After riding the elephants in Autthaya we headed to Bangkok with "The Boys." I've gotten to know them better in the past few days. They would be Dang's nephew and his best friend, both of them college age, lean, good looking and perpetually good-natured.
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| "The Boys" on a boat - on a day trip from Bangkok |
The nephew does all the driving in his cream colored Honda City VTEC. He's a very good driver, earned his driving chops by driving one of the uncle's three trucks loaded with Thai Traditional Opera troopers and/or equipment around various remote places in Thailand. I can imagine the sort of red-eye driving that might entail. He's been driving a rolling road-trip troupe of entertainers to gigs far and wide, but he also happens to be one of the entertainers. I can't imagine how he pulls it off without nodding off, but in any regard, he's got the skills. And the back seat of that Honda is truly comfortable and I can relax knowing there's a professional at the wheel.
I'll have to check the back seat of an American market-spec Honda someday because this one has space UNDER the seat (much like an airline seat) to stash bags and other crap that usually gets in the way on a road trip. I don't think I've ever been in a car that had room under the back seat for hiding stuff like that. Makes the road trip so much better, it does.
It was a short drive to Bangkok from the morning in Auttaya and we arrived at the hotel in late afternoon. The traffic was as bad as expected and the air was gray. We checked in and I was happy to see that it was cheap -- and I mean cheap. It cost the equivalent of $16 a night for each room; one for the old folks and one for the boys. The downside to cheap is the place looked to be 30 years old and every detail of the place was either crumbling or already broken. The view from our room was a wildcat garbage dump on the back side of a bunch of an apartment building that was in even worse shape than our hotel. But I was tired and just wanted to lay down.
I just prayed the place didn't have bed bugs or something. The sheets were clean, or rather the (single) sheet/mattress cover was clean, but the blanket was ratty and pilled. But it had a bathtub/shower and a toilet and a sink. What sort of luxury does one expect for less than $20 a night?
Bangkok in December is HOT (in the high 90s) and humid. After showering we lounged around in skivvies, trying to convince ourselves the air conditioning was doing something besides making noise. After a couple hours Dang discovered the air conditioner in in the boys' room was absolutely NOT working. So she went downstairs to the desk and raised hell. A maintenance guy showed up with a tank of refrigerant and eventually gave up. Then all of us (both rooms worth) picked up all our stuff and moved a few doors down the hall, this time with an even better view of the garbage dump!
We spent two nights in that dump, but we were in Bangkok damn it, and there was shopping to do. We rode the elevated train/commuter rail to the open-air shopping area, shopped until we couldn't carry any more and returned the same way in reverse. The rail line was quick, clean and quiet with excellent air conditioning.
Oh, and the air conditioning in our room did work, but after the second night I realized that the only part of the controller that worked was the on/off switch. The fan speed and temperature controls were just to keep me entertained. I began each evening sweating on top of the sheet and by dawn each morning I was shivering under the ratty blanket that I still can't believe I allowed to touch my skin.
After two nights in Bangkok we packed up and headed for Pattaya with a couple of detours along the way.
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