The Noodle Curtain

Pays to ask for hotel tips in Phnom Penh

There is a full range of hotels and prices in Phnom Penh and  I set out to try  three when I stayed for nine days earlier this year. I also review one I’d stayed at during an earlier visit.

It's not until you get on teh ground for a few days that you find the deals, just as I did in my final few days, thanks to an expat resident.

A popular location for visitors to the epicentre of the night life  is the Flamingos Hotel on Street 172 near 51 (lovely interior shown below). The place is only five years old and I’m afraid it’s showing its age already. I thought the rooms small, including the so-called Deluxe one at $30 US a night, wherein there was enough room to circle the bed on foot, with a bit more room at the standup wood closet.

There was only one reachable electrical plug and it was across the room from the desk and chair. The wi-fi signal was hard to snag; sometimes taking 1 to 2 minutes to get through. I also kept getting cut off by a lost connection. I would have to reactivate by trying another floor router. Once going, thoughput seemed to be fairly good.

The bathroom was compact, to say the least. The towels were threadbare and so was the bedding, with only a too-short thin cotton blanket covering the mattress. No duvet or wool/synthetic cover. I can understand it a bit because of the non-stop couples traffic.

Being in the bar and disco area brought its rewards and drawbacks. Of the latter, you could hear the pounding beat at the new nearby disco, Pontoon, all night one night. Since the hotel is near Street 51, which is home to many hostess bars and Heart of Darkness disco, some of which don’t close till dawn, you are bound to hear voices and music punctuate the heavy nighttime air. However, it didn’t really bother me, since I live in 24-hour Bangkok.

On the plus side were the code-your-own safe and blade-type door key that would be hard to pick. The desk, bar and airport pickup/valet staff were fantastic. And it has to be said the customers coming and going seemed to be a happy lot, which is as much to do with the town as the hotel I should think. A popular spot is the rooftop bar, which I never made it to.

While frequently occupying a stool at Walkabout Cafe, one of the local girls told me the owner had built a nearby hotel called The Blue Tongue (night shot above). It was very nice and guest friendly. Indeed it was, so I booked two nights. I checked out of Flamingos, walked a few metres down Street 172, away from the river, turned left up arterial Street 51 to 174, crossed to the west side of 51, turned right around Walkabout and not 50 metres up 174 is Blue Tongue.

The rooms are fresh, new, simple, spacious, well lit by sunken pot lights and table lamp and with good natural light. The bed mattress, king size, was beautiful to sleep on. It had high quality bedding, pillows and blankets, plus a pair of colourful throw cushions.

I chose the Superior room for its large shuttered window but it seemed to me there was little difference between it and the Standard room, except the lounging chair and table and slot-like windows for natural light.

The Deluxe room’s highlight was the huge bathroom’s rain shower head and handsome flooring and fixtures. The towels were luxurious, basin materials top quality, and lighting perfect. The room rate was a minimally discounted to $35, versus standard $38.

However, the hotel did not have an in-room safe. You had to deposit your valuables in the locker at the front desk and take a key. This is problematic, since if you forget your passport or cash, you have to return. Also, I managed to check out without my passport. I went to the next hotel without it and  had to get another tuk-tuk back to the Blue Tongue. Desk staff should have asked if I had anything in the locker.

I was visiting a friend on St. 200 and he recommended the Comfort Star 2 hotel nearby on 200 (picture at top). Good choice especially at the price.

The hotel entrance and lobby are plain but that’s not where you lay your head. The room choices were single  ($18 US a night) and double ($22).

My single room had a king size bed, with redundant light controls in bed panels and bed reading lamps. Excellent! I also remember the air-con machine was remote enough so  you didn’t have to suffer all-night drafts. But I can’t remember where it was affixed.

The room had plentiful space. The furniture was of good quality, with large TV, beside a desk and table with enough room for papers and laptop. The mini fridge was hidden away and held a few reasonably priced drinks. Other furniture was also of good quality.

Lighting was excellent although not of the stylish quality of the Blue Tongue. The washroom  was large, with a vertical stall for the shower. Overall, it was a very roomy place, one you could stay in for several days.

The location was ideal: quiet but you were only 2 minutes to St. 51 and 10 minutes on foot  to 51 bars, restaurants and clubs, as well as other cross streets leading to the river front near the FCC club, albeit a good 20 minute walk at least.

I know for sure Flamingos and Comfort Star will pick you up from the airport and deliver you free.

In another visit, I stayed at the Lone Star Saloon, which has several huge, well appointed rooms above. Rates were $25 and $30, the latter for a truly huge room with beautiful flooring,  bed, washroom and large balcony,. The American-style Saloon has very good food and a fine selection of beers and liquors. And a great staff.

The thing I don’t like, and it’s the same for many other bars that have guest rooms, is that you have to walk through the bar to get to the stairs leading to the few rooms. Guests of the traveller are not too happy about that either.

And last, I didn't stay at the newly built Na Na Hotel (picture at bottom), but several expats said, and I confirmed, brand new rooms start at  $15 a night. I saw one and it was quite small. But at $15 and a great location, St. 154, not more than 10 minutes  from the Central Market and Soriya Mall, you could do a lot worse. The hotel web site says it's 5 minutes to the river side. if you were The Flash, maybe. Try 15 minutes at least.

I found Comfort Star delivered the best value for the U.S. buck and wasn’t far away at all. But, Phnom Penh has many good hotels. I just think you don’t have to pay $25 to $35 a night (800 baht to 1100 baht).

Phnom Penh fun but Khmer New Year empties capital

I didn’t know a city could be so empty like Phnom Penh is during the Khmer New Year, which was yesterday, the 14th, with more holiday time Friday and Saturday.

 
Teems of Khmer have gone back to countryside from where they came. And there’s probably tens of thousands of them since nearly every shop was closed Wednesday, New Year's Eve, through Friday; the massive Central and Russian markets had some shop activity,  and some major bars were shut, such as Martini's. There were far fewer moto taxi and tuk-tuk drivers shouting “hello sir” -- yes they do that here, as opposed to Bangkok, where they usually say nothing, beginning or end of trip.

