Well, it’s Thursday morning, December 23rd and I’ve been in Bangkok a little over 2 days. It sure seems longer to me for some reason, maybe it’s the jet lag, maybe it’s the foreignness of the place or it could be just getting used to being away from the good ole USA! It will take some getting used to living like I am and it will take some time, I’m sure.

The trip to Bangkok was slow, not too exciting and rather comfortable. The entire trip from being dropped off at the Memphis airport by Andy and Amanda (my brother and sister-in-law) on Sunday morning to clearing customs at approximately 1:00 AM local time in Bangkok was about 30 hours. 30 hours in the air going from Memphis to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo and Tokyo to Bangkok.

This is the route from Detoit to Tokyo. Bangkok is about 3,000 miles (7 hours flying time) south of Tokyo.

Readers of previous entries to this blog will recall that I was fortunate to be able to use World Perks miles on Northwest Airlines to upgrade to First Class/World Business Class for the entire flight. I am sooo glad I did that. During the flights when I walked around and stretched I walked through the entire plane and was glad I didn’t have to ride back in steerage but was fortunate to be in relative comfort in the front of the planes.

When I was on the planes I was trying to think of a way to describe the flying experience. Flying 30 hours in first class/world business class is kinda like hanging out in your Lazy-Boy chair in your living room for 30 hours, it’s that comfortable! Of course when you are hanging out in your living room you can watch TV, watch movies, listen to music, read newspapers or books and eat and drink and occasionally get up to stretch and go to the bathroom. The same think on the airplane except that a very nice and attractive lady brings you food and drinks, including beer, wine and bloody mary’s. She also brings things for you to read and gives you refreshing hot towels to wipe your face with before meals. A very pleasant experience really. So, I guess a long, international flight is similar to lounging around at home except a flight attendant takes care of you rather than having someone (wife or girlfriend) nag you and you have to stay reasonably dressed and not scratch yourself because you are in public.

When I landed in Bangkok at 1:00 AM I was surprised at the number of people in the international terminal, it was quite busy and I guess a lot of flights get in late. The customs process was very, very quick and efficient. I had 3 people in front of me and it took about 5 minutes to get my 30-day visa and be allowed to enter the Kingdom of Thailand!

My backpack was already on the baggage claim when I got there and as I had nothing to declare I walked through the final checkpoint with no one stopping me or asking any questions, like I said quite efficient and quite different than my previous experiences in Scotland and subsequent returns through US Customs. They could learn from the Thais!

The adventure now was to get to my Hostel, the Suk 11. Since it was so late a cab was my best solution. As soon as I stepped out into the main concourse I had touts come up to me and had the following similar conversation with 5 or 6 of them as I walked through the terminal:

Tout: Where you going?
Me: Hostel
Tout: What hotel?
Me: Suk 11 in Sukhumvit
Tout: Where is that?
Me: I don’t know
Tout: You no stay there, I have better place, my Uncle (friend, Uncle’s friend, etc.) owns, he give you good deal
Me: No thanks (as I keep walking)
Tout: Your hotel no good, I take you to my Uncle’s
Me: No thanks (as I keep walking and stay polite)
Tout: I take you to hotel
Me: How?
Tout: Friends Taxi
Me: How much?
Tout: 1000 Baht
Me: Way too much (as I laugh)

I kept walking as the touts tried to negotiate with me but I thought I knew better and walked to the Taxi line and eventually they all stopped following me. I definitely had a sign on my back: white foreigner just flying in, money in my pocket and ready to be fleeced. My goal is to keep the fleecing down to a minimum although I know that it will happen.

I think I actually was ripped off a bit on my taxi to the hotel. First, the guy spoke very little English and it was difficult to get him to understand where I was going particularly since I really didn’t know myself. Once I was kinda satisfied he knew how to get to the Suk 11 (I really had no idea but he nodded and looked confident that he knew where to take me), he tried to hustle me into the taxi. I knew better tha that, we needed to settle on a price BEFORE getting into the taxi. He said 600 baht, I had read that a taxi ride to the hostel should only be about 300 baht. I said that and he laughed and said “How much you pay?” and I stupidly said 500 baht and he immediately said okay, that’s when I knew I overpaid (I wil need to work on my negotiating skills!). By the way $1.00 = 40 baht so if I over paid by 100 or 200 baht that equals roughly $2.50 to $5.00 for a 30 minute cab ride. So I wasn’t too upset.

Unfortunately, I've already had a couple of problems: When I cleared customs I went right to an ATM to get some Baht (all the time being followed by those touts) and the ATM ate my card - said it was no good and to contact my bank, it didn't even give me my card back. This is an ongoing saga with my bank, trying to get my ATM cards straightened out. Now I have to hassle it from here and try to get things resolved, and it pissed me off, expecially since this is the first thing I did when I got into Bangkok and it went bad! Fortunately, I had contingency plans to get cash by using my credit card. The other problem is a stupid thing I did - I left my toiletry bag on the plane! All my vitamins, meds, toiletries, etc. Definitely a stupid thing, and I did so much planning to bring the right stuff and sizes. Now I gotta reload with Thai branded stuff!

One other thing that takes some getting used to: I watched Monday Night Football on Tuesday morning live on ESPN International (I can't believe the Dolphins beat the Patriots!) and watched the Tangerine bowl yesterday morning and the GMAC Bowl this morning. Being 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time is weird!

Here's a couple of pictures of the Suk 11 from out front.View image, View image

The next blog entry will have more pictures of Bangkok taken during the first few days of walking around.

Thank you for reading this. I hope to make this blog both interesting and entertaining. Please post a comment and let me know your thoughts, observations or counsel. Hearing from readers and knowing I have an audience is a great motivator and will be a great morale booster during down times on the road. Don’t forget to bookmark this site and tell a friend! Please feel free to e-mail me at “JeffMichie at Yahoo Dot Com”