Smog and Pad Thai

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Trip Start May 29, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Oct 09, 2010

  Bangkok, Thailand
Thursday, October 7, 2010

We arrived at the bus station and boarded the bus to Bangkok, we got chatting to a Canadian guy called Rob who had been travelling for the last 14 months. We spent our journey chatting and comparing travel tales until after a couple of random food and maintenance stops we finally hit the border. We were ordered off the bus and got our bags then walked through to queue at the Cambodian border to be stamped out. We then had to walk 500 metres to the Thai border and were met by a huge queue to get into Thailand. Eventually after a sweaty wait we were through the border and walking down the road to wait for our bus to Bangkok.

There was (as usual) a huge degree of disorganisation and we finally had a mini bus arrive and load us on. Feeling very hingry now we soon stopped for a 30 minute break at a 7 Eleven for various microwaved snacks and drinks. On the bus again for the final leg of 3 hours to BK and luckily the time passed quickly due to our constant yakking about what we were going to eat when we got back home, Rob however had a further 3 weeks before he would taste his homeland food. 

As we approached Bangkok the thick, choking smog cloud was very prominent on the horizon and an early reminder of how over polluted BK is. We got off the bus to the clammy early evening heat and the three of us decided to find some food on Khao san Road. We wandered up through the market stalls and to a Thai food restaurant where we had Pad Thai and a coupe of Thai beers before we headed out for a taxi to the airport and Rob was headed for a shopping centre, we said our goodbyes and then attempted to get a taxi out of the mayhem.

We flagged a driver down and showed him the address of our hotel, he didn't seem to know where the hotel was,so after asking 4 other drivers they decided they knew where it was then put our bags in the boot, another query with the other drivers and he would be able to remember where to go if we paid him a further 50 Baht...Al grabbed the bags and fuming told him to f*** off. After weeks of people trying to rip us off, our patience was wearing thin. We walked further up and found a decent driver who took us to the road the hotel was on, close to the airport, after searching the road we decided to get out and walk to the hotel as we couldnt find it and thought it may be on one of the side roads, we went to a garage and asked for directions, a kind guy printed a map and told us it was next to the airport 6km away!! We had to flag down another taxi and head for the hotel, we found it to our delight and checked in, put the tv on, showered and relaxed.

The next day we went for a bobbins breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then headed straight to the pool which was overlooked by a huge bypass flyover. We sunbathed and swam on our last day, stopping only to prolong our checkout time to 3pm and have some lunch in the restaurant. Feeling a wee bit sunburnt we headed in and packed our bags and showered before checking out. We sat in the internet room waiting for our 6pm pickup to the airport. Before we knew it the hotel car arrived to take us to the airport and our last flight. At the airport the driver asked "tip for me?", on the verge of saying "always wipe front to back" we sighed and gave the guy 10 baht (20p) he was not impressed...tough luck.

We eventually checked in and went through passport control and headed for somewhere to eat, we settled on a Thai restaurant for some final asian food before heading home. After a further coffee at a coffee house we wandered around the huge shopping complex before heading down and waiting to be boarded on our flight, A little late we finally were boarded and seated for the 12.5 hour flight to London. The flight was a bit of a nightmare with some heavy turbulence and a lack of sleep due to time differences and fatigue. On the plus side there were some great films to watch which luckily passed the time and before we knew it we had landed in London...Hooray!! 


We were met in arrivals by Char's Mum and boyfriend Andy, Chris (one of Char's favourite brothers) and Katie - a nice suprise considering it was 7am on a Saturday morning - it was so good to see everyone.  We went out that night for a meal and the big surprise was that Charlie had been picked up from school by Andy that afternoon so came walking in to the restaurant and announced himself as if it was a normal occurrence.  We had nice food and went to bed feeling very tired but glad to be back in the UK - it was time to go back to the dale the following day and Al could smell his Raleigh Burner.

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Kev chilling by the pool	Posing with Kev	In the jacuzi pool	Al doing his laps

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