hey all. To start at the beginning of our adventure.
Lovely Chris got us to the airport at the crack 'o dawn and Air Canada did not screw up our flight. They did not give us any hard candy so I think that is proof positive that they are monitoring my blog.
Anyway, we had a few uneventful hours in the Vancouver airport where we spent a good 30 minutes annoying the Air Japan reception lady. first our bags were too heavy for carry on, we were both about 1.5 kilos over the limit. We sweet talked her into letting us through but she was full of dire warnings of the next gate/custom official/security taking our massive bags away from us. Needless to say that didn't happen. Once we had convinced her to let the bags through, we proceeded to have a Laurel and Hardy version of who's on the aisle, what's at the window. That poor woman spent 10's of minutes trying to accommodate our odd seating requests before she just stuck us in the emergency escape seats to shut us up. Lots of leg room but (is it irony or revenge?) there was nowhere to store our (too heavy) bags under the seat in front. So all of our stuff was over our heads, directly over our seat mate Mr. Chin. He let us knock his head around while we pulled our bags out of the overhead compartment way too many times. He found us amusing, I'm sure. He tried to teach us some Japanese words which Val may remember but it is all a blur to me.
Japan Air is nice but I don't think it beats KLM to Amsterdam. The movie selection was poor and started at random times. Remember when I was just excited to have the screen in the seat in front. Now I get all picky... Anyway, I watched a couple of movies and ate all of their Asian food which was very good.
We finally arrived in Narita, Tokyo Airport and wasted a few hours there.
I saw one new bird, the long billed crow so my time in Japan was well spent and bird book documented. Our flight from Japan was endless. I slept a lot (same movie offers) . The food was even better than the previous flight. It is like going to Mom and Bill's, seafood in everything. They served a little cold seafood salad that had a prawn, scallop, calamari and an octopus cake that was too good for words.
After what seemed like days on the flight, in our tiny cramped seats and with a new seatmate who was way less fun than Mr. Chin but far more infectious, we made it to Bangkok. I actually don't really remember the airport much, there was a long line, I had to go to the bathroom and then we were out and in a cab. We had been up for over 24 hours at this point so it is a bit blurry. We arrived at the hotel. The hotel... Swank does not begin to describe our hotel. We were so grubby (did I mention that they took our picture at customs, that's going to be a beauty). But the receptionist let us in and gave us a room. What a waste the room was on us. It had fluffy duvets and fresh fruit, slippers and white robes, toiletries, and a huge tub that we were too exhausted to even consider using. So we went to our comfy beds all greasy and sweaty and slept like rocks.
When I was reading about the hotel, the guides mentioned the excellent breakfast buffet. Oh my god, what an understatement. It was incredible, phenomenal. I don't even know how to describe the offerings so I won't. But it was delish and I ate too much by far. We owe Nikki many scarves in payment for the opportunity to make ourselves sick on poached eggs, dim sum and tiki masala all on the same plate.
We reluctantly left the hotel but since our 'deal' was only for one night and we weren't prepared to pay $500/night no matter how good the breakfast. We cabbed it to a more meager and humble abode on Khao San Rd. It is crazy here with the guest houses, bars and gift shops - heaven.
We are booked into the Budget Guesthouse (yes, that is actually it's name, not just an accurate description) across from the Khaosan Palace which I anticipate will be a hoppin' bar at night. Believe it or not, we actually shopped around and Budget was the nicest/cleanest room. It is only $14 for an airconditioned room (yes, we are getting old and need a bit more comfort - 2 extra bucks seemed worth it for the air).
We couldn't find a room with a private bath. Well, actually all of the rooms we looked at were on the 4th or 5th floor (no elevators) and my bag was getting so heavy that I told Val on the staircase of Budget that I didn't care what the room looked like, this was it. Fortunately, it is fine. The beds are hard as rocks, which I am happy about, but Val may disagree in future posts. Plus, we have to take our shoes off to enter the hotel (I have bare feet even in this internet cafe - start stocking up on the anti-fungal now).
Ok, off to buy many gifts for myself and a few for you guys. And beer, well, beer first, did I mention it is hot here. 35 degrees, according to one of our many new 'friends' on the strip.