I got up around, er, sometime, and walked past four of my usual coffee shops. All closed. Thank Buddha for Walkabout, which never shuts, I think. Only a handful of girls there, too, Wednesday through Friday, compared with Tuesday’s full house.

Yep, it was going to be a dull couple of days, at least till Saturday. 

     

     

 

 

Other notes:

HOTEL JUGGLING: I’m on my third hotel in my nine-day, eight-night trip. It’s not as nice as $35 US a night one I left Wednesday this week, but it’s large, quiet, clean, nicely appointed, has desk and table for laptop, has free wi-fi and breakfast, free street transport if you stay more than one night but is very central as it’s between north-south arterials Street 51 and 63 -- and has great friendly staff. All for $18 a night at Comfort Star 2 Hotel on Street 200. Takes Visa, too. My first hotel, Flamingos, was $30.

STREET CHAOS: To understand Phnom Penh traffic customs (they drive on right as in Canada), you have to expect motorcyclists and some cars to cut across your bow, whether pedestrian or oncoming traffic. It’s probably why cars and bikes go so slow and at a  consistent speed. Sudden forward acceleration will cause great chaos and probably fatalities. Expect someone to cut in front at the slimmest opportunity. What I didn’t expect, or simply forgot to add into my mental safety cocoon, a couple of times was nearly getting clipped by a cutter from behind. I crossed Norodom (wide north-south arterial), looking repeatedly left and right and forward and behind into the intersection at 178. (There are only a handful of intersections with lights -- like it matters! I hope you don’t think motorists pay attention to the few crosswalks and pedestrian signals -- hahahahaha!)

As I judged flow to be predictable enough, I started to cross, when I felt something brush my right forearm. Of course, it was a scooter with three people who cut in front of 178 traffic, headed straight against south-bound traffic flow and tried to slice in behind and between vehicles into  the proper northbound lanes.

Yesterday a friend and I were in a motorcycle tuk-tuk (bike pulling two-wheeled wagon -- comfortable, too). He cut left, as per custom, into oncoming traffic along the side but an oncoming motorbike rider whipped out from behind a vehicle to pass him on the inside right in “our lane”. The rider was not looking forward either, for some reason looking off to where he’d come from. Well, let me say both parties were “surprised”. That was the proverbial close shave. My Canadian friend had a word with our “chauffeur” along the lines of you were in the wrong and endangering our lives!

BAR WARS: I was in Phnom Penh in January, but before that it was six years since my last visit. I swear there are far more bars and expanded night life districts. Comes with a burgeoning (externally supported) economy. The place is booming, Cambodian scale. An evening walk down beautifully redesigned  riverside (Sisowath Quay) showed me just how many dining and drinking establishments have taken root. From Street 178 (near FCC) to 104, bars and restaurants (some very swank) throng the west side of the quay (no buildings or vendors allowed on the river or east side). Bars and eateries fill  some slots down each street. On 104, there are about 20 hostess (read, clip joints) bars in a very short distance of less than 200 metres. Bars line Street 51 around 172 to 154. I’ve read that 136 is another entertainment stretch. There are some stray barang (foreigner) bars: Lone Star on 13, Victoria on 172, The Gym on 178, Sharky on 130 and Martini on 95, the latter two are big pickup bars. And of course, there are loads of Khmer BBQ, karaoke and massage shops around the city.

VERY HAPPY PIZZA: I counted at least four restaurants around the riverside with “Happy xxx xxxx Pizza” in the name. There still are places -- Happy Herb’s Pizza was the original and still operating -- that serve the very special pizza topping, which will put you in a very happy state of mind above and beyond the taste of an ordinary pizza. Yes, the main ingredient would be illegal in Canada.

DRINK CANS: Have you looked at the crud and film that can accumulate on a tinned drink? I rinse and wipe off the tops of tinned drinks before cracking open the pull tab back home. In Cambodia, bar staff meticulously clean the tin tops before serving and do it right in front of the customer. They never do this in Thailand, which is why I rarely order a can of beer, for example. I’ve seen too many old, dusty, grimy cans in Thailand, too.

MALL MAGNET: Phnom Penh has a new shopping centre, simply called City Mall, but locally called Lucky Mall, since the prime tenant and mall operator is Lucky Supermarket; it’s much like Foodland, Villa and TOPS in Thailand. Only far cheaper! A bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label is 680 baht versus 1100 in Bangkok. A tetrapak of Ceres-brand South African juice is 60 baht versus well over 100 baht in BKK. My Mild Seven brand cigs are $10.50 US a carton (315 baht versus 900).

The mall is far from full of tenants but it does offer a lot of small shops as well as some local fast-food outfits such as BB BBQ. There’s also a KFC but no McD. The other big mall, the first one, is Soriya Shopping Centre near the Central Market. Lucky is a more modern, long, wide open-concept place where you can see around to look for particular shops. Soriya, which also has a Lucky Supermarket, is a lot more vertical and therefore not so open to the eye. But I like both of them.

There is also modern Sovanna Mall, which opened three years ago, but I didn’t make it there.

RIEL U.S. MONEY: U.S. dollars and Cambodian riel are the standard currencies. Every cash register spits out both currency totals for whatever you buy. You can blend payments in both currencies, which is not a bad thing. Something that’s $1.25, such as an Angkor draft beer, can be paid as $1 and 1000 riel. Some shop bills will add another 100 to 300 riel to make the exchange more correct (in their favour). There are 4000 riel to the U.S. dollar. You can safely change money for U.S. dollars or riel with the traders on the street at Central Market and Russian Market. Or go to any Bureau de Change, some are on the Sisowath Quay (Riverside). A check of online rates at some major Cambodian banks says to me the street is the way to go. A Canadian friend’s Khmer wife  sticks to the street. Oddly enough, word is they want Canadian dollars for there’s a shortage.

NEW LAND OF SMILES: Thailand may use the tourist phrase but Cambodia takes over the title!  In Cambodia, the smiles never stop. When walking the streets of Phnom Penh, motorcycle taxi and tuk-tuk riders will ask if you want a ride. A polite glance and “No, thank you” will elicit an equally polite smile. Walk up to a hotel desk and the smiles light up all round. A guarantee: if you smile first, you will get an even bigger, friendlier smile. I can’t get enough of them here. I live in Bangkok. I can go for hours without seeing a Thai smile.

