007 to 1911 12th Jan.

At the Hotel Impress we were allocated room 007, which means just behind the check in desk, ground floor. Here at Imperial Tara Hotel Bangkok, we have room 1911, which is 19 floors up and has stunning views over a very different landscape to the one we have been looking at for the past few days. Whilst awaiting our airport shuttle, Ann noticed an advert in the India Times that Joy will like.  The arranged shuttle from the Impress was in a bit of a shed on wheels.  The suitcases were thrown up on top to a roof rack (no straps) and he seemed rather put out when I did not let him do the same with the camera case and laptop. Anyway we arrived at terminal 3 with everything still intact and the co driver, who was on training for the day, almost awake. We said good bye to a couple of elephants lurking in the check in area and made our way to the departure gate.  Collecting on our way, 20 USD from the currency exchange man and 500 Rs worth of cough mixture and lozenges not to mention some good old vicks rub!

The flight was uneventful save being nearly an hour late.  We were sat on the runway for at least half an hour. When we arrived at Bangkok Airport we were naturally directed to the “Limo” taxi rank…… 2000 TB for our ride,  That’s about 45 GBP. I refused and eventually after much discussion they eventually told us where the “Public” taxis were waiting.  500 TB later and with lots of patter from our driver we arrived at our hotel.  I still think we were done, from the look on his face when we handed over the cash, but the metre was not running and who were we to argue? The contrast in driving conditions to that of India was most noticeable.  We never heard one horn.  The roads were fast, smooth and unpopulated.

After a bowl of soup, some local whisky (not bad) we are about to crash. We will post this tomorrow when we start a 24hr WIFI connection for 200 TB… 4GBP. Not too bad. Should be ably to do at least a couple of sessions with that. Now where’s that Vics.

13^th Jan.

P.S. Also added a couple of shots taken before our sight seeing begins proper. Photos here.