Hong Kong to Bangkok
Trip Start
Aug 04, 2008
1
3
16
Trip End
Aug 21, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Friday, August 8, 2008
As I write this, it's actually Day 13, and I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I'll describe the hotel when the Day comes, but... it is absolutely amazing!
Day 3. Today, we had to be at the airport by 11am. Our flight into Bangkok would be leaving around 1pm, and touching down around 3:30ish. We double checked on the public computers early in the morning, to make sure that all the flights were back on schedule after yesterday's storm... and, of course, they were. It's still amazing to me how quickly people recover from these typhoons, like they are nothing but a small nuisance. Yesterday, we had seen on the news that a partially ajar window on a highrise had been blown clean off the building and had swept across the street to crash through a few windows on the neighbouring highrise. They also showed garbage cans being blown through the streets and debris absolutely everywhere. But, today, seemingly everything was back up and running as usual.
Sash and Maggie came by in the morning around 10am, and we all headed back to Shum Shui Po, where I had to exchange the camera I had bought for my sister. By the time we arrived at the airport, it was 11:30am, and we were all set to go. The great thing about Cathay Pacific, is that you can apparently pre-book your seats on the plane! So, we did that and actually checked in online back at the apartment. Good thing too, because the baggage check-in for the "online check-in" passengers was about 30 people. Whereas, the regular line up had to be over 120 people long... we would've been there for at least an hour!
Lunch, goodbyes, duty-free browsing, and a smooth ride later, we touched down in Bangkok. I had read pretty thoroughly through the Lonely Planet guide to Bangkok, and had a pretty good idea of the sights and locations I wanted to see. Also displayed pretty prominently in the book were warnings about getting scammed by cab drivers, tuk-tuk drivers, market hawkers, massage places... pretty much anyone who offers you anything that you hadn't asked for. Interestly enough, warnings along those same lines were displayed throughout the airport. I don't know about other people, but when I'm presented with such blatant cautions, I move through the environment that I'm in with a wariness and uneasiness that I don't like at all.
Looking back, now that I've left Bangkok, I can say that while I truly enjoyed myself (doing activities that I'll describe in the coming entries), it was pretty exhausting having to be constantly attentive of my surroundings, ignoring the tuk-tuk/cab drivers who'd call out "my friend, where are you from?" while offering you a super-cheap tour of the city, trying to cross streets where drivers/motorcyclists/tuk-tuks and pedestrians a-like seemed drive/walk like they were the only ones on the road, having to haggle down the arbitrarily assigned prices of absolutely everything you buy... but more on all that later.
Our hotel was located in Banglamphu, which was a pretty bumpin' area of town at night time. It seemed to be the most common areas for tourists to end up, so most of the people we walked past were speaking a language other than Thai. The cab ride from the airport was a "fixed" 400baht, which works out to be ~$13. To give you an idea of how cheap everything is in Thailand, 400baht for a 45 minute cab ride can be considered over-charging. Our concept of the price/cost of fees and services will have to be severely adjusted when we get back home!
The hotel was cozy enough. Dinner at the hotel restaurant was pretty good for our first authentic Thai meals. I ordered the green curry, definitely a taste I'd have to get used to. They use so many different spices in their curries... it's like a flavour explosion... with flavours I've never even tasted before!
We had made plans to go for a walk of the neighbourhood, but by the end of the day... which turned out to be 8:30pm... we were both so tired that passed out way too early.
Good thing we had a good night's rest, because tomorrow was going to be a great day!
