Monday, 28 Feb - Bangkok
A simple breakfast is included in our 1540B a night guesthouse: bread and jam, muesli, melon, porridge, freshly cooked eggs on request.
We breakfast at 0845, after an odd night of getting used to the difference of 6 hours and 25c. I slept 3 hours, was awake 4 hours, slept 3 hours.
We're off to explore the city and catch the modern skytrain(50B for a day-pass) for a few stops down to the river where 10B each takes us from Tha Sathon upstream to Tha Banglamphu. A short walk along the river leads us to Santichaiprakan park where we watch some old folk doing their morning exercise. Thai Chi? They waive at us to join in, an offer we can't refuse. Lots of amusement on both sides: we're pleased to join in, they're pleased to have us.
We carry on and, stopping at a crossroads, get approached by a guy, and later another who joins in, who're keen to 'help' us get a tuk-tuk for 40B to take us around a few site, presumably taking us to a couple of jewellery shops along the way. We give this a miss.
End up at the Grand Palace where 250B each gives us entrance (after Marijke was required to borrow a garment to cover her shoulders) to an amazing collection of architecture, most of which is covered with gold. So much that you get saturated after a couple of hours and feel guilty about it. A couple of 20B fruit drinks and later on a little 60B microwaved green curry with rice in the little cafe. We move on to Wat Pho - entry a bargain at 20B each - where a 45m long Buddha reclines. Wat Pho also houses the massage school, which we catch before closing for a 30m session at 180B each. I ask whether they have any blind masseurs as they are reputed to be the best, relying mainly on what they feel not what they see. They don't have any but kindly offer to blind one of the sighted ones for an extra 100B. Just kidding. Almost everything gets kneaded, pulled or trampled on. Worth another visit for a longer session. It's 1800 and we head for the river where we wait for about 15 min for the boat to arrive. Half a dozen young monks in orange garb wait with us. The sun is setting just across the river, close to Wat Arun, the temple of dawn.
Before dinner I get a haircut, nice and short, for 150+50B tip. Takes her 30 min of close attention to detail.
Eats this evening are at a place close to the guesthouse. Amongst some other dishes, we manage to order 3 soups, all part of a stay in an unfamiliar country. Friendly people relieve us of 460B incl a litre of beer in a pitcher. No complaints, apart from the off-key live (western) music.
Sunday, 27 Feb - Bangkok
The BA Airbus 321 to London was only a few months old and still smelled of leather. Seats a bit narrow, though. The face of my watch manages to fall off but at Heathrow helpful Eve from the Chocolate Box gives me an inch of Sellotape to stick it back on with. I promise her a fake Rolex from Bangkok as her reward and we both have a laugh.
The 747-400 to BKK is pretty full. We've got seats D+E on a ABC-DEFG-HIJ arrangement, which is quite good really: not having to get up to let anybody else out provides a little bit more rest. Theoretically at least. 11 hours is still a long haul but we survive. Food OK, sausages+mash; Aussie Chardonay better. Heard recently of Aussies using the abbreviation ABC to order wine: anything but Chardonay; but we're not that far yet.
32c when we touch down at 1540. It's an hour later when we've picked up the cases, 18kg (hers) and 14kg (his), ATM'd 12500 Baht (approx 250 euro) plus 361 changed from 5 GBP by accident (I won't go into that). 50B for a couple of bottles of water breaks a 500B note. Limo @ 700B takes us to the Christian Guesthouse in Silom www.bcgh.org
in hardly more than 30 min, although the driver hadn't been there before and needed the map I'd brought along. I notice Anna's Cafe close to the Guesthouse, a place that is reputed to do good deserts, and make a mental note to visit later on.
BCGH comes up to expectations, clean and basic. They have a notice I'd like to see more, forbidding clients not to tip the staff.
Feel like collapsing but venture out for a couple of blocks recognicance. The second block takes us past plenty of hairdressers, which is good to know, as I've been saving up my hair for a cheap yet exotic haircut, to Silom Road, where plenty of stalls are being set up for Patpong night market.
We work our way back to Anna's Cafe and have plenty to eat: Tom Yam soup, chicken fried rice, Thai noodles, beef green curry, fried bananas in coconut cream, cheesecake, 4 Singha beers and chinatown tea (don't recommend this, it seems like an odd combination of tea, coffee and hot chocolate) for just over 1000B. More than the 500B I'd roughly and meanly budgetted for, forgetting the possibility of having more than one beer each. Lively, friendly place: mix of young and old. Couple of times "Happy Birthday to You" was heard being sung, feeling a bit out of place.
2100 sees us back in our room, lights out at 2200.
Bangkok, Grand Palace
Bangkok, Chao Praya River
Bangkok
Saturday, 26 Mar - Amsterdam
Found myself - funnily enough after having planned this trip for about 6 months - still writing down the addresses of some of the places we'd booked in Aus & NZ an hour before leaving for Schiphol airport. Nice to know where we're going.
We gravitate slowly to the usual check-double-check routine, worrying about what we are going to forget and temporarily blind to the fact that our various destinations also have shops.
It's just about freezing and threatening to snow, contrasting nicely with the expected 25-35c Bangkok should offer.
I have a habit of breaking a fingernail on flights and luckily get it over quickly this time while closing the front door, just in time to grap a nailfile and give myself a manicure while Marlies and Carolien drive us the 15 min to the airport for our first of 11 flights, the 1915 to Heathrow transferring to Bangkok on a Qantas/BA co-production.
Nice little touch, it says World Traveller on our boarding passes, and don't we feel it!
And the garden.
This is what our house looked like earlier this week.
Zoomed into Amstelveen, our house is just right of centre, backing onto the park.
Aerial view of Amsterdam. We live just below centre, with Schiphol airport to our left.
