Bangkok and Stuff

 My frustrated tuk tuk driver in traffic.

 Scenes of the skyline from the roof of my hotel.

Wednesday, April 25^th.

I was up early and writing until the prearranged breakfast time with Will and others from the group. I handed over John’s errant laptop to April who volunteered to take it to the UK for me as she lives in London. That will be a much faster and cheaper way to get it back to John.

We all said our goodbyes and best wishes and then I took a taxi to the airport. The Kathmandu airport is probably the worst I have been too. Crowded, out dated and run down. I had to wait a couple of hours to board and then wound up beside the most annoying passenger I have ever sat beside. He could not sit still, his TV didn’t work which caused him stress and he was constantly leaning over to my seat to peer between the two seats in front to see… I don’t know what. He was sitting beside his wife, but her TV worked so she ignored him. I asked him what his problem was, but he did not speak English so that went nowhere. Later I saw him come out of the washroom just a couple of row in front of us, and the stewardess, looking quite disgusted, asked him to flush the toilet. Can you guess what country he came from?

The flight was just under three hours. My TV worked but it kept dropping the signal which made watching the film very annoying, so I just listened to music.

When I arrived, I got my bag and headed off to catch a taxi but was intercepted by a woman who told me about the bus that went to the city centre. It was only 60 bhat which is about $2.50, so I figured it was much cheaper than a taxi, so I decided to take it. I told her the name of my hotel and she told me bus S1. I went to the driver who was standing outside and told him my hotel and he pointed at the bus. I sat on the bus for about 20 minutes before the driver and a ticket collector got on and we set off. I told the ticket lady the hotel and she told me to get off at Kohchan (or something like that) where all the hotels are. The ride took about 45 minutes. When we got there all the other tourists walked from there to their hotels. I asked a tuk tuk driver and he told me that the Park Plaza was ‘very far away’. He asked for 400 bhat and we settled for 300 (I had no idea where we were going). The tuk tuks here are larger, more powerful and sound souped up compared to India. Well about an hour later and after lots of traffic and a couple of jams, we arrived at the hotel. I gave him the 400 he asked for because the ride was so long. All told I spent about as long on the ground getting from the airport to my hotel, as I did flying from Nepal to Bangkok.

This just reinforced why I much prefer having an airport pickup. It takes all the hassle and stress (some would say adventure) out of the process.

I arrived at the hotel and checked in by 9:00. Going through my bag and sorting things I found my debit card was missing! I had used it at the airport to withdraw some Thai Bhat, so I either left in the machine, or on the bus or in the tuk tuk.

I went for a short walk around the area of the hotel as I had been here back in 2011 and wanted to refresh my memory. Then I returned and went to bed. I decided to wait until morning to do anything about the card, as I wanted to look through my stuff one more time and I thought that maybe the driver might bring my card to the hotel.

Thursday, April 26^th.

I sifted through all my stuff looking for the card to no avail. So I called the TD helpline to cancel the card. I explained to the agent that I had booked two nights here before I go to the islands for a week and then I will return to the same hotel. I gave him the address and he checked it on Google (which he says is never wrong) and he got approval from his boss to send me a new card. The hotel will sign for it and hold it until I return on May 5^th. Hopefully that will work. If I was going to lose my card, this was the best place to do it as at least I am here long enough to have another one sent.

I went through my documents for the airport pickup, boat transfer, and hotel reservation for April 27^th. So I went to print the plane tickets and discovered they were for the 28^th! Mad panic, trying to find who and where I had booked it. It was a 1 800 number and I couldn’t use Skype to call it, because I didn’t realize it was in Canada. When I figured that out, the office hours were closed. So I phoned the Bangkok Airways directly and thankfully they were able to change the flight for no charge. I guess this illustrates why I use Denise. So, I had the hotel print off the tickets and the boarding pass and a couple of other flights for later. 

Then I went out and found a dental office very close to the hotel and got an appointment for later. I continued walking looking for pants. I found a couple of stores and even one that sold the zip off leg variety, but they were all winter weight material. I have one pair left and was looking to buy a light weight pair, but no luck. My shoes are also falling apart so I checked a few shoes stores and actually found one that sold Keen’s, but they wanted almost $200 for them. So, I gave that a pass too.

I need a visa for Myanmar in couple of weeks, so I applied for an e-visa on line. I needed to upload a passport photo and didn’t have one on my computer. So I went down to the lobby and asked them to scan it for me. They couldn’t figure out how to lasso just the small picture and gave me full page scans, so I eventually went out to a print shop around the corner and they did it for me and sent it to me. The visa should be approved in three business days.

Then I went for the appointment and got my cap glued back into place. This is the same cap that fell out in Ethiopia and I had reglued in Sri Lanka $12. This time it fell out in Bhutan reglued in Thailand for $20. I hope the pants and shoes last and that the cap stays put until I get home.

When I got back I went up to the roof and relaxed in the pool before it is closed for a private party. Then I went out for dinner and returned for a quiet night in my room.