Khoasan Road
Some things in Khoasan Road never change it seems. It is still possible to loss your head on low awnings, twist your ankle in a hole in the pavement and there is still the omnipresent tuk tuk driver harassing you to take a lift the moment you set foot outside. Walking down Khoasan is no small feat as you dodge the obstacles and street vendors trying to sell their wares. Anything from pirated cds, to tailored suits and everything between, even Australian drivers licences, can be bought at, ‘good price for you mister’.! It can be hard to browse as the moment you stop to look at something you are accosted by someone with a well practiced routine in sales technique. Other times strangers walk up and begin with simple conversation which invariably leads to a sales push of some kind. It runs against my general courtesy but most of the time I find myself needing to walk by and ignoring the touts and other hopefuls. The good thing is that I have been here three days and some of the touts and tuk tuk drivers recognise me and hone in on fresher faces in the crowd.
When in Riga an Australian bar manager there gave me the advice to ‘get out of the old town’ if you wanted to see Riga. A few days after arriving in Bangkok I realised I needed to get out Khoasan to see a bit of the real Bangkok and decided I wasn’t going to let a few grey hairs, failing eyesight and memory stop me from heading out on the public transport system as I had all those years ago. I wanted to make my way to the central train station and get information about trains up to the mountain region of Chang Mi in northern Thailand. It would have been all too easy to catch a tuk tuk for around $A3 each way like everyone else and for a one off this is not such a bad way to get to Hualampong Station if you are heading off somewhere on a train. However, Khoasan is a long way from Bangkok’s underground Metro and the Skytrain system and I figured if I could master the bus to one of the stations I could move around the city far more easily and cheaply. I also like just moving around the city the way the locals do and rubbing shoulders with everyday people who often seem a little curious to see you on their turf.
I asked a few questions, bought a couple of transport maps and broke the encryption they contained in understanding them and soon found myself twisting through the streets of Bangkok. I’ve always thought of myself as fairly handy with a map or street directory but it took all my effort to follow my journey on the map through the labyrinth of Bangkok city. It doesn’t help when streets are left off the map leaving the counting streets technique corrupted. I managed however to have a rough idea of where I was and recognised a building as fairly unmistakably a train terminus. I was there and now connected to greater Bangkok.
I had arrived in Bangkok at this station from Malaysia many years ago but I had no recollection of it. I had arrived here with Amanda, the daughter of a South Australian federal politician and had passed through fairly quickly on our way to, you guessed it, Khoasan Road. Hell, what a round trip over various continents that was to get back here! Today I had come to get information on a train to Chang Mi a journey of around 14 hours to the mountain region to the north. The information booth at the front of the station informed me that all trains had been cancelled due to flooding in the north of Thailand and it would probably be around two weeks before services resumed. The information window inside the station informed me that the services would be suspended for two or three days due to flooding. I decided the two to three days sounded better and will head back to the station in a few days and try and buy a ticket then. My days mission had been accomplished and I returned home on the 159.
When in Riga an Australian bar manager there gave me the advice to ‘get out of the old town’ if you wanted to see Riga. A few days after arriving in Bangkok I realised I needed to get out Khoasan to see a bit of the real Bangkok and decided I wasn’t going to let a few grey hairs, failing eyesight and memory stop me from heading out on the public transport system as I had all those years ago. I wanted to make my way to the central train station and get information about trains up to the mountain region of Chang Mi in northern Thailand. It would have been all too easy to catch a tuk tuk for around $A3 each way like everyone else and for a one off this is not such a bad way to get to Hualampong Station if you are heading off somewhere on a train. However, Khoasan is a long way from Bangkok’s underground Metro and the Skytrain system and I figured if I could master the bus to one of the stations I could move around the city far more easily and cheaply. I also like just moving around the city the way the locals do and rubbing shoulders with everyday people who often seem a little curious to see you on their turf.
I asked a few questions, bought a couple of transport maps and broke the encryption they contained in understanding them and soon found myself twisting through the streets of Bangkok. I’ve always thought of myself as fairly handy with a map or street directory but it took all my effort to follow my journey on the map through the labyrinth of Bangkok city. It doesn’t help when streets are left off the map leaving the counting streets technique corrupted. I managed however to have a rough idea of where I was and recognised a building as fairly unmistakably a train terminus. I was there and now connected to greater Bangkok.
I had arrived in Bangkok at this station from Malaysia many years ago but I had no recollection of it. I had arrived here with Amanda, the daughter of a South Australian federal politician and had passed through fairly quickly on our way to, you guessed it, Khoasan Road. Hell, what a round trip over various continents that was to get back here! Today I had come to get information on a train to Chang Mi a journey of around 14 hours to the mountain region to the north. The information booth at the front of the station informed me that all trains had been cancelled due to flooding in the north of Thailand and it would probably be around two weeks before services resumed. The information window inside the station informed me that the services would be suspended for two or three days due to flooding. I decided the two to three days sounded better and will head back to the station in a few days and try and buy a ticket then. My days mission had been accomplished and I returned home on the 159.
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