PICTURE NOTES: From top, light traffic during Khmer New Year on Sisowath Quay (Riverside), Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The large photo and following six small ones all show Riverside on New Year's Eve. City Mall and motorcycle parking beside the mall on Monireth Blvd., near the Olympic Stadium. No Riverside description would be complete without a "Happy Pizza" picture, this image is of one of my favourite eating places, Happy Phnom Penh Pizza. Out of the photo and to the left, is the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC). This image shows the third hotel I stayed at, on Street 200 and a scene from the same street. Last below, it's not often the Canadian flag flies amid tropical palm trees.

Reflections from Phnom Penh after dark

I’ve written many things over the past several weeks. I just never published them. I didn’t say what I meant. So they were not worthy of my thoughts, never mind worth reading.

It’s been 17 days since I wrote about Bangkok magician Michel Potts. That was an easy topic and just slid from thought to electronic paper with barely a pause.  It was simple reporting. Writing reflectively, on the other hand, takes multiple starts, rewrites and, ultimately, rejections.

What follows is usually deep disappointment and the wonder that I’ll ever write anything reflective again. The failure usually resides in rather muddy thinking. Just what is it do I want to say? Whatever it is, I need to provide a strong premise, supporting experience, anecdotes  and finally a clincher.

For the heavy stuff, well, another time. This time, I sit writing this on Street 174 in the Blue Tongue Hotel in Phnom Penh. There’s a lovely 10 km/h breeze. Good thing since at 11 o’clock it’s 30 C. It was supposed to be 37 this afternoon. Could have been. Right now here on Streets 174 (near 51), a mother and her teenage daughter are tending to things in their shophouse home, wearing their pyjamas. All visible on the street and a common sight. Stationary cyclo men, three-wheeler jockeys and motorcycle taxi guys compete on busy north-south Street 51. Nearby is Walkabout Cafe pickup bar (they’re all pickup bars . . . ), Shanghai, Heart of Darkness night club, (the new) Pontoon disco, various hostess bars, Zeppelin and Black Cat bars, 24-hour mini-marts, all-night food vendors, hookers and customers, men of no immediately discernible function (yep, you’re probably right if you check their pockets) and residents.

Before Phnom Penh, I was in Pattaya for four days (having only booked two that time) and not long before that I and three friends toured Isaan by car, with a wedding in Sakorn Nakhon in the middle. And there was a before-that, too. Five nights in Chiang Mai and previous to that, one night in Pattaya. These trips all took place January to April. Seems like I like to travel or stay out of Bangkok. My friend Khun Miken makes a strong case for the former. I’m seeing if he’s right.

I can think of a number of things I dislike about Bangkok: multi-lane, expressway-filled inner city with its insane heavy truck, taxi, bus, motorcycle and car traffic; millions of people; crowded, broken, smell-filled, vendor-choked streets I live on and visit; non-stop construction and repair noise; soot-filled, polluted air; and rising prices for everything; and last, a lack of sanuk (happiness of life) among locals and expats.

Things I love: my wonderful friends from all over the world; the clean, cool, quiet BTS Skytrain and MRT subway public transit system; great variety of restaurant and store foods; the you-can-buy-anything brand-name and specialty malls; the magic of the shameless nightlife venues and street bars; and last, the most beautiful (and available) girls in the world who come from all over Thailand.

I sit in my very lovely, modern hotel room in the centre of the nightlife area of Phnom Penh. The hotel is owned by an Australian who also happens to own the Walkabout Cafe bar right next door, a 24-hour freelancer market. I love this bar. It’s basic, but it has decent, cheap food, cheap booze, free pool tables and an (sometimes) impressive array of Khmer and Vietnamese girls who will look after your every need. Did I mention it’s open 24 hours?

The hotel room is $33 US a night, which is 1000 baht. Earlier this evening I met a German expat resident -- he came for six months and stayed three years, so far -- who told me I was paying too much. I thought so too and was going to look for another hotel the next day. I was happy to move to the Blue Tongue because it was so much nicer than the Flamingos on 172 and for the same price, almost. Like Flamingos, I only booked two nights, knowing or at least hoping to get a great tip on a good, cheap hotel. Presto!

  The German  said not five minutes from where we were sitting in a coffee bar on Street 51 (Pasteur) was the Na Na Hotel (no, no, not the Bangkok one and not the same spelling). Brand new. I jumped up and visited. Beautiful place, open one year. Beautiful rooms were $17 US (500 baht). I’ll be moving Monday.

I have come here for one main reason: to see if I could live here in the Cambodian capital. That requires sampling lots of prices and searching for areas I could consider for residency. Plus  comparing and contrasting the benefits and disadvantages.  Tomorrow, I meet up with a six-year resident and his Khmer wife who will give me some guidance on life in this small Southeast Asian nation, with the fairly fresh wounds of the Khmer Rouge genocide.

The early word is: some things are more expensive, some things less expensive. This is going to be a 2011-long project. Other cities under consideration are Chiang Mai, Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, Korat, all in Thailand. And Vientiane (Viangchan) in Laos.

So now you see why I was keen to do the Isaan Tour with K. Miken (only one-night stands in Chaiyaphum, Khon Kaen, Kalasin, Sakorn Nakhon, Roi Et and Korat). And why I’ve visited Chiang Mai and Phnom Penh. There’s lots more to come.

Somehow I feel in my element on this tour. I actually looked forward to heading to Bangkok airport and waiting expectantly for the takeoff and landing in somewhat familiar surroundings. I was moving. Doing the legwork is fun. And talking with Thais and farang (foreigners)  to sound out their feelings about their city is enjoyable. Made moreso when someone tells you could pay half of what you’re paying for your hotel room and get the almost identical quality.

Sitting in Bangkok gives me a restless feeling. I don’t sleep as well there either. I sleep better on the road. I feel more alive because I’m applying my somewhat rusty journalistic skills. Could be something to K Miken’s theory about the need to keep moving. Maybe it’s because I haven’t found my home. Yet.

 

PHOTO NOTES: From the top, Street 51, Phnom Penh, looking south from between Streets 154 and 172; the Blue Tongue Hotel on 174; owned by the same man who runs the Walkabout Cafe (next photo); next up are Black Cat, (new disco) Pontoon and Shanghai. Last is Na Na Hotel and another St. 51 scene at the  Golden Sorya Market near where the first photo was taken.

