Day one of our adventure started with us lolly gagging around as we took a taxi to the bus terminal in Cheonan. We saunter up to the counter and ask for a ticket to the airport. The lady replies that there is only ONE seat left. Mind you that we are already cutting it close, the next bus would make it so that we miss our flight. After some cries of desperation and declarations or urgency with suggestions of sitting on the floor, they sold us two tickets. Luckily for some reason there was an open seat....so as my nerves settled a little bit, i sat and knew there wasn't anything i could do for two hours as the bus took us to the airport.
At the airport it felt like EVERYTHING was taking too long. Check in (no bags), security (no metal or flammable and liquids properly stored) the escalator (which I don't like) we RAN to the gate just in case and all passengers were lined up. Whew a sigh of relief as we bored the plane on our way to Beijing. Everything went fine. Drank some beer and had a snack at the airport waiting for our connecting flight to Bangkok.
We arrive in Bangkok at 1am ish. Per my usual traveling style we don't have anything planned. We pick a random hotel in the lonely planet and have our taxi driver take us to Ko San Road...which from what I've been told is the place to go. He lets us off in a dark alley along the busy street. It is about 2am at this point. We head up to the counter to get a room...she wants to charge us for two night but i am in travel mode and i am not having it, i try to get a deal and she says if we come back at 5 she'll give it to us till the next morning. So we venture off on Ko San Rd.
We are fish out of water. There are foreigners everywhere wasted. I am happy again that i am only traveling with small backpack. We walk around and get some water from the 7-11. Food carts are lined up, people are staggering around, a tuk tuk speeds down the road kicking up some glass. All in all a bunch of drunk foreigners who could care less if we were there, and the thai vendors trying to sell their food to all the drunk people. We meet up with a random guy who has his backpack and has also just arrived. Go up to an open bar and order a beer...i guess when in Rome..or however the saying goes. People watching is just amazing at this time....they try to point out all the lady boys but i am oblivious.
When the clock strikes 5 we head over to the guest house. We opt for a room with a private bath.....the total price 300 bht...which is roughly 9 dollars for the both of us. We walk into the room and....I am glad i brought a sheet to sleep on. Lets just say it wasn't much to look at, but served its purpose. There are no windows to the outside but there is a fan and a window to the hallway. We lay down for some much needed shut eye.
Noon we get some pad tai from the restaurant downstairs. it is delish! Meet up with that guy we met the night before. He wants to do some shopping so we hire a tuk tuk to take us there and to some local sights. The sights were low key and the shrines in Thailand are beautiful, the gold Buddhas and arched roofs. We end up at a tourist travel agent to see about plane tickets down to Krabi. She whips up a whole itinerary for us. I hesitate at accepting the offer b/c i usually like to just go with the flow, but considering our time and I'm not traveling alone, I agree. We take the schedule for the next days... flight to Krabi 2nights, Phi Phi island 2 nights, Phuket 1 night, flight. total$500. She upgrades our hotel because the rain has inhibited us from getting a free Thai massage. A little pricier than i expected but a grownup organized vacation could be nice. :)
We finish out the day some more sights and dinner. Our flight leaves the next morning at 7 am. We stay up all night and get a taxi to the airport at 5am. Off to Krabi for Day 2
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