bangkok stopover

It was such a blessed relief (see excess baggage nightmare) to finally get on the plane at London (28th June) that my usual fear of flying nerves didn't materialise quite as sharply as i had anticipated. Of course it helped that i had had a few hypnotherapy lessons and also had dropped a couple of sleeping pills before boarding the flight.

Flying with Qantas meant we had those nice back of the seat personalised video thingies. Despite having a range of bad to fairly bad films to watch and also 10 'computer games' including hangman and noughts and crosses (can we please sort that out Qantas?) i chose to stare at the little maps of where the plane was almost constantly between meals and sleeping. I also love the little bags they give you, especially the free socks.

We arrived in Bangkok mid-afternoon and are immediately picked up by a nice lady with a clipboard asking if we needed a taxi. After replying yes, she helps us round to the taxi stop whereupon a pleasant grinning thai man with no teeth and a suit with gold name plate reading 'Mr Chang'. We are wary but end up getting a taxi to our hotel and a day trip to 4 major temples in Bangkok all for 1000 baht which is around £17.

hotel is nice and central, in the central Sukhumvit area with bustling markets, massage parlours and silk/fashion shops as well as the obligatory sex shows. We opted for an Indian meal on our first night which was incredibly spicy despite us specifying 'normal' when asked how hot we wanted our meals to be.

Up early the following morning, we went on our temples tour and were lucky enough to have 'Eddie' our guide all to ourself throughout the 4 hour trip. He supported Tottenham Hotspur and immediately he proferred the opinion of many people around the world by condemning the ridiculous decision of the referee Urs Meier in disallowing Sol Campbell's goal against the now likely winners of Euro 2004 Portugal. He also remembered that my team Nottingham Forest won the European Cup two years running in 1979 and 1980. In between Thai history monologues we discussed James Wattana's lack of form and the quality of Thailand's current crop of yound snooker players.

The temples were awesome, the Thais following mainly the Theravada buddhist school and I behaved impeccably throughout aside from one careless moment when i pointed at a buddha image (a bad move by all accounts). You're also not supposed to put your fork in your mouth, instead using it to scoop food onto your spoon, but i failed miserably at that one too.

At the end of the day we were whisked to a government affiliated Thai fashion store at which we bought a nice suit, 2 pairs of trousers for me and a dress for Annabel at a ridiculously good made to measure price compared to most other places. This was such a bonus for us as we were planning on getting all the wedding clothers in New Zealand which would have cost a fortune.

In the evening we took a dinner cruise along the river with many temples and government buildings lit up for the occasion. A little feast was laid on with some music and dancing. Thai classical music sounds like Jimi Hendrix playing the bagpipes to my ears, a little unexpected but quite beautiful.

Our last day in Bangkok was mostly spent packing. Because of the excess baggage problems, we had to chuck away quite a lot of stuff (mainly old clothes and stuff we really shouldn't have taken in the first place) which we donated to a local welfare department.

Of course leaving Bangkok cost more money that just the cost of our tickets. It required departure tax to be paid  and for me, a £35 visa fee for entering Australia. I was rather shocked i had to pay to get in to Australia for 2 days on a British passport, and after the excess baggage fiasco all this bureaucracy and charging was leaving a sour taste in our mouths. If you book through Trailfinders, make sure you get them to include ALL taxes and temporary visas in your trip. We thought we had this sorted, but only for bangkok, aagh.

By 6.30pm we were on the plane to Sydney (July 1st), a relative short hop of 8 ½ hours.

To be continued...