Bangkok and Pattaya still waiting for tourists

Back in Pattaya again. What a one-track town! But where are the foreign visitors?

Thai travel agents revealed last week that based on what they have seen, tourist visits are only 80% of what they were in past years and last year was horrible.

This is the high season, verging on the peak in maybe 5-10 days. But the key beer bar streets of soi’s 6, 7 and 8 are virtually empty. I have seen the customer-free bars with my own eyes and resident friends have seen them too.

Last night on the lengthy go-go bar strip, Walking Street, it was mildly busy as we toured some establishments from 8 pm to 11 pm. We did one-beer visits of Alcatraz and Misty’s.  A big surprise was the emptiness of  star-power Angel Witch, but we were there before the first show at 10 o’clock. There were maybe fewer than 10 customers in the show amphitheatre.

Except for Angel Witch, the talent levels were low to average.  We lasted two drinks at AW,  thanks to some friendly staff.

The clear talent leader though was our fourth target, Baccara. The place was packed at 10 and a good marker for the high talent level was the Japanese, constituting maybe one-quarter of the onlookers. No wonder. Many stunning girls on stage both downstairs and upstairs.

The revelation for me and the others was that there was an upstairs and for most of us, the preferable venue. There’s very comfortable armchairs for you to curl up in with a companion. The girls downstairs were class A, with the ones upstairs ranked at B+ - A-. Tremendous place and not overpriced, compared with Bangkok’s rather pretentious prices of 150 baht a beer  on Soi Cowboy. Now Baccara is not cheap but the drinks were around 100 baht, whereas in Cowboy there 130 and up.

Baccara aside, though, no one was doing good business. Misty’s, Angel Witch, with their off-Walking Street addresses but well known brands, were nearly empty. Alcatraz, because it’s brand new and on Walking Street, was doing a little better.

The point of all this though is to say that there’s no mounting evidence of a high season, although young vacationing men are showing up. There were a few hundred gawking and picture-taking tourists, including non-Thai families with kids in tow at midnight on Walking Street, and the usual collection of freelance girls and ladyboys and then the expat residents (although many do not go to the area because of the congestion and general craziness), and as always the hawkers of flashlights with “girlie” images, tribal tinkets and 69-baht a draft come-ons for hidden go-go’s.

But I remember Walking Street and nearby soi's three years ago as being virtually impassable, as it was so packed with “buyers”  and “sellers”.

Bangkok has been no better. There is little evidence of more foreigners on the streets than the usual expat residents. Few in the bar areas, too. On a recent 2-for-1 Wednesday at the Londoner, there was virtually no overflow crowd outside the doors where the smokers usually gather. I remember in the past seeing the stairway packed with students and expat residents and tourists. Soi Cowboy, which seems to be on a bit of decline for various reasons, was easily walkable last  Friday night.

Next week may tell the tale as more tourists are expected after Dec. 15, typical of winter origin  travellers. But many friends and acquaintances have noticed how empty the two cities seem  compared to highlight years.

When I arrived without a reservation in Pattaya, it was easy to get a room and lots of choice around the busy intersection of soi’s Diana and LK Metro. My room in a very nice guesthouse on LK Metro was 800 baht. That was the standard room; medium and larger rooms were available at 1200 and up in Keerati Home Stay.

Why are there few signs of a tourist upsurge? Thailand, while a brand name destination and top of mind for many European travellers, has some problems. News readers in North America and Europe are remembering last spring’s uprising and riot deaths, as well as the devastating flood that destroyed crops and caused many deaths in the north and south of the country. There are some saying yet another coup is simmering. While the world economy shows some signs here and there of improving, workers are staying home to preserve their jobs and finances. Maybe the biggest reason for the lack of tourists is the strength of the Thai baht, which is overwhelming European and North America currencies and impacting travellers -- and resident expats alike.

It will be interesting to see whether, no matter what happens this peak travel season, Thailand’s  economic  growth trend is just a short cycle or one to bet on for the future. If there are more encouraging economic signs, maybe Thailand will have another lure for travellers, these ones bringing hands-full of investment cash. It seems to be happening. But what will this do to prices in a country that used to be known for its cheap transportation, food, accommodation and services. Already local expats are considering leaving inflationary Bangkok. Are potential tourists striking off Thailand?

The 'hood is the thing in Bangkok

 

It's another week and a half to go before I move into my new "permanent" Bangkok apartment. But I'm more excited about my new neighbourhood in Din Daeng District, roughly Ratchadapisek  and Rama 9 Roads. Just a hop, skip and jump from Rama 9 (Pra Ram 9) MRT subway stop and not far from the next northward MRT station, Thailand Cultural Centre. There's also the well fortified Chinese Embassy, which is between Ratchada soi's 3 and 5.

Let's let the pictures tell the story: Above, my apartment building is somewhere in this maze of all-too-small streets.

 

 The imposing and butt-ugly structure you see is the back side of the Tesco Lotus grocery store on Ratchadapisek Road and directly behind is the Fortune Town IT Mall. Groceries speak for themselves (except you can buy beer, liquor and cigarettes there, which most Canadians would appreciate if they could buy same in a grocery store!). Inside Fortune Town is a totaly different story, with halls and halls of mobile phones, computers, washing machines, DVD movies and much more. This photo was taken before the lead photo, which was chosen because it's so much more interesting than completely artless, bald-assed concrete. BTW, Ratchada Road is to the left on the other side of the mall, teeming with traffic.

 

 Aha, there's the 7-11 I am supposed to turn right at. Down that soi and to the left is my building.

 

Big sister pedals little sister home from school.

 

Looking back from the apartment building down the soi toward Ratchada.

 Here's the layout of my 42 squre metre studio  apartment in Din Daeng District, Bangkok.

Looking toward the entrance from the bedroom area.

The "dining room" at Baan Siam Rick.

The balcony is very large; you could put a table and four chairs out there alongside the dish sink and preparation counter.

The view west and southward toward "downtown" Bangkok.

