When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon that closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us. – Alexander Graham Bell
Wednesday, October 2, 2013 (DAYS 576 - 589)
This afternoon I am moving hostels, partly out of not wanting to support a business that had me working almost 7-days a week and has chosen to kick me out if I didn’t want to pay $10 a night. Already I am feeling so much better, and I haven’t even walked out the door, but I am sitting in the lobby talking with other new friends that are staying at the current Diablo Hostel (Siam Journey Guesthouse) waiting for the downpour to let up. And surprise, surprise Nethan is supposed to be working but is not even at the hostel and I feel bad because other guests that knew I was managing were asking if they could print their flight itineraries, or get change, or even some other simple questions. Well the second I tried to login to the hostel computer to assist these guests, that I now consider great friends, I apologize and tell them that Nethan has changed everything unfortunately I cannot help them. There is also a girl that is waiting to see if we have an open bed for the night and just by looking on her face I can tell she is exhausted. I sit and talk with her and tell her the same thing, that unfortunately since I no longer have access to the computer system I am unsure if there is a bed available, because the whiteboard that when I was working was always up to date, was never done by Nethan and so I couldn’t trust if there was a bed. So after a few hours she decided to leave and find another place to stay and I wouldn’t be surprised if a negative Trip Advisor review will be appearing.
Well the torrential rain has let up just enough, and so just after 12:30pm I make it to the busy Phaya Thai Road where I am refused by 5 different taxi drivers to take me to Soi Rambutree Road, the other side of town, which is only a 15-minute drive. Finally, an elderly man agrees to take me there for 100 THB ($3.21) and by now I am already covered in a mix of light rain and sweat from the humidity. Stumbling upon Lamphu House, several days early in my wander walking tour of Bangkok, this hostel is amazing with a prime location. First of all the hostel is tucked between a few other structures and is about 100 yards from the bustling Rambutree Road and is less than a 5-minute walk from the world famous Khaosan Road. When you first walk around the corner past the one billionth 7 Eleven that is scattered throughout Bangkok, there is a large amazing courtyard with tons of chairs, a restaurant, and a handful of amenities–this truly is a full service hostel. While there are no dorms, this hostel provides private rooms (doubles, triples, even two doubles) for more than a $1 a day night cheaper than Siam Journey Guesthouse for their 10-bed dorm that over the previous past few days had some type of B.O. (body odor for the internationals) that smelled worse than used a used diaper filled with Indian food, seriously. It was often so rank when opening the door to the dorm that I felt embarrassed that this is where they would be sleeping. Even when I attempted to leave just the fan on all day, the smell had nowhere to escape, but continued to build up it seemed.
This afternoon I am moving hostels, partly out of not wanting to support a business that had me working almost 7-days a week and has chosen to kick me out if I didn’t want to pay $10 a night. Already I am feeling so much better, and I haven’t even walked out the door, but I am sitting in the lobby talking with other new friends that are staying at the current Diablo Hostel (Siam Journey Guesthouse) waiting for the downpour to let up. And surprise, surprise Nethan is supposed to be working but is not even at the hostel and I feel bad because other guests that knew I was managing were asking if they could print their flight itineraries, or get change, or even some other simple questions. Well the second I tried to login to the hostel computer to assist these guests, that I now consider great friends, I apologize and tell them that Nethan has changed everything unfortunately I cannot help them. There is also a girl that is waiting to see if we have an open bed for the night and just by looking on her face I can tell she is exhausted. I sit and talk with her and tell her the same thing, that unfortunately since I no longer have access to the computer system I am unsure if there is a bed available, because the whiteboard that when I was working was always up to date, was never done by Nethan and so I couldn’t trust if there was a bed. So after a few hours she decided to leave and find another place to stay and I wouldn’t be surprised if a negative Trip Advisor review will be appearing.
Well the torrential rain has let up just enough, and so just after 12:30pm I make it to the busy Phaya Thai Road where I am refused by 5 different taxi drivers to take me to Soi Rambutree Road, the other side of town, which is only a 15-minute drive. Finally, an elderly man agrees to take me there for 100 THB ($3.21) and by now I am already covered in a mix of light rain and sweat from the humidity. Stumbling upon Lamphu House, several days early in my wander walking tour of Bangkok, this hostel is amazing with a prime location. First of all the hostel is tucked between a few other structures and is about 100 yards from the bustling Rambutree Road and is less than a 5-minute walk from the world famous Khaosan Road. When you first walk around the corner past the one billionth 7 Eleven that is scattered throughout Bangkok, there is a large amazing courtyard with tons of chairs, a restaurant, and a handful of amenities–this truly is a full service hostel. While there are no dorms, this hostel provides private rooms (doubles, triples, even two doubles) for more than a $1 a day night cheaper than Siam Journey Guesthouse for their 10-bed dorm that over the previous past few days had some type of B.O. (body odor for the internationals) that smelled worse than used a used diaper filled with Indian food, seriously. It was often so rank when opening the door to the dorm that I felt embarrassed that this is where they would be sleeping. Even when I attempted to leave just the fan on all day, the smell had nowhere to escape, but continued to build up it seemed.
After checking in to, what could have been the Presidential Suite at the Rio that we’ve stayed at numerous times, my glorious private twin bed room is equally as inviting and is located on the second floor and has two windows facing the outdoor, while several other rooms have windows, but they face the interior hallways. Paying 270 THB ($8.60) a night for the heavenly room, the first several days is spent catching up on all of the sleep that I was deprived up from my slave interment camp. After I was able to feel like a normal human being with a regular sleep pattern, a few other guests from Siam Journey Guesthouse join me by moving to Lamhpu House. Plus I am excited as I have several other friends that are arriving in Bangkok and before we know it, we have quite the international squad, yet again. Advice for those that run or operate hostels and have no idea the absolute importance of backpacker’s recommendations we give one another, especially about places to stay. Yes, you have Trip Advisor and other online review sites, but guess what owners, your business can die or be revived within a single month by some bad reviews whether they are by word of mouth or living forever on the Internet. Unfortunately because Nethan chose to reveal the character that he truly has, he has not only missed out on so many of my friends that came to visit and stay for multiple days and gain their recommendation as they travel and tell their friends since they are spending months in Southeast Asia (networking at it’s speediest), but when my friends arrived, of course they asked why I wasn’t working at Siam Journey Guesthouse because they wanted to come and stay there and see where I was working. Immediately after hearing what my experience was they took to this place and added it to their blacklist of places to never stay and to recommend to others to avoid just because you build a repoire with people backpacking that is unlike anything you can quite explain. One of my great friends met me in Bangkok after a tumultuous adventure to get here from LAX to Frankfurt to Barcelona to Istanbul to Abu Dhabi and finally after I think 5-days later arrived in Bankgok. She also helped me realize and we were impressed that she told me that I was her only friend that has met her on 3 different continents, from our introductory meeting in Peru back in March. Well after spending time with friends I was miraculously able to catch up on more than 11 months of blogging! Whew it’s been an incredible few weeks and a great lead up to traveling back to my homeland of South Korea!
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