July19, 2013. Friday.
Woke up at 05:30AM. We were feeling tired yet from our walk the previous night but we had no choice but to stick to our agreed wake up call time. If you are travelling overseas in groups for a tour, it is always a must to come up with a wake up call time to be agreed by everyone.
I preferred to take a bath first so i can still roam around the hotel after. So i did. I was battling with the coldness of our room. Intense! The room air-condition was freezing. Too bad there's no remote to adjust the room temperature. Thank God for the hot shower.
I headed to Hotel's swimming pool area while waiting for Cha and Regie to finish their stuff. Breakfast was not included on our hotel accommodation as we opted to choose for the cheapest accommodation rate available. Besides, we wanted to eat somewhere on the streets or any local restaurant.
It was by around 07:00 that we were all set to roam around Bangkok. The sun has just started to rise. Yes! Bangkok is one hour behind PH time.
We left our hotel. Outside the hotel, there were Tuktuk drivers who offered us a tour of the city for THB150 but we refused them as we still had to go to Hualumphong station to purchase our ticket for Butterworth Malaysia for the following day.
We started walking (again!) towards the corner of Sukhumvit 3 and Nana Road. It was quite far (around 1 km) but we did not mind it as it was our first time to walk on the streets during day (we walked on this street last night though).
We were looking for some local restaurants but we failed to find one. Geez! It was 07:00AM though. It was indeed very early. Also, we passed by in a money changer last night so we wanted to go back there to have our Peso be changed with bahts. But again, disappointed as it was also closed.
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K Bank Money Changer |
Just want to share some tips on money exchange.
I would suggest you buy Baht in PH as not only the rates are high in Bangkok, it is also time consuming to look for an open money changer specially early in the morning. Too bad we only bought some bahts in Cebu thus, we were running out of Bahts. We had our Php1,000 exchanged with baht at the Suvarnabhumi airport last night upon arrival but to our surprised it was only worth around THB500.00. Doing the math, the exchange rate was almost THB1.00 = PHP 2.00. This is very expensive. Rate exchange in Cebu was THB1.00 = PHP1.50 so, better have your bills be exchanged in PH (but not in the airport though).Anyway, going back to Bangkok street, as we couldn't find any money changer open, we just decided to grab some food at 7-eleven. It is everywhere in Bangkok. There we bought some hotdog buns.
We saw people walking on the street with food on their hand. Yes! They were walking while eating. We were surprised to see guys in coat and tie also ate on the streets. Often they say, Thai are always people on the go. So be it. We decided to continue walking towards the bus station with the buns on our hand.
Cha and Regie attempting to cross the road (the were looking at Nana Square-end of Soi3)
When i took this photo, my attention was called by Marriott's guard as they don't allow photo shoot.
We had difficulty looking for the bus station. We asked some locals but all they do is point to us the direction. They speak a little English. Good thing we had a map (we got from the airport) handy. We'd been walking for a couple of minutes until we found one Thai Lady who offered us to lead us to the bus station. We were surprised as the lady was so nice. It came to my realization that not only Filipinos are hospitable but also Thais :)
We walked back from where we came and finally found the bus stop. We were laughing when we realized that we already passed by this place but missed it as we imagined a bus terminal. Geez! it was just a bus stop with a little sign. By the way, added the difficulty was most of the road signs were written in Thai.
We said thank you to that lady and there she left and headed to her office. Five minutes was over but we couldn't figure our which bus heads to Hualumphong station. So we asked some locals, we were given bus number (though i can't remember it anymore). Another 5 minutes was over but no bus route to Hualumphong had arrived yet. Lucky there's one Thai nurse sitting on the bus stop so we dared asking her questions. Cool! She talked in English. We were advised that bus route to Hualamphong is rare. It only arrives every 30 minutes. No way! We couldn't afford to waste an hour of our precious time.
So we decided to just take a taxi. The nurse said it wouldn't be that expensive though.
Cute Pink Taxi!
There we jumped into the taxi. Oh uh! The taxi driver speaks no English. We just showed him the map and pointed out the Hualumphong station where he nodded. Okay! He got it.
It was rush hour n Bangkok thus we were a little bit stuck in a heavy traffic. The traffic situation in Bangkok is actually the same of that in Manila. Cars everywhere - bumper to bumper.
Taxi driver ID. Thailand Government requires all drivers to place their ID on the dashboard.
It took us around 20 minutes to arrive at the Hualamphong Station at a cost of THB60.00. Yes! it was cheap. The bus would've cost us THB75.00 total (25/pax). So if you are traveling in 3 or more, you can save in Taxi. Bus or train is only good for 1 or 2 travelers.
Entrance to Hualumphung Station.
We then headed to the station information booth. Cool! the lady(Puma) was speaking good English. We told her we wanted to purchase a ticket for Butterworth, Malaysia. She offered to accompany us. She brought us to the ticket counter. She also said we could opt to pay in credit car. Wow! we were delighted to know it. At least we could spare some of our baht in our pockets for emergency purposes.
