I finally tore myself out of bed at 2pm on the second day, feeling extremely dehydrated and saved only by a can of coffee that I’d purchased the night previously and popped in the fridge. After a couple of hours I met my long time friend (known as Babe - yes yes, I know, she knows and blames her Dad) at MBK shopping centre and went to the food court on the second to top floor. It’s simple/basic but I love these places as they generally have so much to choose from and everything is good. We don’t tend to have them in the UK but when we do, it’s usually only junk food.
A dirty looking train track above a blue illuminated ring, looking down onto a traffic packed road:
The following day was much of the same - lazy lie in, followed by meeting Babe at the Bangkok Marriot Hotel so we could visit the Octave bar on the top floor. A little cloudy but it was worth it for the view:
Below you can see the elevated SkyTrain - a train route through the city which is clean, on time, and air-conditioned. A saviour when the weather is hotter:
Alcohol is quite expensive in Thailand relative to other things - generally you won’t get a discount on prices in the UK. Ordinarily the cocktails here would have been around £8-11 (after service charge and taxes) but happy hour meant 241 on a limited selection. Mine, a mix of Absolut Vanilla Vodka, Frangelico (Hazlenut liqueur), Honey, Mango and Coconut Milk is absolutely one that I’ll be making back home! Things have changed here. I’m pretty sure when I came so many years ago, the choices were vodka, whiskey, and not so much else. That said, I frequented cheaper places back then. I may have enjoyed another 3 cocktails whilst enjoying the perfect temperature and cool breeze…
The same view a little later (excuse the quality as these are all from my Samsung S8):
Afterwards we went to ‘W Market’ - an outdoor food place where Babe bumped into a friend she hadn’t seen in 7 years called Fio; a Russian lady who had been living in Thailand for 16 years - she had braces like me! It’s quite unusual to find white people with braces at ‘our’ age (though she’s only 29) but it seems a lot of Thai people have them now. We talked for a long time, before finally calling it a night. Chiang Mai tomorrow…
Day 1 (Bangkok)
Arrived at the hotel in Bangkok a little over an hour ago. It’s
actually a bargain priced apartment (which somehow I hadn’t realised when booking it)
so it’s big, with a washing machine (useful) and everything else
you might expect. Of course, I have absolutely zero intention of cooking my own food whilst here; one of the best things about Thailand is eating out all the time and the food almost always making your tastebuds do a happy dance.
I didn’t pay for a direct flight so went via Doha in
Qatar. The first flight from Gatwick was packed and felt far longer than the 7 hours it took. My noise-cancelling headphones proving to be worth every penny in cases like this. After a 2.5 hour wait, the second flight departed Doha
at 2:40am and it felt empty - just 50 people on a huge plane, so
loads of space and much quieter.
I sat next to a very
chatty Tunisian guy who had “just left Tunisia for good, hopefully” and
was heading to Laos to live with his wife, with the aim of eventually
moving to China (he works for a Chinese tour operator). He spoke
English, French, Arabic and of course Tunisian, which he explained
wasn’t an officially recognised language despite everyone there speaking
it. We both made good use of the free drinks (i.e. alcohol), got drunk quite quickly and then managed to catch some sleep before swapping contact details and parting ways as we disembarked.
Here’s a crappy and overcast photo taken whilst sitting on my bed. I’m sure it’ll be prettier come dusk, and hopefully if the cloud clears tomorrow. I’m going to check out the pool on the top floor and gym later on.
I had a terrible sleep but the day begins - 1.5 hours until the train to London, 1.5 hours to get there, a 25 minute wait followed by a 40 minute train to Gatwick. 2.5 hours in the airport followed by a 7 hour flight to Doha in Qatar. Another 2.5 hour wait and then a 6.5 hour flight to Bangkok arriving tomorrow (12th) at 13:30.
PHEW. I’m already looking forward to my hotel bed.
This tends to be how I start planning my holidays - it always helps me to get the dates down so I can flesh out what can fit where.
When I’m being more anal (lol) I’ll include times, if I’m meeting people, and I’ll link the dates to separate pages with a more details (e.g. screenshot of driving route, places to eat, stops along the way).
