When I was still on the planning stage of my trip, I discovered Shambara Guesthouse. It looks great in the pictures, and every site I came upon have rave reviews for Shambara, from travelers who have stayed there before. I wanted to stay in Khao San Road, and Shambara’s the best guesthouse in the area for me.

However, I learned that neither the BTS or the MRT have a station anywhere near Banglamphu. I don’t want to depend on taxis to get around Bangkok, and I was still wary about the Chao Praya River Express. But still, I wanted to see what’s all the fuss about Shambara. Luckily enough, the Lomprayah bus that I will be taking from Ko Pha Ngan will have its last stop at Khao San Road, so I reserved one night in Shambara.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 54% [?]

If there’s one word to describe Hostel Thailand, it’s “narrow.”

The second word would be “tall” (the building), the third would be “clean,” and the fourth would be “friendly.”

Narrow
Upon arriving at the Hostel’s doorstep, you are faced with a glass door and a small landing leading up to a staircase going up to the 2nd floor where the “lobby” is. I doubt if the width of each floor would go over 4 meters.

In each floor, there are 3 rooms: 6-bed dorm, 4-bed dorm, and single/private room. There were only bunk beds in all the rooms, leaving you with just enough space to turn around.

On each floor, there are two toilet and baths, which are really just cubicles. Outside the cubicles, there’s a sink, a mirror and a clothes rack to hang and dry your wet towels and laundry

Tall
Since the space was narrow, it’s only logical that the building is tall. So on the first floor, we have the small landing and stairs and the lobby, office and computer terminals on the second floor. The rooms are on the 3rd, 4th and 5th floors.

Going up four flights of stairs may not be the greatest thing to encounter after a long day of travelling, but it pushes you closer to sleep. Which is good, because their mattress and pillows aren’t great sleep-inducers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 17% [?]