 I did a little tour of some streets. Goods and services are quite a bit cheaper there. A yoghurt-based smoothie is 25 baht compared with 35 to 50 baht in the "tourist" areas; haircuts 80 to 100 baht compared with 250 to 300; espresso 25 baht compared to up to 60 baht and more.

Hot Thai food is everywhere on the streets. There's a huge food court in Fortune Town, plus the usual fast-food joints.

Yes, my new neighbourhood is looking good. I'll find out more in a few weeks.

New apartment, new neighbourhood, new life

 

The apartment hunt is over, thank Buddha. And I’m excited because I will be living in a part of town I only know a little about, but at least it’s off the Sukhumvit same old, same old.

As a tourist you will spend a lot of time with Sukhumvit at your back because it’s where most of the western oriented services are located and it’s also the east-west spine of the BTS Skytrain -- a huge factor in locating your place to live.

Instead I will be living near the MRT subway, the main north-south transit spine, which is more or less Asok-Ratachadapisek Roads. Ratchada goes on and on northward, but I will be at the lower end, namely Ratchada soi 5. It’s right between the Fortune Town IT mall (love this place) at the Pra Ram 9 MRT station and northward to The Esplanade shopping mall, which  is near the next stop, Thailand Cultural Centre.

Many residential projects that would appeal to westerners staying in the capital will be on or near the transit systems. You pay a premium for that of several thousand baht. Go 10 walking minutes down a soi and the rents start to fall. (Don’t believe the ads that say only 5 minutes to BTS. On a motorcycle taxi maybe. Count on 15 minutes on foot if it says 5.) Go way down the longer main roads from a station to the little soi’s and monthly rents plunge to the mid single digits, such as 6000 to 10,000 baht ($200 to $330 Canadian) depending on apartment size. Although, in my experience, you’ll still see rents of 20,000 + for distant 1-bedroom apartments, although they may be a bit bigger.

My new place is about 8-10 minute slow walk to Pra Ram 9 on Ratchada Road. I haven’t checked out time to TCC MRT stop.

It’s a 42 square metre studio, a format I had at one time rejected. But it was so well laid out and was such a good deal with free stuff thrown in -- and I was tired of looking. In my excitement I forgot to take pictures, so words will have to do for now. Pictures of my neighbourhood and apartment now online in separate post

The unit is in a spotless  3-to-4 year old apartment building, not a condo project, owned by an Indian family. The place still looks brand new, it is so well maintained.

The sizeable kitchen is off to the left and out of sight when you enter. Then comes a four-chair dining table in the kitchen area, then sofa behind that on the left viewing a 32-inch LCD TV, and then an office/working area on the right. Past room dividers comes the king-size bed and huge enclosed wall storage area, which I don’t think I will ever be able to fill.

On the back wall is a sizeable bathroom and shower to the left and large sliding glass doors on the right looking westward and southward to the downtown. It’s a sixth floor corner unit. The huge balcony would easily hold a four-chair table, alongside the outside water tap and sink for doing dishes, plus large working counter.

Amazing thing is, that with a one-year contract, 10 megabit Internet service and 30-plus channel satellite TV are free. That’s got to be 2500 baht a month if taken individually -- not to mention the little hassles of signing up, getting things installed and operating and paying the monthly bill at the 7-11. All in, 12,000 baht a month ($400). I hit my budget right on the head.

And the bestest thing: a couple of minutes walk away is a large Thai neighbourhood and all that that means. There are hardware shops, Internet cafes, food vendors everywhere, other neat shops and, well, I shall need to explore soon. And Fortune Town has food courts and fastfood joints, plus all the computer equipment and mobile phone shops, banks, and a huge Tesco Lotus grocery/drygoods store.

Coming next year, across Ratchada from Fortune Town, is the new Central Plaza Rama 9 shopping complex. I do like Central stores.

So a new life begins Nov. 1.

Finding a condo apartment in Bangkok

 

Trying to find an apartment in Bangkok has been somewhat frustrating. Not because of price, because condo owners have cut prices and are ready to discount -- in one case 5000 baht off advertised rent.

But it’s not working for me. So far.

It’s just the pathetic  size of the new apartments. There are a slew of new towering residential infernos, 25 to 60 storeys. Many are on the BTS or MRT lines. That’s a good thing, of course. But builders have been copying Canadian developers (and probably other developers around the world). They want to offer sardine cans at inflated prices.

Here’s what I WAS looking for. I set a budget of about 12000 baht ($360 Canadian). I most definitely can find apartments for around 5000 baht in the distant soi’s and districts or far down the Sukhumvit soi’s. Also, some new buildings had rents in this range, but they were far off the ends of the transit lines although they were quite nice units.

So my budget means a studio apartment if I want a modern building with working elevator, built-in washing machine, microwave oven, two-pot stove burner, well sealed windows, sunlight that enters the whole apartment, sit-down toilet, three-prong (with ground) electrical receptacles, pre-wiring for internet and TV, tallish refrigerator, more modern safety systems such as fire extinguishers and sprinkler system, and  more. Note, most units are rented out furnished so I'm not asking for anything out of the ordinary.

But studios only run 25 to 35 square metres, or about 270 to 375 sq. ft. So when you walk in, all you see is the  bed. Off to the left or right will be sparse cupboards and counter space, two-chair dining table, a TV shelf and TV off the end of the bed, a bit of space to reach the far balcony glass sliding doors and an all-in-one washroom (toilet, shower and basin sharing one small floor area -- you could perform all three functions at once!).

Owners are asking 9,000 to 15,000 baht ($300 to $500 Canadian). One-bedrooms are running $10,000 in areas off the beaten path to 22,000 and way up. In new buildings, most of which are within minutes on foot or motorcycle taxi of a transit line, the floor area can be as low as 35 sq. metres to as much as 55 (600 sq. ft.).  And yes, you can pay much less for a one-bedder if you wish. There are few reasonble apartments for 5,000, even downtown, according to some teachers I met. If you want cheap, ask a teacher where to go. You can also  Go Thai; you’ll just have to buy your own fan and buy a big pail and water scoop for your 3000 baht unit or even less.

