Bangkok building a pattern

A few days ago we discovered the Soi 11 area, a 4 square block bit of the city that we feel very at home with. We have a restaurant that we now go to for breakfast and then split up for our school-blog days. We often return to the Soi 11 later for dinner, the market or a cocktail before we head home for the day. We even have our own Tuk-Tuk driver here that for the huge price of $3 takes us home every night. Since this rate is about 4x the going rate, he looks for us. We appreciate this as it is worth the price not to have to explain where we are going. The condo is centrally located, but somewhat off the beaten path as it is a 24-story building set in the middle of a 1/2/3 story neighborhood filled with Thai residents, not visitors, ergo...many taxi drivers don't know this corner of Bangkok.

Today I secure a phone card and we take up the habit of calling the hotel every day or two.

When we meet up again, we go back to the Bang Lamphoo area, the backpackers haven with the books published in English. We actually comparison shop and buy the Bangkok Lonely Planet, circa 2004. I would have liked to get the whole Thailand book, but it was too fat to carry in my bag and the other was not. The final selling negotiation point was that I would be able to return the book and get half of my money back. A deal I am now certain she makes with everyone...who has time to return when you still need or want the book with you through your final day? So, I have an older edition Bangkok Lonely Planet book that I will let go at a very good price!

A note on a choosing the right guide book: a 2004 publication is too old when it is 2007 and the content likely went to press in 2003! It was a useful tool for maps but several of the suggestions were no longer in operation and the politics of the country had changed a bit, what with a coup in May of 2006 and the opening of the airport in September....Get a current guide. This is a lesson I should have learned in my many years with Karen Brown's Guides where they diligently update every year for this exact reason.