Bangkok's new International airport, Suvarnabhumi, is just reaching it's 1 Year anniversary; and to be fair, you'd probably need the equivalent amount of time to traverse the full length of it's spaghetti junction style of terminals and abundant architectural space. A truly impressive construction.
My flight from London was without incident and unfortunately also anything resembling a good sleep; " push through the tiredness" tended to be the most common response from friends regarding a visit to Thailand. My body's refusal to recharge on the plane hadn't done me any favours but I was too excited to even think about sleep. This was three weeks in South East Asia; Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. With only a general sense of direction and a flimsy inter country route planned (courtesy of my old friend the Lonely Planet), the only certainty I had was that parts of this region offered unrivalled opportunity for travel photography.
Straight out the exit and ready for taxi negotiation... sign language Thai style; for my part, defunct vocabulary that I rush revised on the plane and more than slightly impaired by the lack of any persuasive Thai vocab, I found myself enthusiastically gesturing disapproval at offered rates, without any real idea as to whether I was on for a bargain. A few smiles and token waves of the hand later and I'd found myself an 'agreeable rate'.... albeit to the disapproval of a large European man, sporting a champion moustache and standing just within earshot of my stilted conversation. "where are you off to?" he asked " Hilton" I replied...'how much should I be paying?" "ah your rate is fine, but the hotel is no good". "oh. how comes?" I enquired despondently. "You can't take any Thai women there." came the reply, deadpan, as if this was the only criteria one should consider when reviewing the suitability of accommodation. More amused than alarmed, this guy and his attitude brought back memories of similar encounters in Cuba the year before; a particular story comes to mind of meeting a middle aged German guy and his hired Cuban tour guide, whose apparent speciality was a slight variation on your average 3 week package holiday. (I'll write that story up one day..)
I managed to secure myself a ride into Bangkok capital in a pink taxi cab, adorned from head to toe in kitsch stickers of pussycats and rainbows. so far, so good, so surreal; jet lag kicking in all the way down the concrete highway, down past the super structure billboards for Hitachi, Samsung and other consumer brand giants of the region. The sun was making valiant efforts to break through the smog and provided for a warm and cosy welcome into the otherwise bleak looking downtown financial district of Bangkok.
Sawadee matey, how's it going...
I will read your blog with interest, as I sit at the desk, longing to be back in Thailand...
Good luck!
Dom
Posted by: Dominic Sutton | November 26, 2007 at 01:23 PM