The Wanderings of busman7

Well this big city hater has had to add Bangkok to the “like” list along with Panama City & Copenhagen making it one city per continent visited. Guess could add Montreal to the mix for NA.

Still a lot of Bangkok to see but have made a quick visit to most areas including 4 days on Khoa San Road which is known around the world as the favored back-packer destination & is it’s own version of Thailand with its carnival atmosphere, American fast food joints, Thai street food & T–shirt vendors + any thing else you can imagine including Mulligans Irish Pub across the street from the 7-eleven!

Then there is the Embassy district with the high class hotels, shopping centers to rival any where in the world. The plaza where I got my computer fixed was 4 floors on any & all things computer related with repairs made while you wait at super prices. Not sure about the price of components but picked up an external drive for my acer net book to play DVD’s for the equivalent of $47 CAD.

Got a good deal so I moved to 13 Coins Boutique hotel in the Surawong Rd area near the river & Chinatown where I am the only nonasian face & there are no English signs, more on this area later but seems pretty handy to bus, sky train, water taxi’s + the train station.

A couple of things I have found is that while in the main tourist areas there is no problem getting directions or anything knowing only English, heck most menu’s include pictures so you can just point & the staff can’t mistake what you want no matter their language skills. Also Canadian restaurants could sure use a page from their book on politeness & customer service! However once you get off the beaten track you can’t let yourself take for granted they understand as the might, unintentionally, think you mean something different & you don’t realize it until too late.

Secondly NEVER take a cab if the driver refuses to use the meter or you will pay at least double the metered fare. Of course this is mainly due to the insanely low rates, so can’t really blame them at rush hour but is a pain when trying to flag a cab & no one will pick you up. Then you are forced to use tuk tuks whose negotiated prices are higher than metered cabs but cheaper than you can negotiate with a cab driver who doesn’t want to go to your destination!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 04:38 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.