My hotel was near the famous Bangla walking street filled with restaurants, bars, and go-go bars. Unfortunately, the driver dropped me off at another now closed Amici Miei Guesthouse about 5 blocks from the one that was still open.
Although the staff was very friendly, and the place was just 525 Baht—$16 USD—per night, I was disappointed to see that the room had no windows and there was some mold in the shower grout.
When I entered the Bangla walking street, they had everyone entering do a temperature check and hand sanitizing. I found my way to the seafood food court where many of the staff were putting up tents over their yellow tables and chair because they expected rain.
Right after I ordered, the rains came—gentle at first and then a downpour. I was one of the few customers that remained eating. When I finished, I bought an umbrella for just 100 Baht, so I could walk about a bit checking out the various venues. Most of the beer bars filled with beer hostesses were open, but I did not see any go-go bars nor were the girls or ladyboys doing pole dancing at the beer bars like the last time I was here.
I had attended Lake Washington Senior High School in Kirkland, WA and our mascot was a kangaroo so I enjoyed taking a picture of this namesake bar.
Along the beachfront, there was also a group of energetic Zumba dancers following their leaders.
The following day, it continued to rain throughout the day which precluded some beach time.
By evening the rains had dissipated so the Bangla walking street along with its many beer bars was filled with customers. I even found a couple of go-go bars that were discretely open in some of the passageways past the beer bars.
Again, I enjoyed a number of live band performances before heading back to the hotel for an early morning departure.
One of the things that I had not mentioned before is that there is universal mask-wearing along the streets, public, and private transportation—everywhere except when you are eating or drinking which kind of explains why so many people like to linger in bars and restaurants. I saw this mural along the beach road that sums up what people feel about COVID 19.
I was planning to take a bus back to Bangkok which would have been a 15-hour long agonizing bus ride, but Rita, the travel agent, who I started to book the bus, told me I should fly back since it would only be an hour and a half and cost just about 700 Baht more. The Lion Air—famous for the 737 MAX crash—the flight was 1,600 Baht—$50 USD— and the private taxi was 400 Baht. If I had taken the bus, it was about 900 Baht plus a 400 Baht taxi to the bus station.
One aside about Lion Air and the Boeing 737 MAX crash is that I watched the newly released Netflix documentary called “Downfall, The Case Against Boeing” which chronicles how corporate greed overruled engineering safety. Engineering safety was the hallmark of Boeing when it was located in Seattle before it merged with McDonnell-Douglas and moved its headquarters to Chicago. It then became a financial management company and began to emphasize quarterly stockholder profits over engineering safety and quality control.
There was lots of blame to throw around among the regulators like FAA and Boeing which covered up its engineering faults by blaming the pilots and foreign air companies. Truly shameful. There should have been criminal penalties instead of civil monetary settlements.
Rita, my travel agent, met me just before 7 am to drive me to the Phuket airport about an hour drive for 400 Baht since the shuttle buses would not have gotten me there in time. On the way to the airport she told me that with COVID 19, she had shut her booking/tour company for about 2 years and had just reopened it about 3 months ago when foreign tourists were again allowed to re-enter Thailand. She said she only drives the car for customers. Otherwise, to get to work, she shares a motorbike with a neighbor and splits the gas expenses when she comes to work.
It was a comfortable and full flight. We landed at the Don Muang Airport which used to be the main international airport before the new one was built. I walked out of the airport and took some stairs down to the roadway where I caught the first bus and asked to be dropped off at the nearest SkyTrain station. It cost just 20 Baht and the SkyTrain was another 44 Baht to the Nana Station just a block from the Majestic Suites where I would stay for two nights before heading to Ko Samet for a week.
I have recently uploaded all of my travel videos to YouTube now that they allow longer uploads and you may want to see my Peru Adventures there as well as my other travel videos. That link is https://www.youtube.com/c/huntforgold
If you do go there, please subscribe to my video channel since it will help me eventually get some income there and help with my future travels. Fewer people are using DVDs so I am transitioning to streaming my travels on my YouTube channel.
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