Going Thai in Budapest

Yaay, I got it! I’m going! Yippee!!”

That’s what I was yelling on top of the Buda mountains, jumping around like a lunatic, holding a little blue booklet in my hand. I can almost see the dear reader asking now with a confused expression: did poor SiamJai go crazy?

Nay… at least, not in the traditional sense.  I am just excited because Cherry and I got one step closer to our grand plan. That is, I got my first Thai visa in my shiny new passport, meaning that Cherry and I are going to be together again in a few weeks! This is surely a good reason for excitement, especially considering that we parted in Chiang Mai almost a year ago. Although we’ve spent a wonderful month together in Hungary since then, the wait alone was still too long! And now our new life is about to start.

Going Thai in Budapest
So, back to the namesake topic of this post, I’d like to talk a bit about the Thai embassy in Budapest. You know, our blog stats show a surprising number of visits to one of our previous entries titled “Going French in Chiang Mai“, a short but informative blog about the French Embassy there. I hope that this entry will be just as useful to some of our readers. 

How to find the Thai Embassy in Budapest?
Okay, first you gotta know the address:

Then you gotta find a way to actually get to the Embassy. It’s fairly easy if you’re a local, but if you’re not, here is a quick low-down:

1. Use Subway no. 2 to get to Batthyany Square Station.
2. Exit the station; immediately in front of you will be Bus No. 11. Take it.
3. Go fourteen stops with the bus, get off at “Csatarka ut”. (If you’re lucky, the driver is gonna announce each station in advance, and there is an electric board that shows destination names as well.)
4. Finally go across Csatarka street and walk straight uphill on the road before you. Just about when the hill is about to get less steep, turn right on a new street called “Verecke ut”. Follow the road until you see the oh-so-lovely Thai flag on a building! 

Too confusing? Click on the map to your left, that should make things a bit more clear. Though I marked Southern Train Station as the starting point, you can use this map as a reference from anywhere as long as it’s connected to a station in the No. 2 Subway.

First Impressions
The first thing coming to my mind about that trip is the long, tiring climb to the top of the hill where the Embassy is situated. I recall Betti mentioning this a while ago, but I didn’t think it’s gonna be this steep! Actually, the hill itself is not that high; the problem is the long, straight road leading to the top! It seems like the city planners never heard of the serpentine concept. 😐

Anyway, once I got to the top, I knew what the pilgrims must’ve felt when they climbed the holy mountain to see the wise hermit on top. My “hermit” lived in a small building that didn’t look any different from the others surrounding it, save for the familiar Thai flag blowing in the wind. What a beautiful sight it was! 

But then I stepped inside…