So you see even one-bedders are claustrophobic at 35 sq. metres in my world. You won’t have any room for work table unless you sacrifice the small table and chairs, the sofa will be so close to the TV you can stretch your feet to the edge of the stand,  you will have about a two-plate countertop in the "kitchen", although the washroom and even the bedroom are likely to be quite spacious, oddly enough.  From what I've seen, I wouldn't choose this area size because the space is not well designed. This size could work if properly used.

I’ve seen brand new places, still wrapped furniture and freshly painted. Many new developments seem to favour built-in furniture, with bland wood-like veneer, bottom-rung sofas and chrome legged chairs and tables (I dislike chrome on everything including well known motorcycles). You may even find a CRT colour TV. Of course, no one cuts corners on air conditioning, an absolute must 12 months a year in the Big Sauna.

I checked out some older units, which are quite a bit bigger at 50-plus sq. metres up to the one-bedroom size. They were pretty good deals too, compared to similar prices for the New Modern Style(tm) condos, as they're advertised on Craigslist.com, which looks like the best source of apartment rentals in Bangkok. But they exceeded my budget. NMS, by the way, means to me smaller, beiger, blander, equally expensive.

After a week of frustration, I had raised my budget. In talking with others, I realized a good point was lost: you want a place that’s home, a roomy place you don’t mind spending time in and working in, as I want.  I’ve learned in the past, if you don’t like your home, you spend far more time and money out of it. So I plan to rent a liveable and enjoyable space, which should mean a few less nights out on the town, a big savings right there in just one week. 

So what are my needs:

HARD STUFF:
Near transit: BTS Skytrain or MRT subway, either one will do. Although I don’t like to be on top of the line; within a few hundred  metres down a soi (side street) is fine. There are fast motorcycle taxies everywhere, all assigned to their individual soi’s. And the trains are fast, efficient, air-con’d and relatively inexpensive compared with back home. Being near transit also means being near a major road because there will be the odd taxi ride home when transit closes at midnight.
Work space: I need a decent portion of the space for the computer, desk and chair to carry out this blogging thing and other writing projects.
Electricity cost: Some buildings overcharge by as much as double the government rate of about 3.x baht  per kilowatt/hour over a certain usage rate. Two years ago I was paying 7 baht. That really shoots up the monthly bill, needless to say. I remember one electricity bill on soi 36 of over 2500 baht. Should be about 1500.
Good internet service: You never know about this until after signing up with a provider. The service in my serviced apartment on soi 22, Sukhumvit is appalling. Even Thai sites such as banks and government departments are very slow to load.

SOFT STUFF

A balcony: I smoke but don’t do so inside my unit. So a balcony is an absolute must.  That’s pretty easy to find in Bangkok.
A view to some greenery: I find it very soothing to look on some greenery, especially trees. Maybe old hat to Thai people but to this westerner, a swaying, sun-dappled palm tree is a thing of beauty. Looking straight out onto an expressway, of which there are many here, is not conducive to relaxation nor is it very pretty.
There are many more things such as style, layout, etc. but they’re mostly personal.

I’ve seen some 18 to 20 apartments now -- much to the chagrin of my two agents -- and walked many soi’s east of downtown, along the Sukhumvit line. I saw at least six more yesterday, including a two-bedder in nearby Thonburi, now recently linked by the BTS. It’s definitely cheaper down there.

I’ll update later.

As a last note: When pricing things out, you have to think in baht and what Thai people would base a decision on. Maybe 20,000 baht sounds pretty good when translated as $600 for a one-bedroom place, but that is very expensive for a working Thai and me, who is soon going on a much lower income. When you compare the $600 to the apartment’s area of 42 sq. metres or 450 sq. feet, it doesn’t seem such a good deal, even to a westerner. It’s important to transition to the local currency without having to translate into your native one.

Photo note: This is the view out of one particular good place near Pra Khanong, but the garbage dump below and appearance of a construction shovel were bad signs.

Brain activity detected on Thailand arrival

I’m not sure why but it happens every time I go to Thailand: I become brainless. So I resolved to start off on a good foot.

  So I got up on my first Monday in Bangkok and went to my favourite Thai street corner coffee stand and pondered about what I usually forget to do. The list is pretty substantial and if I go on forgetting some of my goals, further brainless activity will surely lead to more  brainless activity of the kind resulting from excessive  intake of alcohol, cigarettes, socializing with friends and locals, all of which can lead to getting up late.

Today I was up at 8 a.m., which for me is some kind of accomplishment. I could have rested on my laurels then and there. A bit of cleanup ensued. My 35 sq. metre serviced apartment on soi 22 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, required some immediate re-organization. Make that organization, with clothing, shoes, odds and ends everywhere and anywhere.

I arrived from Tokyo late Friday night. Nothing to do but join a party already in progress at the Londoner on soi 33. Who can blame a guy who has been waiting eight long torturous months to return to the Land of Smiles.

Saturday involved checking out after one night at a soi 19 hotel and seeing if my apartment was ready or my reservation even given a moment’s thought. “No” to both questions. Surprised? Nope. However, it being the slow season, I got a place with a balcony. A must, as far as I am concerned. The manager showed me a nice place in the new wing but, no balcony, no deal. So they conferred with each other for 1 or 2 minutes and gave me my place. It’s 11,000 baht for a month, Internet included! (That’s $380 Canadian at this particularly unappealing currency juncture of 29 baht to the dollar..)

Time to reunite with the social scene and what a good time! That takes care of Saturday night and Sunday. I survived in reasonable shape, especially financially since some buds who I haven’t seen since last winter took it upon themselves to “take care of me.” Well, it did go beyond just buying me drinks.

Now, as you can see, that kind of activity could go for days and weeks and months. So back to Monday and need to steady the course, as the Brits would say.

I chose Bangkok for obvious reasons, at least to myself! Over the next month I have to do some exploring to see where I might live in Bangkok. But, and this is a mountainous BUT, I’m giving some thought to alternative sites and will visit the Pattaya-Jomtien area, which is cheaper to live and not far (2 hours) from the Big Bang. Somewhere down the road I will visit Chiang Mai (again) and Chiang Rai in the north. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Be it resolved: I will write. I am carrying out one promise. as you can see.  At least five days a week, I plan to do some research, write this blog and work on other unnamed writing projects, including a related blog. Sorry, subject to be named later -- after much research. Yes, I’m putting this in print because I not only plan to do this but NEED to do this. Ya can’t do much with a mushy brain so you have to exercise it like anything else.

