Daily Archives: Mon October 6, 2008

Back in Bangkok (again, for the umpteenth time)

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Well, I finally made it. The delayed flight set off around 20 minutes later than the re-advertised time, but I landed in Bangkok at around 15:00.

There were the usual Stansted-esque queues at immigration and then I had to wait over half an hour for my baggage. Despite having a load of empty carousels, the staff had decided to mix our stuff up with a packed EVA flight from Heathrow.

The first piece of luck was the Airport Express bus I needed turning up within a minute of me buying my ticket from the surly clerk who kept trying to get me onto the Khaosan Road bus, presumably as I was carrying a backpack. Finally I convinced her I wanted off at Lumpini so needed the Silom one and she begrudgingly sold me the right ticket.

It’s definitely wet season here, with the skies a near-permanent grey. Still hot, though. And muggy. The skies opened up and rain deluged down as we progressed off the freeway and into the city proper. Annoyingly, the bus took a different route to the last time I caught it so it didn’t actually go past TRSC. This meant a short stroll in the pouring rain to get to my delayed appointment.

Not to worry. With the high humidity I’m not sure if I was wet from the rain or my sweat by the time I got there, but the staff recognised me as soon as I walked in and let me deposit my bags while I went through some standard 3-months-after-the-op tests. As I may have mentioned, my right eye doesn’t seem up to spec compared to the left. Far better than it was before the op, but not as good as I’d expected.

The tests showed a slight astigmatism in that eye as well as measurable short-sightedness. This can be fixed, by operating again. So I’ll be heading back in January for another few days stay, this time with only the one eye being lasered. There’s no cost to me as the surgery is guaranteed, just the hostel fees and however much I spend at the cinema. I can kick back in Bangkok again for a week – I kinda like it here.

I walked around to the hostel from there and had fun trying to pay my rent. Due to the drops they’d popped in my eyes over at TRSC, my pupils were still dilated. I could focus on notes to see how much they were, but coins foiled me completely. Colour, shape, size… no problems. I just couldn’t read the digits to find out how much they were worth.

By this time it was way after 18:00 and I’d had one small sandwich to eat all day. I caved and went to KFC for some food simply as I couldn’t think of anything else and it was nearby. I’m now back at the hostel, updating my Ubuntu installation and savouring the thought of my first hot shower in over three weeks.

Oh, bonus photo is me doing the mapping for my Divemaster certification. Putu emailed me it earlier and I like it.

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We may have a green light

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It’s around 13:00 and there was just an announcement that they’re dishing out free food vouchers for our flight. Not a good sign.

I went to get one and it’s MR10 for any McDonald’s in Malaysia. Which is worse given that I’m flying out of the country. The nearest McD‘s is back through security and I can’t get to it.

The good news is it seems the delayed flight is still set for 13:40, so I should be boarding in ten minutes. Fingers crossed the next post is frmo Bangkok!

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Argh, what a morning

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I got back to the bungalows around 1:30am. Not long after I redid all my packing, Valerie came home as she was too hot in the nearby nightclubs. Sweetheart that she is, she offered me the spare bed in her room so I could get some sleep before I was due to leave. Much more comfy than sitting on the tiles in the outdoor area. And less mosquitoes.

I woke at 3:30am and grabbed all my things to wait for my pre-arranged lift. And waited.

Then gave up and woke one of the other staff who said he’d take me to the airport himself. The other guy never showed. I guess he managed to get more sleep than me.

Fortunately, the airport is only fifteen minutes away on a clear road so my motorbike ride was short and swift. I waited through the usual queues of people complaining about being charged for their overweight baggage and ascended to the departure area.

Then walked back down the stairs to find an ATM as I hadn’t known there was a 150,000 Rupiah international departure tax. So a walk outside, and then a walk back in necessitating a second scan of all my hand luggage. Not as bad as Roz, a woman I got talking to who had to remover her belt and everything as well.

A note to Bali Airport authorities: either publicise the departure tax outside, put an ATM inside, or consider adding the fee to the ticket price to save all this messing about in the first place.

Nothing was open when we walked through into the departure area until a small café realised there was money to be made. I had a pot noodle which cost about a quid. Then tried to pay with Visa and was told that there was a minimum purchase of three times that. It would have been nice if their “We accept:” notice behind the counter had mentioned this.

I ended up paying for Roz’s food as well, and she gave me IDR50k. Annoying as I was hoping to leave with no indigenous currency. Ah well, I may be back sometime and it’s only three quid.

Fortunately, the flight left on time and I slept pretty deeply the whole way to Kuala Lumpur. I made about the shortest visit to a country of all time. Immigration was very quick, I grabbed my rucksack from baggage reclaim and waved goodbye to Roz. She works in KL now – good luck to her in her new job.

Straight out, turn left and into check-in for my connecting flight. The timing was perfect, with the desk opening only a minute before I walked up to it.

KL airport is fully wi-fi’d so I sat down and started uploading nonsense for you lot. All going to plan.

Until they announced that due to a “technical difficulty”, my flight was delayed from 11:30 to 13:40. So far. Updates as and when, but currently I’m enjoying a numb bottom on typical airport seating and realising that I’m getting hungry now. And I don’t want to give up my seat as it’s the only one in the entire area with an electrical socket by it.

Fortunately, TRSC (the people who did my laser surgery and who I have an appointment with this afternoon) have been typically wonderful and skewed all their appointments around my changed arrival time.

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