My Bangkok Trip ~ Day 1

My day began rather early even though my flight was only after 1pm. Bro was kind to drop me off at the airport before work. Bumped into Eugene, Nianci and family at the brand new Air Asia Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). They were on their way to Indonesia. It was the sign of things to come - for I would bump into Gracie and her gang in Bangkok later on.

LCCT

Since it was a long wait before I could board, I made friends with some of the staff manning the taxi coupon counter. They were a very friendly lot. To my surprise, none of them had ever travelled on an airplane before. Imagine that. Working at the airport day in and day out servicing jet-setting passengers and never being airborne before. It's like working in a candy store and never allowed to dip one's hands into the candy jar. It would have been weird had it not been so sad.

So I took pleasure in narrating to them my first impressions of flying, describing in detail how a plane looks like on the inside and sharing some of travel tales (including my Jakun photo taking sessions) with them. They were all agog and enraptured. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Thus, in their eyes, I was rather like Christopher Columbus. Heh. All too soon, I had to leave and me and my new friends exchanged cheery goodbyes.

I was very blessed that both my flights (to and fro) were not delayed by more than 20 minutes. Gracie who left a day before me had her flight delayed for 2 hours. Thanks, guys for praying for a smooth trip and no delays. That helped a great deal!

But boy, they weren't kidding when they named the airport as a Low-Cost terminal. There was no shuttle service to the planes. We had to walk there with our hand carry luggages and it was one loooong walk to the plane and upon reaching the plane, we marched up the rickety stairs. And when it rains, passengers would be given bright red umbrellas. As I walked, I thought of those people who were elderly, disabled, on crutches, or with kids and felt that they should at least provide shuttle services for them. And I wondered just how on earth would the disabled mount those steep airplane steps?

For an airline whose slogan is 'Now Everyone Can Fly', surely something must be done to really ensure that EVERYBODY from all walks of life can indeed fly.

Anyway, the plane took off after about 15 minutes of delay, but it was a smooth ride and we arrived at Bangkok safely. The journey took about two hours. Bangkok was one hour behind Malaysian time. But I decided to keep my phone on Malaysian time. This may sound crazy, but it made me feel closer to home somehow

Bangkok

MF told me to take a metered cab just in front of the airport.

"You can't miss it, there's a long line of people queueing up for cabs," she said. I found it to be exactly as she described it to be.

As I stood there and waited for my turn (and it was quite a loooong wait), I felt grateful to have arrived at Bangkok in one piece, without much delay and thankful for the opportunity to just have a break and spend time with a close friend. Then I looked around and noted the hot and humid environment, the dust and the general busyness that marked Bangkok and felt blessed to have a nice home to go back to at the end of it all. I also wondered about the demonstrations that I heard over the news prior to coming to Bangkok - and whether it would be dangerous to traipse about in the city or cause major shopping complexes to close for business.

And then my turn came and I decided not to think so much and just relax. It's the holidays after all. Too much thinking and fretting never did anyone any good.

The uncle who was driving the cab grumbled in Thai about the massive Bangkok jam. I nodded and made polite grunts. Not for the first time did I wish that I knew at least enough Thai to converse with the gentle and friendly locals and find out more about their culture and lifestyle. Ah well, a linguist I am not. But I can always smile - that's universal

As the taxi neared New Petchburi road, I spotted Amari Atrium, the 4-5 star hotel that I was supposed to say. The initial signboard was placed atop a ramshackled building. I rubbed my eyes. Surely, MF did not rave on and on about THAT shack as being a swanky place to live in. The cab took a U-turn and then turned and passed the shack and stopped in front of this... very posh hotel (see pic below). I paid 300 Baht for the cab ride (including toll fees).

Amari Atrium hotel - posh, swanky and everything nice...

Then was reunited with MF in the very very nice hotel room. I flopped on the huge king-sized bed next to her, feeling rather tired but not willing to sleep. It was only 5pm and we had plans. Plans which the heavy rain rather killed. But not before she brought me to a thrilling public transport boat ride along the canal at the back of the hotel and a shopping expedition at Pratunam.

A place for hamsap people to eat? Hmmm...

We had dinner at this place (pic above), shopped a bit more and then decided to call it a day. The next day promised to be a fun-filled shopping expedition to Chatuchak - the biggest Weekend market in Bangkok. I've heard so many good things about it that I could hardly wait for the morrow to come.