04 April 2008 – 22:00

Arrival

We’d arrived at the Viengtai hotel Bangkok ready to collapse in our rooms and recover from our trip, either by taking a shower or just sleep for a bit. Unfortunately we were in for a bit of a shock.

Catherine, Daniel, Christophe and I complete with all our bags approached the reception desk anticipating a warm welcome and a seamless booking in.  I approached the young lady behind the desk and announced our arrival expecting anything but “sorry sir we don’t have any of your names listed here”. 

The news of our names not being recognised came as a shock to say the least. Catherine immediately pulled out her mobile phone and began dialling the Adventure Company’s contact numbers.   Of course we were 6 hours ahead of the UK, so we wouldn’t expect much response from the UK numbers as it was only 2 in the morning there, but we had been given a local emergency number, which unfortunately drew a blank.  We needed to recover, and we knew we had the right place.  It turned out that my name (but only my name) had been booked, but only for the return leg at the end of the holiday. So we organised with the reception for four new rooms.  Daniel agreed to put the rooms on his account, and we decided to sort things out afterwards.  We later had got in contact with the travel company, and the hotel rooms were reimbursed – but we weren’t to know this at the time.

Finally with room keys handed over, we were escorted up to our rooms.

The rooms didn’t match the glossy web pictures, but were acceptable, and to be honest we might have even have settled for less considering the length of the day.  The décor was a grubby white and green.  The curtains looked particularly man handled and had clearly seen better days, and the walls were covered in woodchip wallpaper that looked sticky.  The bathroom was the same dingy green and white, and really looked like it hadn’t been touched for a while,  but all the surfaces were clean and in particular the bed looked clean and fresh.

I locked the room door and dived into the shower and just stood there for a few minutes cooling down and taking in calming deep breaths. 

We’d agreed to meet up at reception at 12:30, so I had plenty of time for the shower, to unpack the essentials and have a sleep for an hour or so, which I gratefully accepted.

After my rest I changed into some lighter clothes and went downstairs to meet up with the other three.  Daniel slept the longest, but by 1pm we had found our feet, and were ready to explore our little corner of Bangkok.

We soon found that Bangkok is hot, crowded, bursting with people who want to sell you something and full of “interesting” odours.  We must have walked around for about an hour before settling on a street closed to motor traffic for a proper look at the market stalls, and finally to sit down and eat at a fairly reasonable looking bar/restaurant; which turned out as a good choice as it served cheap and tasty food.

 By this point we’d already spotted (and visited) our first 7-eleven in Thailand, as well as noticing a McDonalds, a Starbucks, and even a Dunkin’ Doughnuts. I must have gone through 3 litres of water on my first day out in the city. As soon as I had emptied one bottle, I jumped into the nearest shop (including a Boots and another 7-Eleven) to buy a fresh bottle.

Meeting up with the rest of the group

We returned hot but happy back to the hotel and finally met up with our other ten fellow ‘adventurers’.  We made our introductions and were soon taken into a back room of the hotel where we all were taken through the itinerary for the next 10 days, and collected the money for the guide and a pool for the tips. Our guide was a lady called Kannicha Passompakornkij or “Katie” for short, who as it turned out was doing her last tour before she was to move to England to be with her English boyfriend.

After the holiday overview and official introductions, we had a break before setting back out into the busy streets for a bit of shopping and an evening meal.

Katie recommended that we try an interesting fish restaurant¹ buried deep in a complex of market stalls and shops for our evening meal. Like a little oasis, the restaurant was an open air (but covered with a canopy) square with tables and chairs in the middle and the actual kitchen area to one side.  In full view was an aquarium, filled with unsuspecting shrimp, fish and other sea-life that would turn out to be on our plates later! 

¹ I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but it was something like “Yong Tun Kun”

The food turned out to be plentiful and tasty, and was washed down by several beers and bottles of lemonade.  After the meal we wandered back to the hotel, some stopping for a quick massage!

That night I struggled to get to sleep in my hot and noisy room, despite being really tired.  Unfortunately the pillow was way too big and firm, bending my head almost at right angles. So that was thrown out. Instead I plumped to rest my head on the mattress, where I eventually fell asleep.