KhaoSan Road, and its offspring

Laptop Plugin Station and Coffee Shop, behind D&D Inn, Khaosan Road Bangkok.

We found this incredible location, behind D&D Inn. It is called Sun Cafe. It has laptop plugin stations for $30baht 80 min. And delicious cappachinos for $50baht. Its quiet, beautiful, secluded. Bird are chirping, no one is here, nice breeze. Tonight it Loy Krathong festival. It is supposed to be beautiful. Last night, we went to “The Indian Spice” on Soi Rambutri for the third time, the food is incredible. Honestly, some of the best Indian food I have ever had. Even with beers, rice, naan, three dishes, Its been $8-$12. 260 baht-405 baht.

Khaosan is nice, the hotels are nice, not so slummy any longer, and there are families with kids everywhere. Food and clothes are cheap, and the river is lovely. We went and checked out Rambruttri Inn, Ritta Inn, New Siam One and Two, and D&D. All of these options, including ours, for private bath and double bed were in the 800-1200 baht range. D&D and Rambruttri have rooftop pools, although we did not see D&Ds pool. Ritta was new and clean but WAY too loud, as it is right on the busiest stretch of Khaosan. D&D has the lovely backyard Internet and coffee house, and I think it includes breakfast as well. It was about the same price as New Siam Riverside where we are staying, 1100 baht. If it wasn't so peaceful and quiet here at Riverside, I would stay there. Read the fine print when looking for rooms. Most want a key deposit, but Rambruttri wanted a 1200 baht security deposit.

Oh, the quiet thing is not exactly true. Mikae said that he woke up the other night at 4am or so to the sound of someone puking, heaving, for a full half an hour at least. The walls are paper thin here, plus there is an adjoining room separated by the two doors only, so he said it was sooo loud, and he couldn't sleep. I, of course, slept through the whole thing.

In Thailand, generally, $10 makes a big difference. Spending $10 more on food and accommodation puts you in a totally different bracket usually. So, we looked at cheaper rooms than this, but for the extra $10 a night we get a double locking door, a digital safe, breakfast buffet, a totally private pool experience (I swim everyday here, alone – the hotels we looked out had very busy pools with lots of people crowded around), and its on the river, so you can't beat the ambiance. Plus there is no backpackers, just families and business people, and bringing prostitutes here is frowned upon. We also have a fridge, and much nicer setup. Oh, and if you care about television, the best TV selection we have had in Asia so far. Plenty of English channels including NatGeo – the National Geographic channel, which is the best channel in the world, Love it. And, BBC news, CSPAN and Discovery's Animal Channel. Needless to say, we stayed put. Hooray for New Siam Riverside, 1190baht a night. Khaosan hotels are all getting “boutique” although, I heard there are still some cheap ones. We really appreciate the extra luxury, and security, the extra money has afforded us.

We have made some friends sofar, we met Ilias and Dan at the hotel, poolside. Dan is full thai, but raised in Germany. We found out later, that he is royal family, his great great great great (or something) grandfather was Rama 1. He is in finance. Ilias is a business man, owns a radio, station, manages djs, music, all that, who lives part time in Melbourne (He is an Aussie) and part time in Bangkok. Mikae and him hit it off immediately. Illias has now linked us with a couple of his friends from around, and given us some needed advice on where to go etc. Bob is a fifty-something Canadian from Niagra Falls that used to work in the film industry in Canada as a production co-coordinator or something like that, until he had an accident with a crane on “Blues Brothers” and lost his leg. He also worked on Canadian Bacon. He now lives part time in Canada, and part time in Bangkok, and helps out a local travel agency with their English translations. He has been very informative and fun, we have met with him several times to share stories and observances about Thailand. This afternoon the three of us took a taxi to Oishi Japanese Buffet. (Yes!! Oishi!!) It was incredible, cost us about 300 baht each, but it was amazing. From Bob, we have learned that shipping things home is complicated, and they seriously crack down on all sorts of things, including labels. Therefore, sorry family, No Christmas presents. You will have to wait patiently until I return.

Quick note, the other day we were in a taxi, in traffic, and an ambulance passed us, sirens wailing. The taxi driver decides to ride the wave of the ambulance through the gridlock. Then, he gets impatient, and goes into the oncoming traffic lane, and passes the ambulance. PASSES the ambulance. We also heard from Bob never to take a Tuk Tuk because the drivers are notorious for drinking all day long, and then driving tourists around at night. They zoom in and out of traffic, don't adhere to any guidelines like pedestrian crosswalks or lanes, and if they crash, you are basically toast. A cab at least provides you with some armour. A ridiculous number of people are injured or worse in Bangkok every year due to Tuk Tuks and MotorCycle Taxis. So no tuk tuks for me. The drivers follow you around saying “Hey You, ,Where you Go” and “Tuk Tuk” and in the evening, they try to take you to Patong for the Ping Pong Shows. Follow the link if you dare. So then they say “Ping Pong Show” and make popping ping pong noises too. Miake and I saw a guy with a Tshirt that we want to get. On the front it said something like “I love BKK” and the back said something like “I don't want your fucking... Ping Pong Show (space) Tuk Tuk (space) Fresh Orange Juice (space) massage ka (space), pretty funny.