Journey to the World

January 9, 2007

The flight from Tel Aviv to Kiev lasted four and a half hours as planned. From Kiev, and after waiting a couple of hours I went on the flight to Bangkok. A couple of minutes after the plane took off we were over the clouds. They were as thick and as white like in fairy tales.

On the plane I met Yulia who came from St.Petersburg for a ten days vacation in Pattaya. She told me she runs a gym and two restaurants in Russia. After nine hours, two meals, half a movie, lots of music and some games on my PDA we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand.

The New Bangkok Airport

The new airport of Bangkok opened less than a year ago and looks very impressive. Five floors or more of a huge building. The time was 5:30 AM. Time differences between Tel Aviv and Bangkok are five hours, so in Tel Aviv it was now 12:30 AM.

I went after the crowd into the Visa On Arrival stand only to discover that Israelis do not need Visa. Simply fill the forms that are given on the airplane and go directly to Passport Control. $50 USD were changed to bahts inside the airport. Currency rates are rather high over there so it’s not wise to convert all your money at the airport.

Outside the Arrivals hall, one floor above, I went to Starbucks to drink the first coffee and wake up. On the way I got a map of Bangkok and considered my options.

Fifth floor, entrance gate. I found a taxi cab who drove me to the Khao San road for 230 baht.

Khao San Road

The time is now 7:00 AM already but Khao San road is abandoned. Stores are beginning to open at 9:00 AM although a few businesses are open all night long.

I visited the Israeli Connection (Ha’Kesher Ha’Israeli) and the Green House whose offices were still closed. At this hour you can only book rooms. I went to Sawadee travel agency and bought a ticket to Kanchanaburi for 250 baht, a little more expensive than a public bus, but unlike the bus, the van picks you up from Khao San and gets you directly to your guest house. The van is leaving in 10:00 AM so I had a couple of hours to spend around Khao San. I decided to go by foot. While I was walking, the same taxi driver passed beside me at least five times and asked if I need a lift, which was quite amusing. This is a common sight in this area. I walked through narrow alleys. People were still waking up. Homeless people sleeping on the streets and a few cats and dogs laying around doing nothing. This area reminded me a little the old central bus station in Tel Aviv, back in Israel.

The Khao San area is comprised of several streets in which travelers are staying. Not so far away is the main road where you can find buses and transportation. I crossed the main road and arrived in a different area.

I arrived at a boulevard filled with poor peddlers and their trucks. People in rags looked like gypsies. I went into one of the yards to throw the drink I bought just a while ago. In the yard were two dirty dogs doing nothing, a frequent sight in the area. The dogs didn’t care I visited their yard. Well, at least not at first.

I went back to the street and saw a barefoot old man sitting on the ground with a dog chained next to him. He signaled to me with his hands towards his dogs so I took out my camera. I took his photo and he looked pleased that his dog is going to be famous.

While photo-shooting, I felt a strong bite on the back of my foot. One of the dogs from that yard got bored and tried too chew my shoe. That was my sign to keep away from stray dogs. Luckily my shoe, a hard block of leather, absorbed the bite successfully without any damage to my foot.

The homeless signaled his dog to jump which made the dog say hello with two hands. I showed him the picture I took and walked away after I took another photo of his girlfriend who was also barefoot. At that time I was the only tourist at this area.

Kanchanaburi

We arrived in Kanchanaburi. It’s a quiet city, paved roads, some businesses and stores on the streets and of course the river. The driver stopped at a local travel agency. I recognized a recommended guest house called Sugar Cane, but because of other recommendation about Jolly Frog I passed. I asked the driver how to get there and he told me he’ll take me there. Almost all passengers have left but me and Jimmy. We drove to Jolly Frog and decided to stay there after seeing the great prices. 70 baht for one room. About $2 USD for a private room which isn’t small with a fan and electrical sockets is not a bad deal. The room is clean and so are the sheets. There’s a small cupboard, a bed and mosquito nets on the window. The toilets and showers are outside, but they’re only five steps away from the room. One the things I would probably have to get used to is cold water. No hot water in the showers. At least it’s warm outside.

The guest house Jolly Frog is located right in front of the famous river Kwae. Near the building there’s a yard with some grass, trees and hammocks from which you can watch the river. Long-tail boats and fishermen can be also seen from there. It’s a pastoral place overall.

First trial in Thai massage was successful. After that I went for a ride on motorcycle-taxi and went to sleep.

This article was originally written in Hebrew. It was translated to English so more people around the world would be able to benefit from details of my travels.

 

This article was published at 9-01-2007 Time: 15:54 and belongs to categories Bangkok, Flight, Far East Travel Journal 2007, Central Thailand, Khao San, Kanchanaburi, Thailand. You can follow comments to this article using the feed RSS 2.0. You can post a comment, or trackback from your website.