Guesthouse Name: Bangkok House Guest House
Address: 210 Soi Samsen 1 Lam Pu Road, Khaosan, Bangkok, Thailand
I stayed at the Bangkok House Guest House in the Banglamphu area of Bangkok. I booked it online for $8.90 USD per night.
Banglamphu is probably better known as the Khao San Road area, which is where all the backpacker guesthouses are. This guesthouse is a couple of blocks away from the action so it’s a very quiet place. It is down a side street and then down another alley that runs alongside a Wat (Buddhist temple). You would never find it just by walking around so it was only from booking online that I knew about it.
I booked it as I was staying in the area for a week and I wanted to try out another street away from Khao San Rd. The building intrigued me as well as it’s an traditional old wooden house of which Bangkok used to be built from before the age of concrete. You still see these house in Bangkok, but usually in pockets where urban development hasn’t reached yet. Most of them are run down and rotting into the ground.
This house though is in good condition when you consider its age. The paint job is maintained and the floors and stair railings are smooth and polished. The building creaks with every step and walking around in bare feet adds to the feeling of being in something precious.
I didn’t need this sign to know that it wouldn’t take much for this old house to go up in flames.
I got a single room with shared bathroom facilities. The room was clean and simple and the bed was comfortable. It was very warm though, with the building continuing to radiate heat through the night. Being in such buildings you see how insulation isn’t a consideration in this part of the world. The walls were just the one layer of wood panels, and you could see outside through the occasional old nail hole.
As with many of the budget guesthouses in Thailand they don’t provide a top sheet, and the old electrical wiring meant there was only one power outlet, so my power strip came in handy.
I was on the top floor and the shared bathrooms were downstairs, which was slightly inconvenient. The toilets were ok but the shower I was using had a slow drain which made the floor flood, which is yuck in a shared bathroom situation.
The internet was no problem for connections and there was a breakfast service available for purchase, but I ate out.
Overall I enjoyed the location and just staying in such an interesting old building. The downsides was how hot the rooms got (this was late march – one of the hottest times of year in Bangkok) and the shared bathrooms could have been better as well.
Book the Bangkok House Guest House online or search for more hotels in Bangkok. If you haven’t been to Bangkok then read this first: where to stay in Bangkok.
