Bangkok hostel offers the feel of a real prison
BANGKOK: With its narrow rooms, metal bars and bunk beds, Bangkok’s first prison-themed hostel promises the look and feel of a real jail in the bustling Thai capital.
The Sook Station hostel in Bangkok’s Udom Suk neighbourhood offers guests pin-striped pyjamas for 700 baht (RM90) and a wall with a height chart to take their mugshots.
The nine-room hostel is the first foray into the hospitality industry for Sittichai Chaivoraprug, 55, and his wife Piyanat Teekavanich, 49, after careers in the technology sector.
They were inspired by a shared love of travel and the 1994 prison escape film The Shawshank Redemption, starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins.
The hostel’s design includes blacked-out doors and windows in two rooms to create the feeling of being in solitary confinement, while showers are located on a caged-in rooftop.
For guests who may feel a sense of claustrophobia, seven rooms have a small balcony.
Thailand expects to welcome almost 35 million foreign tourists – nearly half the country’s population – this year.
Many of them visit or transit through Bangkok, a regional travel hub.
Sook Station charges 790 baht to 1,630 baht (RM101 to RM210) a night for the prison-themed experience.
“People love it or hate it,” Sittichai said, adding that most bookings come by word of mouth.
Some guests like Yui, a 42-yearold hotel worker, are repeat customers.
“I feel it’s a real prison because when I arrived, it was dark,” Yui said.
Now on her third stay, she said the hostel’s style and friendly staff “feels like home”. — Reuters