Be it resolved: I will keep up on the news, something I definitely lacked any interest in back home in Canada, what with no sympathy for local activity or any interest for that matter. (Hmmm, note to self: I have to go out and buy the local English papers.)

Be it resolved: I will do a better job of keeping up with my fave local (as in Thailand)  blogs, especially Catherine’s “Women Learning Thai . . . and some men too.”  Which leads me to . . .

Be it resolved: Take a more disciplined approach to learning the Thai language. You really can’t do that living in the tourist district of Bangkok. Yes, if I had the discipline, but I figure, with my laziness, I need to force myself by living in a real Thai neighbourhood. That ought to be hilarious grist for a few blog posts.

Those are some basic resolutions and probably enough to commit myself to, given some friends’ penchant for laughing at my plans.

And see how it’s taken me almost three days to finally put up a new post. That’s that slippery slope of brainlessness lurking in the background.

A day in the life of my Bangkok

Life in the city or  life in the country? Which would you choose? That’s the decision I will test later this year when I alight in Thailand for a long stay. Really long stay.

For long stretches of time, sometimes decades, cities can be fairly stagnant. I could throw the adjective “sleepy” at many places, including my current home base, Toronto and it would stick. Not anymore, it seems. Developers have been beating paths to city hall in Toronto for a couple of decades now and the pace seems to be rising. I can’t look anywhere out my condo windows and not see tower cranes. Doesn’t matter where you are in the city.

Bangkok has been under development siege for a couple of decades, too. Someone told me that at one point, the largest percentage of construction cranes in the entire world were located in the City of Angels. Or maybe it was only second to Dubai, that now festering  pool of financial instability. Of course, Bangkok is studded with the corpses of abandoned tower and highway projects.

Those hyper-develpment conditions make downtown life a challenge, shall we say. At 7 a.m. (earlier in BKK), dump truck tailgates slam to loosen the last of a load, hydraulic shovels send shivers through the earth and foundation drills clang against gear sets to clean the bit and dive back into the muck. Give me some relief!

Thailand’s not exactly quiet as a church on Friday night. What with motor scooters, tuk tuks, garbage tucks, municipal repairs (cooler to work at night), fruit and vegetable pickups with loud speakers, drunken tourists, etc., it’s a challenge there too to find some peace.

Since I’ve spent little amounts of time in the Thai countryside, Isaan or northeastern Thailand, to be exact, I will only have tentative thoughts on country living. I’m not talking about village life, here. I’ve only passed through some villages. Mainly, I’ve bused/flown to big cities and towns, such as Chiang Mai, Pitsanoluk, Tak, Sukothai, Nakhon Ratchasima, Udon Thani,   Khon Kaen,  Surin, Buriram, Sisakhet, Ubon Ratchathani, Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom. The first four are not in Isaan, actually, more northern than eastern.

Citywise, I’ve spent many months Bangkok at a time. This city is chaos in the extreme (although some Indian cities are even more screwed up apparently). This is why I like the place.   Bangkok is a release from the burden of being forced to do the right thing, even when doing the wrong thing will not hurt a flea.

(Digression Alert! You are freed from the Big Brother shackles that punish someone for  briefly blocking an empty bicycle lane to drop a friend off ; punishing a third taxi in a two-car streetside taxi stand that bothers no one; punishing second lane of cars turning northbound on a major street that used to be allowed but, you guessed it, interferes with  no one; fining a bar $1,000 for allowing someone immediately outside the door to have a smoke; banning smoking on an outdoor patio if it has a roof but with all sides open;  almost killing with fees and regulations a new initiative (that’s pretty much dead) to allow vendors to sell different kinds of food on an outdoor cart (before, the regs were so restrictive, you could only sell hotdogs) -- the list goes on. Digression ends . . .)

Bangkok, how I love thee. A typical day (in two parts):

1. The day dawns bright and sunny -- you knew that was coming -- although I’ll have to take the weather report’s word for that because me and dawn broke up a long time ago. Let’s say it’s 9 o’clock. It's 28 degrees Celsius. No hangover. Now begins the first of probably four showers. Warning! One only wants to open the fully light-blocking curtain a crack. The sun is brighter than bright. Believe me, flinging the curtain wide open will instantly fry your brain and send you spasm’ing to the floor. It hurts even when sober. The combined toilet and shower rooms are huge in Thailand. You could swing a cat in one and only mark one wall.

2. Okay, coffee  and cigs beckon. But so does the shaded balcony. Love my balcony, as long as it’s not in direct sunlight.  It’s about this time too that you might turn the a/c off and just have the floor fan running and sliding balcony doors open. First, check the air on the balcony. I don’t mind the heat, except in March and April and May. In my second apartment in Bangkok, on soi 22, Sukumvit, I had loads of choice for good coffee within 2 to 3 minutes’ walk. So I’d go either to the Thai vendor or foreigner-oriented cafe, with its nice shaded outdoor terrace. However, the Thai vendor’s espresso is 20 baht for a stiff single, the Parrot’s 110 baht for a double. There’s an hour or so covered.

3. Time to go back to the apartment with a takeout espresso and write or research. Then think about the day. No thinking allowed while drinking first couple of espressos, sometimes joining  my friend Franki, a 70-year-old Italian (who looks fit and 55, see top photo) married to a 25-year-old northeastern Thai girl who sometimes visits the City of Angels to get away from the village. Eat? What? Where? When? In Thailand this is as complicated as life gets. (Okay, later I’ll introduce you to the other Thai life  complication: Drink when? Where? What?)

4. Time to think about getting a nice, energizing noodle soup. I struck out on soups on the upper end of soi 22, which is at Sukhumvit Road, a favourite of tourists, and sometimes ended up going up to Washington Square (see Google map) where there’s a selection of good food restaurants -- see Google map, the square just to the right of soi 22 at Sukhumvit) for western brekkie at foreigner owned restos there, usually the Silver Dollar. I really miss my soi 36 Sukhumvit apartment, with a grand choice of soup vendors, especially the alleyway leading to the Lady Gunn Apartments.

