First night in Bangkok
I'm going to transfer to here all my (now quite soggy) ramblings on paper from my Bangkok adventure, but may do it in lots of little posts. Me being the chatterbox that I am there is always a lot to write and I want to remember it all!
So here goes...
7th August, 2am-ish
It's 2am and I'm lying in bed at my hotel somewhere in Bangkok, scribbling on hotel notepaper. Will type this up in a few days but there is so much to take in, even in the last 2 hours, that I had to write it down before I forget...
Whoever my pilot was from Sydney was either pining for a career piloting F15s, or was having a bugger of a time with the weather. It's one of the few times where I've actually felt sick when we landed.
Was a little adrenalin rush arriving in Bangkok, as I have no idea what to expect. The hunidity hit like a steam room the moment we stepped off the plane, and you have no choice but to just chill out and be patient with Thai immigration; they were trying out some new gadgetry that involved a little silver orb-y thing taking your photo at the desk. Parents hoisting up kids in front of the camera all over the place!
My trusty Lonely Planet guidebook had good tips about getting taxis from the airport, but there are so many taxi deskswhen you walk out of baggage claim that I got totally confused and was seconds away from forking out 600 baht for a taxi to my hotel before the penny dropped and my brain went "ooohhh, THESE are the ticket touts". The pushy little sales clerk looked very disappointed, but I marched out of there and lined up in the noisy chaos of the meter taxi line outside and got to my hotel in airconditioned comfort for 150 baht!
No seatbelts in the backs of taxis here. A lifetime of strapping in is kinda hard to discard... particularly when your taxi driver is overtaking mopeds into oncoming traffic at 100km per hour. Gotta love it...
Even for the smallest amount of money, you still get valet service with a smile when you arrive, and the small child in me always has to stop from giggling when people tip their cap at me and treat me like an adult. Particularly since I looked like the crustiest backpacker possible at that point. My bags were whisked out of the car by a classicly uniformed bellboy and
SO anyway... here I am on my first night in Bangkok. I decided to stay the first night at a hotel closer to the airport, but reckon I could have got away with braving my taxi experience further and going straight to the nice riverside one while there was less traffic. Live and learn. The Elizabeth Hotel definitely has character though. I stood at the check-in thinking "what the fuck is that noise?!?" , then realised that it was a round of good ole karaoke in the bar being warbled very enthusiastically by some tone-deaf woman. Her dulcid tones followed me until the 5th floor in the lift.
The bellboy carried all my bags to my room and even switched the TV to BBC news as he left! The room is small and plain and smells of stale cigarettes... but it's clean and has a cheap minibar and definitely suits its publicity blurb about being a convenient first night stay. Can't see where I am, but there's a lovely view of city lights from this 12th floor room.
Have noticed lots of huge photos of a very portly looking woman (who I assume is the Queen? Hmm, perhaps it would behove me to find out more about the country I'm in) by the side of the road. Little brightly lit shrines outside buildings too.
Can't wait for the morning! Have kind of numbed myself to emotions about leaving Oz. It was so much harder to leave this time than it has been previously, but in a way I'm much calmer because I have a cunning plan. Just feel like I have to get on with things and keep busy until I can go back.
I love travelling...
So here goes...
7th August, 2am-ish
It's 2am and I'm lying in bed at my hotel somewhere in Bangkok, scribbling on hotel notepaper. Will type this up in a few days but there is so much to take in, even in the last 2 hours, that I had to write it down before I forget...
Whoever my pilot was from Sydney was either pining for a career piloting F15s, or was having a bugger of a time with the weather. It's one of the few times where I've actually felt sick when we landed.
Was a little adrenalin rush arriving in Bangkok, as I have no idea what to expect. The hunidity hit like a steam room the moment we stepped off the plane, and you have no choice but to just chill out and be patient with Thai immigration; they were trying out some new gadgetry that involved a little silver orb-y thing taking your photo at the desk. Parents hoisting up kids in front of the camera all over the place!
My trusty Lonely Planet guidebook had good tips about getting taxis from the airport, but there are so many taxi deskswhen you walk out of baggage claim that I got totally confused and was seconds away from forking out 600 baht for a taxi to my hotel before the penny dropped and my brain went "ooohhh, THESE are the ticket touts". The pushy little sales clerk looked very disappointed, but I marched out of there and lined up in the noisy chaos of the meter taxi line outside and got to my hotel in airconditioned comfort for 150 baht!
No seatbelts in the backs of taxis here. A lifetime of strapping in is kinda hard to discard... particularly when your taxi driver is overtaking mopeds into oncoming traffic at 100km per hour. Gotta love it...
Even for the smallest amount of money, you still get valet service with a smile when you arrive, and the small child in me always has to stop from giggling when people tip their cap at me and treat me like an adult. Particularly since I looked like the crustiest backpacker possible at that point. My bags were whisked out of the car by a classicly uniformed bellboy and
SO anyway... here I am on my first night in Bangkok. I decided to stay the first night at a hotel closer to the airport, but reckon I could have got away with braving my taxi experience further and going straight to the nice riverside one while there was less traffic. Live and learn. The Elizabeth Hotel definitely has character though. I stood at the check-in thinking "what the fuck is that noise?!?" , then realised that it was a round of good ole karaoke in the bar being warbled very enthusiastically by some tone-deaf woman. Her dulcid tones followed me until the 5th floor in the lift.
The bellboy carried all my bags to my room and even switched the TV to BBC news as he left! The room is small and plain and smells of stale cigarettes... but it's clean and has a cheap minibar and definitely suits its publicity blurb about being a convenient first night stay. Can't see where I am, but there's a lovely view of city lights from this 12th floor room.
Have noticed lots of huge photos of a very portly looking woman (who I assume is the Queen? Hmm, perhaps it would behove me to find out more about the country I'm in) by the side of the road. Little brightly lit shrines outside buildings too.
Can't wait for the morning! Have kind of numbed myself to emotions about leaving Oz. It was so much harder to leave this time than it has been previously, but in a way I'm much calmer because I have a cunning plan. Just feel like I have to get on with things and keep busy until I can go back.
I love travelling...
posted by mybigtoe at 12:09 AM
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