C, so whatever.)
I have arrived. Sun, beaches and diving are on the agenda. Also somewhat excitingly the Norwegian Terje who I met in Sam Neua, Laos is in the region and we will probably meet up. Life is good.
Posted by stu at February 7, 2006 06:00 PM