Although we had only been in Bangkok a few nights, it was
time for us to move upwards and and more
specifically to get out of the huge metropolis.
Between Tokyo and Bangkok we had just spent a couple of weeks in two of
the largest cities in the world and it was time to get away from the pure and
utter chaos that accompanies such things.
Our next destination was Hua Hin, a mid-size coastal city south of
Bangkok.
Q: Why exactly did we
decide to go to Hua Hin you ask?
A: Brent typed in
"beach towns close to Bangkok" in Google and that seemed to be the
most popular answer.
So, with that in mind we packed our heavy-ass backpacks and
made our way over to the minibus station.
Colleen and I were delighted to see that the three hour journey to Hua
Hin would only cost us $6 each. While
the price may have been delightful, the actual journey was slightly
uncomfortable. We were piled into the
van with a bunch of Thai people and were packed tighter than a tube sock in
Brent Moreau's underpants at a spandex party.
Despite the claustrophobic transportation conditions, we were able to
keep our mind off of the matter at hand thanks to a young (maybe three years
old) girl in front of us who insisted on playing games and talking to us for
the whole journey even though neither of us could understand a single word that
the other was saying. It was amusing
nonetheless, and it was fun to see the girl's bitchy mother keep getting riled
up. The best part was, her mother could
not tell me to stop egging her daughter on, as she did not speak any English
either!
Unfortunately, the lack of any English language skills
amongst our other passengers (or our lack of Thai depending on you want to
blame here) eventually bit me in the ass when I realized that we were
approaching the area on the outskirts of Hua Hin where I believed our hotel to
be located. As luck would have it, I
managed to catch the hotel out of the corner of my eye as we were driving by
but I had no way to communicate with the driver that we wanted to stop! This in turn led to us just sitting in the
van like a couple of stooges and waiting for someone else to hopefully get out
soon. A Thai gentleman eventually did get
out a few kilometers down the highway, so we ambled out of the van with him and
started walking back up the six or eight-lane highway towards our hotel. Oh, and did I mention that we were both
carrying 30 pound backpacks and it was almost 40°C outside? Yes,
fuck my life would be a fitting phrase to use here. Because we were on a major highway, there was
not exactly an abundance of cabs looking to pick people up, so the two of us
trudged on, stopping frequently for drinks and cursing ourselves for not
learning the Thai word for "stop".
After what seemed like an eternity (was probably 30 or 40 minutes) some
dude in a van cab pulled over and asked us where we were going and offered to
drive us for $5. At this point we were
both fed up and hopped in, only to discover that we were probably less than 200
meters away from our hotel. So , after
paying $6 each to travel 200 kilometers, we paid $5 to travel 1/1000 of that
distance. I love getting ripped off by
Thai people!
 |
| Yup, safe to say we did not appropriately discuss our hotel plans before we left Canada. |
Despite being ripped off on transportation costs, I could tell
that this was more in line with what Colleen had in mind for accommodation when
she left home. We were staying at the Best Western Plus Serenity, an almost brand new Western-style hotel that had
huge spacious rooms overlooking a pool that seemed to stretch forever. Throw in flat screen TVs, king-size beds,
rainfall shower heads and all the other amenities that she was expecting and my
bank account was not, and you can start to guess what kind of hotels we would
be staying in. Yup, my dreams of traveling on a budget and staying in $5-$10 a night dives was quickly going by
the wayside.
 |
| I guess I can't complain TOO much. |
Since we had been going out every night in Bangkok, we
decided to take it easy and just enjoy our lovely hotel room for the
night. And as Colleen will diligently
point out, the bugs can't get us if we are locked inside our air-conditioned,
4-star hotel room!
~Brentski~
 |
| This is Colleen's "fuck hostels, hotels rule" face! |
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