Arrival to Bangkok

Day 54

Singapore - Bangkok

Tommy had to wake up at 4 am to bring us to the airport, since we had a flight to Bangkok at 6 (Thanks Tommy, you are our hero!!!). We successfully arrived to Budget terminal, got Tax Refund for my laptop bought in SIngapore (35€) and boarded the Tiger airways plane to Bangkok.

We arrived to Bangkok with no trouble, passed the customs and Juli got visa till 19 of December, 1 month to stay in Thailand (I got my visa in Singapore, it was valid till 18 of February)

We've been told that the best is to look for the taxi at Departures terminal, when they leave the clients and don't need to pay an aiport tax anymore for the new client who get into the taxi. This is exactly what we did, and had to pay 400 baht (around 8,5 euro) till Old city, where our hotel was. The name of the hotel was Sawasdee Welcome Inn, at Rambuttri street, 5 min walking from famous Khao san road. I booked it on the internet and the deal was 370 baht (around 7,5 euro) for double room with fan, breakfast included.


The hotel was pretty basic, small room with doubtful cleaning condition, but it was cheap and close to everything :-D In couple of days, our friend Andreea (for close friends -Dorobantu :-) will arrive and stay in the same hotel, but in the room with air con (she is a posh girl on vacation, not poor traveler like us :-DDD) Anyway, after I saw the hotel, I thought Andreea will kind of kill me when she arrives haha

Well, after a short rest we went directly to check out the famous Khao san road, full of backpackers, cheap hotel and local people selling all possible stuff to the "whities" :-D

What you can find on Khao san road? You can find everything!!!

1. Any kind of food - restaurants, bars, street vendors who sell noodles for 0,50 euro cents (pad thai), fresh juices and shakes (from 0,50 euro cents to 1 euro), fish cakes, meat kebabs...well any you can imagine and more!
2. Any kind of clothes - t-shirst from 2 to 4 euros (fake brands and no brand), shorts, swimming suits, socks, calvin klein fake boxers for 2 euros...well, you get me :-D
3. Books and Guide books - new and used, including book exchange shops
4. Any kind of travel agencies who can arrange any kind of trips and bus/train/plane tickets for you
5. Hotels - very cheap and no so cheap
6. You can even get a facke drivers licence, ID card or student card, or diploma if you fancy.

And now we'll talk about BEER (of course!!!):

• Chang: the cheapest and the strongest 7% (but we think its more then that!) We are convinced fans of Chang!!! :DD
• Leo: mid range, not the best not the worst, mid price
  
• Singha: the best and the most expensive one. Not as strong as Chang and better taste.
  

One of the most important things to know in Thailand, is where 7-11 shop is situated - there you can find cheap beer! :DD The other thing to know is that 7/11 shops dont sell alcoholic drinks before 17.00 and stop selling them at midnight, so you have about 5 hours for cheap Chang :-D

So the first impression of Bangkok and especially khao san area was a confusing one - it looked like an artificial world created just for tourists coming here on vacation, but in the same time it was an easy and cheap world of good food, drinks and fun...well, we'll see...:-)