2013 Thailand – Bangkok
The day arrived when it was time to start making our way home and we had booked seats on a minibus to take us to Krabi airport. Any remaining guilt about not being more adventurous during our holiday was dispelled after two minutes on that bus. We were the last to be picked up and so ended up with the two remaining seats at the back. There was luggage packed tight around us and we only got the dregs of any air-conditioning the bus might have had. It was only a two-hour ride so I couldn’t image what it must have been like for journeys that took up to 24 hours on bad roads. Considering the amount of money made from tourism in that area I was surprised that so little had been spent on infrastructure. The journey should have taken 45 minutes but we had to cross two estuaries to get to the airport. Neither of them was very wide so you would expect to be able to cross them on bridges but the only way was on ferries that looked like the landing crafts used on D-Day after they had been hit by several hundred shells.
We arrived at the airport much too early but time passed quickly and it wasn’t long before we were back at the hotel in Bangkok where we started. It was good staying in the same hotel as we knew our way around but it was also a little sad as it brought back memories of the restaurant six weeks earlier with the excitement of the holiday in front of us. Next morning we went to the Sunday market on the Skytrain and I hadn’t realised on our first visit how completely over-the-top advertising was in Bangkok. Every inch of the platform was covered with advertising banners and a big TV screen showing adverts with the sound up really high. The outside of the trains were also covered in advertising and inside every carriage there were several TV screens playing non-stop adverts.
The Sunday market was as crazy as ever and with everything being so cheap it seemed silly not to buy things even if we wouldn’t need them for a while. I wanted to buy lots of baseball caps but most of them were in the ridiculous fashion of being frayed and worn out. I had thrown away so many beloved caps because they were worn out and there they were selling them as new. Just as we were leaving there was a stall getting rid of perfectly good caps at five for £1. I suppose they looked too new to be in fashion but I was happy to buy five.
Our last day in Bangkok was spent visiting the famous reclining Buddha and then onto Chinatown on a tuk-tuk. For the first time, I felt the pollution get to me as the traffic was terrible. It was well worth the visit as we managed to find our way to an interesting area that sold all sorts of things including some outrageously expensive tea which we bought a little of. There was food stacked up everywhere in conditions that would have given an English health inspector a heart attack. At one stall there was a man chopping some strange-looking meat when a rat ran right past him. He glanced at the rat and went back to his chopping as if it was a common occurrence.
8th January 2014
And so our long journey home started with my first flight on a magnificent Air Emirates A380 Airbus. A double-decker plane with passengers boarding on the upper and lower floors at the same time. I read that the first-class compartment had private suites and showers. Even down in peasant class, there was more legroom than in any other aircraft I had been on. Standing at the back of the plane I could hardly see the front it was so far on the horizon. The flight was almost full so there must have been around 500 passengers but we boarded quickly and the service was very efficient.
We had a seven-hour stopover in Hong Kong. The last time I landed at Hong Kong airport it was still in the middle of the city and planes landed between blocks of apartments so you could look out the window and see people’s washing hanging out to dry. The new airport was built outside town so we had to take an express train to the centre. A very efficient and friendly young girl gave us detailed directions of where to go and what to do with our limited time but as simple as the instructions were, we managed to get off at the wrong stop. We were on one of the busiest underground systems in the world but despite the extraordinary number of people, it all seemed to run smoothly without being too crowded. We didn’t have a lot of time but we managed to have a quick dinner and visit the highest bar in the world at the Ritz Carlton. There wasn’t much to see from the top as it was so high that it was quite misty and the outside windows were misted up but at the bottom of the hotel there was a wonderful view of the city and river so the visit was well worthwhile.
It was a very enjoyable holiday and the six weeks seemed to pass by in a flash. As always, we stayed with my mother for a couple of weeks near Worthing before going back to Croatia. It was a struggle adjusting to the cold wet English winter, but after six weeks of noodles, we at least had the consolation of a nice plate of fish and chips.
Now we come to the end of our South East Asia adventure 2013 and it is time for me to say “Lā kxn” until next time.
2013 South East Asia
