The Northeastern Thailand route Bangkok to Vientiane.
I was out of Bangkok first thing in the morning. Bangkok is safe and easy and I have a semi-secluded hotel out of the Khao San Road fiasco, with tv, and surrounded by food carts and 7-11’s but being on a mission, I had to stay focused.
Heading north out of Bangkok is somewhat easier than to the south plus with leaving early I was out of the central area rather efficiently. There was really only one area where the road just split with no signage and a turn that you had to take randomly which I had lucked out as I had just stopped to make sure I was going in the right direction. The only other troublesome was that the road traffic runs fast and furious. It also reminded me of the big cities in the States where you can drive for hours and still be within city limits. In actuality my next destination of Ayuthaya was less than a 100 kms out, it took forever. Driving in the city on a scooter involves driving most of the time between vehicles and winding in and out of a space that clears your handle bars by inches. It takes a lot of focus and actually some real gaming skills to go with the flow. I luckily have both thanks to Counter-Strike. I kept expecting for the traffic to lighten up after a couple of hours of trying to leave Bangkok, but it was the same old jam. It didn’t clear up until I got off the #2 highway for the Ayuthaya turn-off that finally cut out into the rice fields and green covered waterways signifying the after monsoon period.
The city of Ayuthaya is the former Thai capital and is currently another Unesco World Heritage site. It is a natural fortification as it is surrounded by three rivers which make it much like a castle and moat. Because of this there is a lot of old stuff to see. It makes for a nice day trip out of Bangkok and a touch of the architectural stuff that lies virtually everywhere in Asia. For me it was a convenient lay over stop to get out of Bangkok and an introduction to the rice paddy fields of the North East where I was heading.
It was what seemed like a good layover place, I mean three rivers, what are the chances that there wasn’t some fishy spots around. Finding a place was fairly easy as there is a backpacker ghetto etched out on one street with the island. Unfortunately, it adopted a lot of the negative aspects of staying in Khao San road so during the day it seems like a fairly light tourist road with a line of guest houses, restaurants and internet cafes, but once the sun went down, the tables and chairs spread out onto the road and each individual business brought out stereos, tvs, and live bands to try and capture the partying night tripping Bangkoker backpackers. I made the mistake of getting a cheap room right on the road and pretty much had a sleepless night as the music played until 1am and then the local workers hung out partying even later. Outside of that bad memory, I also had to deal with self stupidity when I lost my keys. I was already being somewhat over cautious about not losing stuff after I left my guidebook in the hotel in Phetchaburi. Basically, one evening I went out for a stroll to check out the night market for some dinner. It was fairly early when I started out so I decided to walk the opposite direction first to check out some sites before strolling back to the night market for some food and then back to the hotel. I must have walked for about three hours had one sit down meal and then another hour walk back to the hotel. Outside of the dinner, I never stopped once to sit down. Getting back to the hotel and wanting to lock up Amo I noticed that my keys were missing. Usually they just get misplaced in one of my pockets or bags. This time nothing. The only thing that pisses me off more than losing something is losing something else. I went through everything twice and was totally dumbfounded. It took me another couple of hours to retrace my steps and even the breaking of my heart when my whole belief that the keys would be at the food cart place where I sat and ate. I was taken aback when the people said they had not seen them. I was in a sort of disbelief as I couldn’t understand why these people were blatantly lying. Did they just hate tourists, was there some black market for random keys, were they right then at that moment ripping off Amo? I was in total disbelief. Finally, I resigned myself to the fact that they were just gone. Back at the hotel I sat and just worked through my mind about what had occurred. Analyzing the process, I worked back in where I put the keys when I left for my walk. I actually use a sort of system with my money and keys. With my walking shorts I usually put my money pouch in the front thigh pocket and any big bills in the other. Small change and pocket money go in the front pockets. My keys I put in my back pocket which have a Velcro closure. Since I had room keys as well I put them in the other back pocket. Checking the back pockets I noticed a tear in one. I remember the little tear but didn’t realize that it had gotten a bit larger and that turned the right way, keys could fit through them. Mystery solved.
The next morning I wanted to be out of there especially with the lack of sleep, however with no Amo keys I had to wait a bit later until a key shop opened and the guy could come to the hotel and make a new key. It was a 250 baht mistake and a real hassle.
Ayuthaya was also the beginning of a new addiction. Slurpees had become a sort of comfort food while I was traveling around. While walking around Ayuthaya I came upon a small shopping mall which had a Kentucky fried chicken and surprisingly a Dairy Queen. That was odd, but I got suckered in when I saw that they had Softies (ice cream cones). 9 baht for a single or 15 baht for a double vanilla cone. It was damn good and became a big part of my daily rituals as I traveled through the north east.
Tags: Thailand
