I takes me an hour and 15 minutes to get to work from Pinklao. From my condo, I walk about two minutes to the pedestrian bridge, then take a 20 baht motorcycle to the river. From there, I take a 15 baht express boat to the Saphan Taksin Skytrain station. Thai people laugh when I tell them I take a boat to work, but the boat is great. There’s no traffic to worry about, and it only makes two stops, so it is really fast.

Then it’s 20 baht to take the Skytrain to the Thong Lo station, switching trains at the Siam station. Riding the Silom line in the morning is great, because it isn’t too crowded, and I can usually get a seat. The Sukhumvit line from Siam to Thong Lo isn’t bad either, since it is headed out of town. When I rode the train from Victory Monument to Siam, it sucked, because the train was always jam packed.

From the Thong Lo station, it’s another 20 baht motorcycle ride to my school. The total cost is 150 baht a day. If I lived in Silom, my commute would cost 80 baht a day. If I consider late night taxi rides home, living in Silom would save about 2000 baht a month. So, apartments are indeed cheaper the further away you get, but your transportation costs will increase.

I looked at the apartment again Tuesday night. It is small, but not too bad. I have been talking to the owner’s son. The owner will be back from England on Friday night, so I will talk price with her then. Yes, these people own a building in the most expensive part of Bangkok, so they are quite rich.

I found out that not only would I have a friend down the street, another friend is living in the next building. He has one of the 1 bedroom units the son said cost 15,000, but he’s paying 12,000. So I should definitely be able to pay 8,000 instead of the 10,000 quoted to me.

A thing about the apartment I’m not crazy about is that there are housekeepers living on the ground floor, so to get up to my apartment, I would have to go through their area. Also, you have to take your shoes off before you come in.

The Harley Davidson express

The other day the motorcycle driver had a real Harley. That is extremely unusual. Normally they have little Honda Dreams with tiny engines. But this guy had a full-blown Harley. He also wasn’t wearing a motorcycle taxi driver vest. I guess he was paying for his bike by doing some taxi-ing on the side. It was my first time on a Harley, and I actually didn’t like it. It was so powerful, I almost flew off every time he shifted gears. I imagine it’s more fun if you’re driving.

Trips to Cambodia

At 3 am Tuesday night, I decided I should go home and get some sleep. When I got home around 3:30, I figured there would be no way I would wake up at 6, so aborted the mission. Maybe I’ll try again on Sunday. But I might be moving this weekend. There’s really no rush, but the sooner I do it, the sooner I’ll get my work permit.