One thing has to be said for the public transport in Bangkok and that is that it is really excellent. This includes the bus service which is one of the cheapest ways to see the city, it will also give you an insite into the true Bangkok that perhaps you wouldn't see if you were using other forms of transit.
I have a very dear friend called Richard who I had the good fortune to meet at my favourite hostel in Bangkok and since meeting we tend to hang out together whenever we coincide in the city. Now I have to tell you a little bit about this wonderful man, apart from being drop dead gorgeous (oh to be a hundred years younger) never mind I won't dwell on that thought any more, and I will get on with this story. As I said, apart from being drop dead gorgeous, he is also very friendly,extremely kind, outgoing and intelligent. On top of all these dons, Richard is an absolute expert on the buses in Bangkok. It's is amazing! He knows all about the air-con buses, the fan buses and the no air-con, no fan, nothing at all buses, he knows which number buses go to where and from what point they start and end.. Plus he will even tell you what rates they charge for your chosen journey! which by the way, is minimal.
Naturally being aware of Richards great knowledge on Bangkok's cheapest form of transport, when he suggested that we take a wonderful ride from Sukhumvit to Chinatown and go to a fabulous Chinese restaurant near a certain bus stop I was all for it.
One bright and sunny Sunday at almost mid-day found us waiting on the main road near Soi 38, in order to catch the 205 bus, as luck would have it the number 45 arrived first. Richard informed me that this would also take us to Chinatown. Totally confident in my friend's know-how, I happily boarded the bus and spent a great time with the two of us chatting and taking in the views of the city and of course so looking forward to the yummy lunch. Forty five minutes later (estimated time for arrival to our designated bus stop) there we were going through Chinatown. Richard assured me that he would know the point of decent as soon as he saw It.!
Well it was really strange!!! The stop that we were meant to get off at... Didn't appear!! Now If Richard wasn't such an expert on the buses I would have thought he had made a mistake... but please that was impossible, without question it had to be that Thai bus driver didn't know where he was going!! Anyway to continue we went the whole way through Chinatown and still no sign of our stop, I asked myself, "did they move the stop sign to some other part of town??" I mean, you never know what can happen in a city do you!!! We were now leaving that part of the district accompanied by a bus conductor giving us very black looks and irately saying something in Thai, which could only mean that we had overstayed our journey for the fare that we had paid. Then Richard had a simply brilliant idea! This was that we get off the bus and return to our starting point to wait for the 205 bus.
