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Where To Stay In Soi Ngam Dupli, The Old Backpacker Area Of Bangkok
We had decided to try the Soi Ngam Dupli neighbourhood of Bangkok after reading James Clark’s post on this backpacker forerunner to the KSR. Having bedded down now in several different areas of Bangkok we were intrigued by this faded but possibly about to come up part of town. We thought reasonable proximity to Lumphini Park an added bonus.
Sri Bumphen Plus
Sri Bumphen Plus was our first choice for where to stay on arrival in Bangkok after our flights but we decided against once we realised we were unlikely to make their 9pm check in time.
This turned out to be a good decision both because we wouldn’t have made it on time and because we – mostly me – were largely unsatisfied with our stay here.
On the face of it Sri Bumphen Plus offered a good, clean room with a particularly pleasant bathroom but I should have been tipped off that all wasn’t right for me within the first few minutes when trying to book our room.
After standing awhile beside the road with our bags while Deirdre went off in search of rooms I searched on a map for Miggy’s Guesthouse, mentioned in James’ post, but unable to find it instead noticed we must have passed Sri Bumphen Plus. Once Deirdre came back empty handed it was my turn to scout around and despite literally seconds earlier having agreed we should budget our accommodation at 500thb I quickly found Sri Bumphen Plus set back slightly from the road, walked in and paid 720thb for the night.
This wasn’t quite as straight forward as I make it sound. To get this rate I had to book online otherwise it would be 800thb so after they divvyed up the password to their connection I stood in front of the two staff and attempted but failed to make the booking.
Clearly not being able to get online via their wifi was my fault but a solution was offered by (I assume) the manager who entered my details via her smart phone into Booking.com. After a reluctance to enter our credit card details into her phone I paid over the counter, plus a 1000thb deposit should we run amok, went and fetched Deirdre and accepted a deduction in brownie points and a couple of days of on off nagging for paying more than we agreed.
From then on the wifi soured my relationship with the manager. Though it eventually got going on the reception connection the open wifi on the floors that reached our room was dire.
But what really annoyed me was after having noticed a password protected signal that perhaps might work better the manager insisted all the passwords, including the one I tried written on our door, were the same and, rather than give me it there and then, insisted I go back to our room and reread it from the sign on our door. It didn’t work and she’d gone for the night by the time I walked back down the stairs.
I rarely dislike people working in hotels and hostels, finding indifference from people working in customer service amusing rather than annoying, but send me up two flights of stairs because you can’t be bothered and you have an enemy for life.
I should point out that Deirdre rubbed along fine with the staff and my experience might not be repeated for you but to sum up: clean, smallish room, comfortable bed, good bathroom, aircon, tv, no fridge, free coffee in reception, shit wifi, gobshite manager.
Sri Bumphen Plus, 32/1-3 Soi Sribumphen, Rama 4 Rd., Sathorn, Sathorn, Bangkok, 10120, Thailand
Malaysia Guest House, Bangkok, Thailand
Don’t confuse the Malaysia Guest House with the nearby Malaysia Hotel. I haven’t been in the other, where the Wheelers once stayed and scribbled down a bit of the first Lonely Planet guide (available free here for Kindle), but I suspect they are very different animals.
Our Malaysia is a cheapie option just off Soi Sribumphen. After being castigated for walking into the first place I found and paying over our budget at the disappointing Sri Bumphen Plus, Deirdre resolved straight away to show me the error of my ways. I might point out here that, sure, she paid less but only tried one place too, walking around the corner to the Malaysia and negotiating the 500thb rate down to 450thb if we stayed three nights and didn’t go mad with the aircon, plus a 200 thb key deposit.
They had builders in but they confined their banging and shouting for an hour or so around 8am before taking a break for a bit of spot welding around lunch time and then seeming to call it a day.
Reception doubles as a travel agent and the whole operation appears to be family run with granny getting into her jimjams to snore like a train under a desk each night.
They were likeable and friendly, in a we have your cash and will never see you again way, and we kept them amused each day with our failure to remember to swipe our keyring, pulling or pushing violently on the front door instead.
Our room was windowless and sparsely furnished with a bed and a TV, though it looked clean. This is a place to crash but not much else. There is no communal area for an awake partner to do anything other than lie in the dark while the other sleeps, though there is a table outside the building. Couples will do well to sync their sleeping patterns here. Ours weren’t. Wifi is good for the most part but flits in and out for anything a bit more heavy duty than email, social media and browsing.
Our room had a private bathroom, except it wasn’t at all private. Built into the room as an afterthought the walls didn’t go all the way to the ceiling. The shower is above the toilet, the sink outside, in the room itself, and water drained slowly, though the water is hot.
On leaving we forgot to claim our deposit for the key. Our fault I guess but I feel it should have been handed over without needing to ask. You owe us 200 baht granny!
Malaysia Guest House, 4 Thung Maha Mek, Sathon, Bangkok 10120
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