The next morning I awoke and decided to move to a cheaper option. Repacking my bag I left the luxurious DD hotel and hit the streets.
During the day KSR is a far cry from
The mayhem at night. Stalls line the road edges, delivery vans trundle up and down with there vast supplies of water people sit at the restaurants either recovering for the night before or starting a new.
The tuk tuk drivers still shout at you from their bikes. Out bidding each other in The hope of a fare. At the end of the road I came across a small dank looking shack called " sweety's guest house" underneath in small
Scrawled basic English read " 300 night" a far cry from The 1000 the previous night so I walked into a took a room without viewing....big mistake.
The thai people expect you to
Bargain, and expect you to Check their rooms too. If I had known this before I have no doubt I could have got
The room For 200 but what's done is done now.
Sweety's was small, dirty and the fan
Didn't work either. The bathroom had roaches and I didn't date use the shower. (Needless to Say that place only lasted 2 days).
Dumping my bag i headed straight back out. And grabbed a tuk tuk. A deal of 20 baht to take a tour of Bangkok. Stopping at various temples and sights along the way. 20 baht too good to Be true For 4 hours right?....right!
After a 2 Wats (temples) are driver, a big thai man called Chon. Took us to a templed which seemed off limits. We walked in and were greater by a older thai man who welcomed us into a visitor center where we chatted.
Lie one...oh I lived in England for 5 years and teach English in a school now. I volunteer here to help the farang so they don't get ripped off
Lie two....it's thai holidays just now so everything outside Bangkok is booked up but if you go To The TAT( tourist authority for Thailand) they can help you get thai prices.
Pleased to have made such a nice friend we boarded out tuk tuk and chon made his way to the TAT.
Straight away when i enters the office i was welcomed gives coffee and fussed over ( wow thai's are so lovely). Sitting in a cubical with a man who, after I explained why I wanted to do, busied himself with phone called and numbers. Eventually quoting me 11000 baht for ten days accommodation, jungle treks, day tours, boat trips and bus journeys. Working out at about £220. Bargain!( All that was lie three. If I had bought it all Myself Separately. It would have cost me half. )
Pleased with our good deal I once again boarded the tuk tuk. Putting my trust in Chon to take me somewhere new.....we arrived at a suit shop, and were ushered In and sat down.
All I could think was " why the hell am
I here". Two men sat down with us and started trying to Measure us after about 15 minutes if arguing they finally realised they weren't gonna get a sale
And we were permitted to leave.
The suit shop wasn't the only place though. Next we were taken to a jewellery shore ad followed round like the preverbal fly on s**t.
We ran round the shop and back
To the tuk tuk. Where Chon confessed the reason the tuk tuk is so cheap Is because they get commission and free gasoline from the shops they take us to. So we demanded he take us back to KSR, where we paid out 20 baht and made our way back to sweety's stopping for some of the famous street pad thai.