Tag Archives: Bangkok

Back in Bangkok (again, for the umpteenth time)

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

New city, old country

Posted on by
Reply

A rushed morning as I tried to get more work done, then wolfed down a KFC and directed another wayward soul towards the Vietnamese embassy before grabbing my bags and walking over the road for the Airport Express bus.

Now, the problem with this service is that it’s “every 40 minutes” but doesn’t run to a timetable. So you could potentially just miss one, and have to wait ages. Then there’s the fact that traffic fluctuates so it could be more than forty minutes that you end up waiting. Like I did. I got to the stop next to the Sofitel on Silom a shade after 1pm. The bus finally heaved into view at 13:50.

Wherever you are in the city there’ll be a stop for one of these buses (there are 4 routes) nearby – the best thing to do is check with a hotel or hostel for the nearest. Strangely, the fare back to the airport is 100 Baht, when it’s 150 Baht to come the other way. We made good time once we got through the traffic and I had plenty of time to check in – a good think as the queues at immigration were very slow-moving.

I gobbled a hot dog from Dairy Queen and picked up some face cream for Ria (one of my hosts for the next couple of nights) and strolled right onto my Air Asia flight which left dot on time. A lovely comfy plane, punctual arrival and easy trip through immigration at the Malaysian end.

Mike and Ria live out past Johor Bahru, so I had to get a taxi there. The flat rate is 60 MYR (around a tenner) but as the journey to their place took about an hour I didn’t think this was too much. I’m sure I could have caught three buses and walked a couple of miles to get there for less but I’d not have made it till the next day.

Once there, I dropped my luggage, took a proferred beer and had a great meal. Thank you kindly to Mike, who’s a great chef! Beer, wine and cognac flowed before we retired for the night. It really was pretty late and I appreciate them waiting for me to arrive before dinner. Last thing before bed, I sorted out my flights and accommodation for the next leg of the trip. Two years delayed, here I come Borneo!

Zemanta Pixie

Not enough time!

Posted on by
Reply

As ever, folks, please scroll down and check out the posts I’ve whacked up over the last day or so. I’ve got up to Saigon (July 22nd) with still another dozen or so to go, but I’m running out of time!

I’m back in Bangkok, and Leah jetted home yesterday (arrived safely). I’m flying to Johor Bahru in a couple of hours and need to get some lunch. I may get another couple of posts up before i go but don’t bank on it…

Zemanta Pixie

Bye-bye Leah!

Posted on by
Reply

Enough time for a swift breakfast and Leah was into a taxi bound for the airport. Tears were shed (mainly Leah’s – I’m cold-hearted and mean) as she departed and I sat down to while the rest of the day away typing all this nonsense up for you lot. I chatted to a few people passing through the common room and watched Ong Bak and Hancock on pirate DVD as I worked.

Brunch consisted of a double Big Mac (large meal) and some pineapple. Later in the evening I walked round the market with an Aussie chap and we stopped for dinner in a Greek restaurant with some pretty good food. They either served me the wrong main course, or charged me for the wrong one, but they also forgot to bill me for one of my beers to the price worked out right. Either way, the food was pretty decent and I wasn’t out of pocket so I wasn’t complaining.

On the way back to the hostel, we were chatting about Oz and diving when two girls in front of us turned and apologised for earwigging, but one of them was heading back to Darwin in a couple of days and did she hear me say that there was good diving there? Me being me, I gave her a business card, told her to check the blog, recommended a hostel and told her to seek out a dive shop that could take her into the harbour. I’m nice like that.

And then back to the common room to the joys of my laptop, loads of typing and a bad back. All for you. Now send me some money.

Zemanta Pixie

One (more) night in Bangkok

Posted on by
Reply

Our last full day in Bangkok before Leah left and we spent it kind of dossing. We made it to the cinema early enough to catch Mummy 3 with Brendan Fraser. Entertaining in a “that’s a lot of CGI” kind of way. A quick lunch break was needed and I just had to try the “Conizza” I’d spotted the night before. It’s a pizza wrapped up to look like an ice cream cone. Stupid, novel… and tasty!

