I’m off!
Here’s a tip: when the plane hits turbulence, do not whip the eyemask off your face, open the shutter and stare straight at the sun. I’m lucky to have retained my vision.
The flight was fine—after all the horror stories I had heard about Royal Jordainian, I was pleasantly surprised. I struck double lucky with the check-in staff as well, a window seat on both legs of the journey. See where a winning smile gets you 😉
Best of all, there were no children on board or if there were, they were amazingly quiet. Perhaps they’ve been gagged. The only downside was that the cabin crew was not very forthcoming with the drinking water. Another tip: don’t lace your water bottle with gin, though that’s a moot point when you have a kid banging against your head rest all the way to Bangkok. I emptied my bottle into the sink, arriving thirsty but refreshed.
Reading my current book (‘The Backpacker’ for a cheesy start to the trip) wasn’t exactly encouraging as the character didn’t find a place to stay in Bangkok. Surely not! He ended up sleeeping in a doorway. I’m not tired of living/looking out to be raped or arrested/willing to have all my belongings stolen, so I just resolved to go upmarket, should the same thing happen to me. For the first night certainly, then look again. There’s always some place to stay.
I have to learn how to be a backpacker again. Three months in SE Asia’s greenhouse await.
Oh, and I’m writing this on the Palm.
Phew—that was yesterday. My trip didn’t exactly get off to an auspicious start. Here’s another tip: take the train unless you would like to go on a sightseeing tour of Bangkok’s less charming suburbs in rushhour traffic, frantically looking out for the occasional road sign through the stickered-up windows of the local bus while trying to follow your progress on the map. The bus doubles back, several times, turning round at newly built motorways and unfinished bridges. Oh yeah, and Bangkok has at least 3x as many roads as indicated on the map and a bewildering array of flyovers and expressways.
I’d chosen my gusthouse on the internet after Suk11 never got back to me. KS House is round the corner of the perpetual street party that is the Khao San Road, but it is none the quieter for that. Shame really, because the rooms are very clean and comfortable, but the infernal noise of the scooters never stops—not even at 3 o;clock in the morning. So tomorrow, I’ll be moving to KS road, joining the rest of the backpacker crowd. At this rate, I will get no work done: 11000 words to go on the NaNovel and 1 week to write them in. Who can think about dinosaurs and academic debates in a place like this? Until it’s done, I’m afraid the quality of this blog isn’t going to improve. I’m still searching for access to my brain in vain—it’s fogged over ever since I got on that plane…
Tags: SE Asia, Tag Index
Denni