Ok, time is almost up. Val and Joanne
 |
| Waiting to go... |
Lovely Chris got us to the airport at the crack 'o dawn and Air Canada did not screw up our flight. They did not give us any hard candy so I think that is proof positive that they are monitoring my blog.
 |
| Our view from the Vancouver Airport |
Anyway, we had a few uneventful hours in the Vancouver airport where we spent a good 30 minutes annoying the Air Japan reception lady. first our bags were too heavy for carry on, we were both about 1.5 kilos over the limit. We sweet talked her into letting us through but she was full of dire warnings of the next gate/custom official/security taking our massive bags away from us. Needless to say that didn't happen. Once we had convinced her to let the bags through, we proceeded to have a Laurel and Hardy version of who's on the aisle, what's at the window. That poor woman spent 10's of minutes trying to accommodate our odd seating requests before she just stuck us in the emergency escape seats to shut us up. Lots of leg room but (is it irony or revenge?) there was nowhere to store our (too heavy) bags under the seat in front. So all of our stuff was over our heads, directly over our seat mate Mr. Chin. He let us knock his head around while we pulled our bags out of the overhead compartment way too many times. He found us amusing, I'm sure. He tried to teach us some Japanese words which Val may remember but it is all a blur to me.
Japan Air is nice but I don't think it beats KLM to Amsterdam. The movie selection was poor and started at random times. Remember when I was just excited to have the screen in the seat in front. Now I get all picky... Anyway, I watched a couple of movies and ate all of their Asian food which was very good.
We finally arrived in Narita, Tokyo Airport and wasted a few hours there.
 |
| What better analogy for spending time at a foreign airport than international clocks! |
I saw one new bird, the long billed crow so my time in Japan was well spent and bird book documented. Our flight from Japan was endless. I slept a lot (same movie offers) . The food was even better than the previous flight. It is like going to Mom and Bill's, seafood in everything. They served a little cold seafood salad that had a prawn, scallop, calamari and an octopus cake that was too good for words.
After what seemed like days on the flight, in our tiny cramped seats and with a new seatmate who was way less fun than Mr. Chin but far more infectious, we made it to Bangkok. I actually don't really remember the airport much, there was a long line, I had to go to the bathroom and then we were out and in a cab. We had been up for over 24 hours at this point so it is a bit blurry. We arrived at the hotel. The hotel... Swank does not begin to describe our hotel. We were so grubby (did I mention that they took our picture at customs, that's going to be a beauty). But the receptionist let us in and gave us a room. What a waste the room was on us. It had fluffy duvets and fresh fruit, slippers and white robes, toiletries, and a huge tub that we were too exhausted to even consider using. So we went to our comfy beds all greasy and sweaty and slept like rocks.
 |
| A flower on the pillow? tossed aside in our exhausted efforts to get to bed |
 |
| Fresh fruit that we took with us (at least we left the towels) |
 |
| Our barely used Spa-like bathroom |
When I was reading about the hotel, the guides mentioned the excellent breakfast buffet. Oh my god, what an understatement. It was incredible, phenomenal. I don't even know how to describe the offerings so I won't. But it was delish and I ate too much by far. We owe Nikki many scarves in payment for the opportunity to make ourselves sick on poached eggs, dim sum and tiki masala all on the same plate.
We reluctantly left the hotel but since our 'deal' was only for one night and we weren't prepared to pay $500/night no matter how good the breakfast. We cabbed it to a more meager and humble abode on Khao San Rd. It is crazy here with the guest houses, bars and gift shops - heaven.
 |
| Khoasan Rd - in the daytime it isn't so overwhelming |
We are booked into the Budget Guesthouse (yes, that is actually it's name, not just an accurate description) across from the Khaosan Palace which I anticipate will be a hoppin' bar at night. Believe it or not, we actually shopped around and Budget was the nicest/cleanest room. It is only $14 for an airconditioned room (yes, we are getting old and need a bit more comfort - 2 extra bucks seemed worth it for the air).
 |
| Budget's sign. This place must be good! |
We couldn't find a room with a private bath. Well, actually all of the rooms we looked at were on the 4th or 5th floor (no elevators) and my bag was getting so heavy that I told Val on the staircase of Budget that I didn't care what the room looked like, this was it. Fortunately, it is fine. The beds are hard as rocks, which I am happy about, but Val may disagree in future posts. Plus, we have to take our shoes off to enter the hotel (I have bare feet even in this internet cafe - start stocking up on the anti-fungal now).
Ok, off to buy many gifts for myself and a few for you guys. And beer, well, beer first, did I mention it is hot here. 35 degrees, according to one of our many new 'friends' on the strip.
 |
| Val with her first beer, showing remarkable restraint |
 |
| Joanne with her first Thai beer, showing zero restraint (it was hot!) |
No comments:
Post a Comment