Then off to the clinic for an eye check, my reason for coming back to Bangkok. My eyes are fine. 20/20 vision, perfect pressure and no visible problems. Good-oh.

We went back to the cinema to get tickets for Journey To The Centre of the Earth (with that man Fraser again), but the cinema was packed with only two or three spare seats. So we looked at the next performance. The same. Argh. Final performance… empty. We got two good seats near the middle then rescheduled things.

Back to the hostel to get freshened up then through Pat Pong for Leah to do some gift shopping. Now, depending on how you play it, early evening is either a good or a bad time to go shopping in a market here. If you haggle well, then it’s a good thing as the traders want that first sale to get their luck going for the rest of the shift. Thing is, they also start at stupid prices to try and fill the coffers in case they don’t get many sales.

As an example, Leah spotted some flip-flops. Her’s were worn through, so a new pair were in order. She saw some that looked like the ones she had, picked them out, tried than and asked how much. The starting price was an astronomical 850 Baht. That’s around £14. Leah laughed and started to turn away at which point they dropped to 700. Then 600 after more cries of derision. “OK, how much?” was the cry as the calculator used as a bargaining tool was thrust at her. The ones she was wearing cost 60 Baht when we got to Bangkok last time. The new ones were slightly better. But not that much better. Finally, after walking off and being called back, Leah got them for 100 Baht – a little over £1.50. Quite a bit down from the original asking price, I’m sure you’ll agree.

You can tell when a trader’s made their first sale as they take the money they’ve been paid and tap all the merchandise with it to pass on the good fortune. This happened to a couple of the places we went, and you’ll sometimes even see some stall holders quite literally begging people to buy from them in the early hours. As I said, play it right and I think you can get some good bargains at this time of night. Likewise at the end of the evening from a trader who’s had a good run and who has made a fair bit in that shift.

Loaded with… well… crap, we deposited it at the hostel and went back to the Paragon for some munchies. After walking for a while trying to decide what I wanted (Leah had made a beeline for a posh cake stall), I settled on a small place selling tacos and picked a trio of chicken ones. For a savoury course, Leah thought she’d try a “build your own” which is when I realised I could ask for mine with a sauce other than the “mild salsa” included.

On the “build your own” list I saw “John’s Hot Sauce” and was about to order that when I saw “John’s Super Hot Sauce” on the menu. So I asked for that. The slight raise of the eyebrows from our waitress should have been a clue. Oh dear. I was armed with a can of Tiger when my meal arrived. Leah had a bottle of water with a glass of ice. This, as it turned out, was fortunate.

I wolfed the first taco. Delicious. But… something’s burning my mouth. I finished my lager. Still burny. Leah dipped her fork into the hot sauce and tried it. The tiniest amount, about the size of an ant. Then gulped a mouthful of water and complained an hour later that her tongue was still tingling. I had two tacos to go.

After the second I was using a spoon to shovel ice into my mouth. Sweat was dripping down my forehead in rivulets despite the chilly aircon. The third taco was almost painful but I wasn’t to be defeated. I did it. But there’s a lesson: when someone in Thailand calls something “hot” it’s on a different scale to the one we use in the UK. If you imagine the scale as running from 1-10, the UK tastebuds peak at around five, with something “hot” by Thai standards hitting ten. I was fine breathing in, but every breathe out made my eyes water and my lips seer.

Next stop was an ice cream parlour where I got two dollops of sorbet which I’m sure would have tasted sublime had I not destroyed the inside of my mouth.

I was OK by the time the film started and it was pretty enjoyable. Oh, did I mention we saw it in 3D? It’s the first live action feature film to be made using the new Dolby3D technology and it works pretty well. A silly film, but fun and the 3D really did help.

We managed to catch the last BTS of the night as we rushed from the cinema, being harried on our way by security staff eager to lock the gates. Last minute packing and swapping of luggage ensued as I made sure Leah had to carry all the useless crap I didn’t need any more back to the UK. She’s useful for some things!

Zemanta Pixie