4th March 2005 – Katmandu to Bangkok 7 hours

Our plane journey from Katmandu was so pleasurable. I actually had my first glass of wine in three months. We sat next to a guy from Southern America who was a journalist in Nepal for the past few years. It was such an interesting insight hearing his experiences with the Nepalese control over the media. Since the king took control from the government at the beginning of February he has also taken control of the media.
We flew with Thai Airlines who have the most amazingly dressed air stewardesses. They each wear different brightly colored fitted silk suits, so glamorous!
My first impression of Bangkok when we were dropped off at the end of Ko San Road was “How Hideous!” The place was swarmed with farang (this is the word Thai’s use to refer to us westerners). You could have been any where in the world amongst the glow of neon lights and bars spilling out into the road. Seeing both Thais and western girls wearing skimpy out fits made me realize what a contrasting world India had been. The next thing I noticed about Thailand is that taking your shoes off is a must in most places as they are fanatical about clean floors. Finding a room a few streets away was a great relief.
The next day we got ourselves on the ferry and crossed the river to The Ibrik, a small boutique hotel where we would stay for the next couple of days. This was a generous present from Lumsden Design when I left. The Ibrik is a three bedroom hotel built on stilts situated on the busy working river that runs through the centre of Bangkok. The whole place was so stylish with dark wide timber floorboards throughout and white walls. Our room had a four poster bed, Thai silk full length curtains, an oval timber bath and a balcony on the river.
The local’s food night market was a great way to get tucked into authentic Thai food. It was obvious from then that food was going to play a major part in our visit to Thailand, I was in food heaven. The Thai’s snack a lot and it is very much a social thing. In the markets it is cheaper and more convenient for the Thai’s to eat out then to cook at home. My opinion of Bangkok had totally changed for the better since our arrival. After two days of luxurious living it was back to Banglapoo, the backpacker’s area of Bangkok. This area still had a lot to offer especially shopping and more tasty street food stalls but we will discover other areas to stay in Bangkok the next time we pass through which should be another couple of times during our trip. Oh the beer is really chaep as well which we decided to sample as we had both deprived ourselves of alcohol for about 6 weeks previously.
We did get ourselves to the weekend market which has thousands of products for sell including clothes, furniture, food and pets. The Thai’s have a strange attitude towards pets; they are really into pet dogs and really small ones that they can carry around like little accessories. The amount of puppies in tiny cages in the souring heat was really sad. They also sold bunny rabbits in cages but with a difference these had bunny clothes on which I found absolutely hilarious if not a bit cruel. You could also purchase yourself a pet scorpion or a snake if that’s what you’re into. Not the type of place where an animal lover should visit.
Finally the day had arrived to get ourselves to the airport to meet Michelle (Paul’s sister), Tal and the kids Solomon and Finley oh and our huge kite bag. Obviously we had been looking forward to them coming over and spending lots of quality time together especially as they were spending a whole month in Thailand. Myself and Paul were slightly gob smacked at the size (1700mm long) and weight of our kite bag, we had convinced ourselves that it would have shrunk by itself since the last time we had seen it three months previously. Shit what had we? After Michelle and Tal so kindly agreed to take it all the way to Thailand for us we were now committed to learning how to kite surf whether we liked it or not.
It took Michelle, Tal and the boys a few days to climatise to sweaty Bangkok as it was -4 when they left the UK. We then decided to hire a mini bus and head to Hue Hin.