Just a background on our planned itinerary. We were set to travel Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia via Train. From Bangkok to Butterworth, Malaysia, this is serviced by Thai Railways while from Butterworth to Kuala Lumpur is serviced by Malaysian railways. The latter provides online ticket booking which we did but for Thai railways, tickets could only be purchased at the Hualumphong station. Well there were Thai travel agencies who could book a ticket for you but they charge extra. Also, you still have to pay for the courier of the ticket to your country. Indeed, quite costly.
Ticket counter.
Puma offered us another option to take a bus to Butterworth. She said it would be faster than a train. Via Train it would be roughly around 24 hours but through bus travel only takes 18-20 hours. Whaaaat? To my mind i whisper, why in this world would i be able to sit in the bus for 20 hours? But Hey!C'mon, you had no choice Josh. You already paid your train ticket from Buttewortht to KL. Besides, you need to be in KL by Monday as your flight to Manila is set to Tuesday. Geez!
We were brought by Puma to the second level of the station to get a bus ticket. It was a travel agency (i forgot the name) i failed to take photo as taking photos had not come in my mind that time. Of course we were worried. Plane tickets to KL costs at Php6,000 - Php15,000. We could hardly afford it. Anyway, the travel agency is located just on top of the money changer.
On top of this money changer the Travel Agency is situated.
The travel agent was telling us that going by Bus to Butterworth was not safe as it was rainy season. We were worried then. Cool! She said she would check with her travel agency if they had spare train tickets to Butterworth. She was building rapport to us. She said she has one Filipina friend who also worked in a Travel agency in PH. Anyway after 5 minutes, she said she could give us 3 tickets; 2 lower berth and 1 upper. Wow! that was quick. Smile was painted on our faces. At least we could stick to our itinerary. Then she started explaining to us the rate. Regular rate for second class with sleeping berths from Bangkok to Butterworth was THB1,125.00. But she said since these spare tickets were purchased by another travel agency, they would have to add THB650.00 on top of it. It would cost us a sum of THB 1,775.00 (Php2,500.00).
Well, we had no choice but to grab the price though we knew they were just taking advantage of our situation. So, there we got the tickets finally!!! I was looking at my wrist watch and (Geez!) it was already closed to 12:00nn. We were behind by 2 and a half hours from our planned itinerary.
Thank you Puma for your assistance. You were Great!
Facade of Hualumphong Station (on the other side)
We did n't waste time anymore, and headed to the roads to get a Tuktuk to Khao San Road - a very famous road in Bangkok. Famous for tourists who love eating and shopping. Also, this place is closed to the well visited temples of Bangkok. Tuktuk drivers offered same rate from Hualamphong to Khao San road at THB150.00. Wow! it was expensive. No we won't take that price anymore thinking that we'd spent enough for our train ticket. We opted for a bus ride instead. According to my research, it would only cost us less than THB20 each. Looking at the map, Khao San Rd was a bit far from Hualumphong station so we wouldn't dare taking a taxi either. We couldn't find a bus ride so we decided to walk across the street hoping to bargain a price for a Tuktuk ride. But hell! there were no tuktuk passing by the roads. We might have been in a different side. Oh uh! Good thing we met Sam - a Western traveler (from Europe) who was traveling alone too. He didn't buy the THB150 Tuktuk ride too so he asked to go with us. He didn't know the direction as well though he had been in Bangkok for 10 days now. He said he'd pay for THB100 and we shoulder the THB50. Wow! How generous!
So we waited for Tuktuk. We couldn't find any so we decided to walk to see if we could catch a bus going to Khao San road. We didn't see any bus route for Khao San too. Fifteen minutes of walking we finally hailed a tuktuk. The driver gave us THB150 price but Sam was quick enough to haggle to THB120 to which the driver later agreed. We were off to Khao San on our first Tuktuk ride in Bagkok. We chatted with Sam during our ride. He mentioned he was on a visa-league trip so he would have to go to different countries and would culminate in Australia.
We were surprised on how fast Tuktuk ran. It passed from small streets to main highways. Yes! it was racing with buses, sedans, suvs on the road. As a world renown mode of Tranpo in Bangkok, Tuktuk was never limited to certain place/roads. It could pass to whenever the driver wanted to go. Cool!
It took us roughly around 30 minutes to arrive at Khao San Road. We gave Sam out THB60 share but he returend the THB20 :) Then we parted ways. Nice meeting you Sam!
Welcome guys to Khao San Road. There were so many tourists in this place. It's were the East meets the West. There were children paraded the street bringing presents for Buddha. It was totally a busy street.
We enjoyed strolling, sightseeing.
Backpackers.
Western tourists in one of the many road side local restaurants.
There were many of them in Bangkok :) Happy!
Best Rates for PH Peso Money Changer
It took us minutes and minutes of walk to look for a money changer which offered better rate. There were a number of money changers in Khao San Road. So you don't have to worry if you have USD as they almost have the same rates. Just to note, there were only a couple of money changes which accepted Philippine peso :(
Thanks to that Indian guy who asked us if we were Filipinos and what we were looking for. When he knew we were intending to have our peso changed with Baht, he immediately directed us to this certain money changer. I didn't know the name as it was written in Thai but he said they give the best rate for Philippine Peso. Yebahh! indeed, it was the best rate we got in Bangkok. THB1 = PHP 1.50
they asked our Passport to which they photocopied before they changed our bills.
Finally got my baht on hand.
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