All the way to bustling Min buri

We took a Song Tau to the Minivan station to find out how much it will cost us to get from Hua Hin to Bangkok (there are no trains, buses or vans straight to Min buri – so you have to go to Bangkok and then from there you have to go to Min buri). 

It turned out that we will have to pay 180 baht each and an extra 180 baht for all our luggage (540 baht) – we only had 2500 baht with us and this we needed for food and the hotel until we got paid. So I told Steven to wait at the van station, took his flip flops (remember mine stopped their healthy Puma-life in Lang Suan already) and walked to the train station. Turned out we could get tickets for both of us (and our luggage) for only 92 baht. I went back and discussed with Steven what we should do - we obviously opted for the train – bit more uncomfortable but VERY cheap.

We then moved all our stuff to the train station and waited AGAIN – it was 11:00 and the train was scheduled for 14:00. Another bread-and-cheap-chips-meal and a bottle of water between the two of us for lunch made our tummies somewhat happy.

After what felt like ages the train arrived (ON TIME - WHOOHOOO) and we scrambled to get all our stuff on the train. This was kinda useless since this would be the one train that was on time and waited at the station for about half an hour.

 Soooooo we stood outside, smoked a cigarette, took pictures and got on the train again. At last we started moving and we headed to Bangkok. The relieve was short-lived since the train moved not faster than 45km/h – we had to go 300 kilometers… So Steven and I decided to entertain the rest of our fellow passengers with our brilliant vocal abilities and we sang each and every song that we could think of … 5 times…

We finally arrived in Bangkok at 21:00 that night. Now we somehow had to figure out how to get to Min buri, with almost no money and absolutely no idea where it is or how to get there. So we walked through the MASSIVE Bangkok train-station and went outside to try and orientate ourselves. Once outside a hundred taxi drivers offered to take us to Min buri for 800 baht. We started negotiating and got an offer for 400 baht. We almost took this option but then we remembered that someone said we can take a minivan/bus to Min buri. So we asked the security guards (who could of course speak no English) how we go about to get a bus to Min buri. After a lot of frustration we gathered that we have to go a bit down the street and wait for bus 113 – this will only cost us 20-odd baht each. So again new took the cheaper more inconvenient option.

Well we ended up paying 120 baht for the both of us (still cheaper than the taxi) because the bus lady did not really understood where we were going and just overcharged us for the luggage etc. Now we were on our way to some place that we did not know where it was – HOW WOULD WE KNOW WHERE TO GET OFF??!!!

Luckily a Thai lady that could somewhat understand English heard us talk to the bus lady and she said that she will tell us where to get off. We were overly nervous – since we thought it would only be a few minutes, so after about 30 minutes we started asking the poor lady every 5 minutes if we should get off yet. Turned out we had an hour and a half’s drive from Bangkok to Min buri on the red 113 bus…

A photo the main street in Min Buri:

We arrived in Min buri at about midnight. Now we had to find our hotel and check in. After walking up and down the street a million times we found the hotel hidden behind some buildings.  

The room was 600 baht a night – so we would have to pay 1800 baht for the three nights, which left us with about 500 baht. Wellll until they told us to pay a deposit of 300 baht. And suddenly we had 200 baht to buy food and cigarettes… Oh well. We were tired, there was nowhere else to sleep so we checked in, headed for our room and just passed out on our beds.