Trifter

So you’ve finally set foot in the Land of the Smiles. You’ve booked into your cell, successfully avoided the tuk-tuk drivers and their lucrative claims to take you anywhere for 10 Baht, you’ve had your first taste of Khao San Road and the delicious pad Thai, but still you feel something is amiss.

Didn’t you come to Thailand to see how Thai people live?

Didn’t you expect more?

Fear not because the solution to all your problems is at hand… in the form of public transport! If you really want to see what BKK is like and ‘do as the Romans do’, the only option is to step into the great unknown by stepping onto a bus!

Bangkok offers three types of buses to suit every traveler’s purse strings. For the Velcro budget there is the 20 baht (33p) air-conditioned orange bus, for the shoestring budget may I suggest the 8 Baht (12p) non-airconditoned but still fairly spacious blue bus, and for the flip-flop budget there’s the non-too-spacious, fume inhaling green bus for a whopping 6.5 Baht (I’m not even going to bother working what that is in sterling.)

Alternatively there is also the barefoot budget, which actually works out to be the most expensive after you’ve stressed a lot, sweated buckets, supped a lot of water (at 5 Baht a pop) and sprained an ankle.

Whilst your fellow travelers are paying through the nose to follow the crowd and rub shoulders with one another, you’ll be rubbing shoulders with Thais (literally if the bus is crowded) and getting a taste of colourful customs and culture. Sit back, relax, and let your eyes soak in the world as it plays past your window.

All this traveling is hungry work, so next stop is a Thai restaurant. Who needs air-conditioning when you don’t have to sweat about the price of your meal? For 20-30 baht you can eat pretty much anything you want; just point to what you want and smile.

Did you remember your bus number? I hope so! If you did just cross the road and retrace your footsteps, if not then it’s time to take a taxi, but a word of advise: don’t ask how much but rather just say your destination and jump in. By law taxi drivers are supposed to use the metre. If the driver refuses (which 95% of the time he won’t) just get out and wave goodbye to the 5 %.