Part 1
For anybody who knows me, and my dislike of the Isaan Region of Thailand, you will be asking, “Why Buriram? It’s as Isaan as Isaan gets.” The answer is simple, Buriram is the home of Thailand’s top football team, with a stadium to match. I’d been promising myself a visit for about 10 years, and with a travelling time of about 8 hours and 30 minutes each way (without roadworks and stops), it was a bit far for a day trip. So, I decided to go for a few days, and explore the area a little. Most of my research indicated that everything there was to see in Buriram could be seen in a day, but I generously allowed 3 days + 2 days for travel for my visit.
Day 1 - 22 November 2022
As part of my journey planning, I checked Google Maps, and I had an 8 hour 30 minute journey ahead of me. My car was kitted out with 2 oxygen bottles, and an oxygen condenser for when we got to the hotel. Wheelchair secured in the back, and all luggage on the back seat. The weather forecast was atrocious, so we didn’t want it getting wet.
To make sure I arrived in daylight, we set off at 07:05. Having become obsessed (to the point of paranoia) with speed cameras lately, I was running Google Maps in conjunction with the Radarbot app on my phone, and I also had my whispering radar detector on the dashboard. I must say, I did not realise Thailand was so sophisticated with speed camera technology. OK, having Radarbot and the radar detector working side by side, it became clear that only about 25% of cameras were actually working, but that was a hell of a lot of cameras between Hua Hin and Buriram. There must have been 30 or 40 working cameras.
There were 5 areas where the cameras could only be considered as ‘entrapment’. The speed limit suddenly dropped from 90 to 60 for no apparent reason, with a traffic camera not far ahead. Almost as soon as the camera was cleared, the speed limit was raised again. Whilst the cameras in the 80, 90 and 120 areas were not going to catch me out (I don’t drive fast) the 5 ‘entrapment’ cameras almost did.
I was wondering, in the 120kph zones, where there is a 100 minimum speed limit (traffic plodding along at maybe 75) do the cameras zap you if doing less than the minimum 100kph speed limit?
OK, enough about my paranoia, lets move on to the journey. Everything was going great until we got to Samut Sakhon. Of course, I knew there would be delays here, but I’d timed the journey to miss the worst of the traffic, not. Samut Sakhon to Bangkok took just over 2 hours. Then when I got to the first toll road, I was wondering what I’d paid my 50฿ toll for (tolls cost 135฿ in total on the outbound journey). It took over an hour to get to Rama IX Bridge – what are they doing? Building a second bridge just inches from the current bridge? So that had put over 3 hours on my 8 hour 30 minute journey.
I hadn’t done this route for quite a few years, such is my hate for Isaan, and it was amazing how the roads had changed. The most notable was the new road alongside the huge lake just before Korat. Such a monstrous eyesore in an area of outstanding beauty. I couldn’t help wondering what would happen to the many hospitality businesses that had grown up between the old road and the lake. It will probably put hundreds, if not thousands out of work, and it is such an eyesore in a beautiful area. The other major change was the number of buildings that had shot up in areas of what was previously countryside.
We arrived at Buriram just before 6pm (it was dark! – another cunning plan out of the window), and that is when the fun began. I pushed Mrs BB into the hotel, and we tried to check in. We were booked on the top floor, and I could see the receptionists looking at each other. “We don’t have an elevator.” I tell them they do, because I wouldn’t have booked into a hotel without facilities for a wheelchair. They blamed the booking agent – Agoda. At the end of the day, even though the computer said yes, there was no elevator.
To cut a long story short, they placed us into the horrible hotel (it did grow on me slowly), next door, which cost less than I’d paid per night. Mrs BB even had to sit on a tiled floor to use her oxygen condenser – no table or dressing table to put it on. I was talking with Agoda, demanding an explanation and compensation. Even contacting Agoda was like trying to contact the dead. They promise a response within 60 minutes. It was over 2 hours before they responded. That was going to be an ongoing battle, and I will update you as I proceed with my story. It isn’t the first time they’ve falsely advertised. Remember our bungalow on Koh Samui? That too was supposed to be wheelchair friendly.
Today’s photos are only of the replacement hotel l + the advertised facilities at our booked hotel. Photos will get more interesting as the story continues.
To put is as nicely as I can, they absolutely ruined day 1 of the trip. Was this an omen for the rest of the week?
NB: Because of hotels in Thailand threatening legal action when people tell the truth, I will not mention hotel names.
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…………………………./ To be continued