5. There’s a good Irish owned cafe/bar not 1 minute from my soi 22 serviced apartment.  Franki, who I met in my last 10 days there, suggested it. I’d seen it before but the two small tables outside were often occupied by several blokes who seemed a little too weathered for my tastes. The place turned out to have a good variety of western and Thai food. I had a tasty chicken fried rice. Well, time for another espresso and back down to the little corner Thai coffee vendor. It’s perched right on the tip of a narrow little soi (side street, Sai Nam Thip) alongside a 7-11 and motorcycle taxi stand. Comfortable table and chairs (one set), nice young Thai couple run it and it’s a great people (ahem!) watching spot.  Can I be blamed if 8 out of 10 pedestrians are girls?!?! Even had a few sit with us for a juice. Thais are not coffee drinkers, per se.

6. Back to the apartment for a shower, No. 2 and change of clothes. And check of blog and messages. Between noon to 2 p.m., the occasional SMS arrives and phone call. Darn, didn’t know it was getting close to decision time. What to do tonight and when and where. Some bar names being bandied about, with maybe an early start.  OMG! 4 p.m.! That’s only two hours away! Better get some stuff done.

Okay, that’s long enough to be boring people. More in part 2.

Beauty comes in many forms in Nakhon Phanom

A ferry crosses the Mekong from Laos to Thailand, at Nakhon Phanom. Shows off the beauty of the Lao side.

Another beautiful feature is the riverside promenade in Nakhon Phanom.

And yet another beautiful feature of Nakhon Phanom, very pretty girls crossing a major street in town.

A nearby river can sometimes give a town a very pretty setting. Nakhon Phanom certainly benefits from the storied Mekong, which separates Thailand from the Lao PDR, represented by the much smaller but lovely Tha Khek. The small Thai city also benefits from the stunningly beautiful  jungle hills on the Lao side as well as some of its own significant temples and hillsides.

But I’m going to  give Nakhon Phanom the beauty crown overall. While I spent too-short a time in the river city and have promised myself to go back soon, I came away impressed by the number of beautiful girls I saw around the place. My Isaan tour started in the sizeable city of Ubon Ratchathani where I doddled for an extra two days, four in all. I now regret my laziness. I should have moved on sooner and enjoyed more time in  NP.

I took a five-hour milk run bus ride from Ubon, passing through Mukdahan. I’d left Ubon  in an unsatisfied state of mind. After I disembarked at the small bus station in NP and set off on a back soi transit on a three-wheeler taxi to a hotel, I was already far ahead of Ubon in my count of pretty girls. Upon stretching my legs in front of the Windsor Hotel, my mood was buoyant. Not all the pretties had left for Bangkok, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Phuket. Of course, your mileage may vary, but this was the so-called high season and yet Nakhon Phanom seemed ripe with surprises . And they were not shy of staring at the white stranger.

I met a young Austrian traveller that evening and he was tired of the place after two days there. While I accepted his observation that first evening, I walked a lot of the town the next day and frankly, I think the town needs a fairer shake. Yes, it’s small, yes, the evenings could be quiet, the bars and restaurants on two late week-day evenings were largely empty, the traffic really thinned out, but somehow I think the place deserves another look. And so I shall later this year.

I rather liked the wide open main streets. The smaller, narrower ones closer to the riverside, were interesting and sprinkled with bars, karaokes, restaurants and yes, some shacks. Not pretty. Here's a Thai town that, if it shows some foresight, could beautify its setting even more by cleaning up some of the riverside properties. Still, it has a beautiful riverside promenade. It probably won't be long before more is done.

An American expat I met in Ubon had lived in NP for a year. He said that if you are a single person, you will likely find the place rather disappointing but if you married a local girl, you would find your life a busy one. You would also enjoy the quiet and the beauty of the province and Lao. Oh, almost forgot: he said the most beautiful Thai girls come from the southern portion of the province, from the ethnic clan, the Phu Tai. I wouldn’t recognize  a Phu Tai look, but a beautiful girl rarely escapes my radar.

The hotel cost me 350 baht a night. The room had long ago seen better days but the air-con worked, there was good water pressure and the bed was big and comfortable. I also had a nice fourth-floor view of a major street and the Lao hills.

   

   

   

   

   

   


The first evening I ate at an outdoor street market. First I had one of those thick, Thai coffee sludges with condensed milk. Love this stuff. I was attended to by no less than three smiling ladies at the coffee cart. Then came a delicious khao mun gai (sliced chicken on rice but with no spicy ginger sauce, although there was a chili sauce). I complimented the sole female vendor who struggled to ask me if I was alone (using the term “one”, which I didn’t get for a moment or two) and said she was alone. Hint, hint.

I collected a number of smiles that night. I don’t know but I must have been looking particularly handsome that night. Maybe my wallet was showing. I noticed that the younger girls, gliding by on scooters or walking,  were not shy about looking at the stranger. It was altogether the opposite of  Ubon. Maybe they're shy in Ubon and in NP, not so much. Or just more curious.

Later, I bumped into my Austrian acquaintance, which is easy to do in such a small city centre. We checked out a country fair, a concert venue, the overflowing Indochina Market, then a couple of karaokes (including one populated by three ladyboys, though we didn’t know that before we walked in), a disco kind of place and a bar or two. Action was to be had but the spirit was weak, on my part.

The next day I knew I was going to go to the Lao PDR, crossing the Mekong to Tha Khek. While I gave some thought the next day to staying on, I had to be in Vientiane on the weekend to forage for motorcycles for our Lao tour.

Nakhon Phanom is a pretty town, in a beautiful setting, great location (being on the Mekong and near Lao and Cambodia borders), friendly people (hotel clerk, who spoke pretty good English, insisted on taking me across the street to tell the Thai-speaking lady what I wanted to eat), lovely girls, great international market, good food, and a town with air service direct to Bangkok.

I’ll be back. 

LINKS

• The Tourism Authority of Thailand's very helpful website describes Nakhon Phanom
• TAT's map of Nakhon Phanom
• Stickman writes glowing report of the City of Hills
  
• Talen at Thailand, Land of Smiles reports on one of the finest, ancient features of the province, namely Wat Phra Tat Phanom, just one story among a huge collection of stories and photos on the province.