04 April 2008 – 09:00
The Journey out
It must be said that while I have been abroad many times I never feel particularly confident or comfortable travelling on my own. Still, I don’t think I was really ready for the marathon that awaited me.
I woke up at 04:30 after a fitful sleep, possibly though a combination of nerves and excitement, but ready nonetheless for the long day ahead – or so I thought. After a quick shower and a small bowl of cereal, I collected my bags (packed the night before) and exited the house, looking back one last time hoping to find it safe and in one piece upon my return. I jumped into my hire car and started my three hour trip to Heathrow. I’d decided that driving my own car and parking it at Heathrow was too much like hard work and not worth taking the extra risk of it getting dented in the car park or for that matter making my drive look empty and unnecessarily inviting, so a hire car seemed the obvious alternative.
Although the drive should only take two and a half hours, I had put in a rush hour contingency of an extra half hour for the M25 – one which proved all too necessary. I’d reached the M25 in fairly good time (before 7am), but before I’d got round to junction 23 (the A1), the traffic had come to an abrupt halt and failed to move anywhere for more than five minutes. Now five minutes normally doesn’t sound too long, but when you are stuck in traffic with a plane to catch those 5 minutes can seem like an eternity. Finally, though, the cars slowly started to move. At first the cars shuffled at 5 and then 10 miles an hour before getting to a respectable 50 miles an hour a few minutes later. That’s better I thought. Alas that speed was short lived. In fact this became a pattern all along the M25, for every junction the traffic ground to a halt, and became increasingly frustrating.
Finally, by 08:15 I’d reached junction 14, the new junction for the infamous Terminal 5, which was my route to get to the car parks and the car hire drop off point along the North Perimeter road. Another queue! Dropping the hire car off was thankfully a breeze and the company’s minibus whizzed me and two other bleary eyed travellers on to the Terminal 3 departures entrance.
Heathrow
With bags in hand I’d reached my second pit stop almost exactly at the prearranged time, reaching entrance D at 08:50. Moments later Daniel first appeared, then Catherine and lastly Christophe. So far the script was going to plan quite nicely, even if a little tiring.
We moved inside and wandered upstairs to a coffee shop to relax a little and to introduce ourselves. After about an hour drinking coffee and finding out a little about each other as well as the obligatory putting the world straight, we checked in to our flight TG911 very easily (with no queue I might add) and all managed to obtain decent seats. I later found out that even though the plane had plenty of spare seats, I had chosen a row with one other traveller, so I couldn’t stretch out and sleep.
We decided to make our way through customs soon after and on to do a spot of window shopping in the duty free lounge. God bless anti-terrorism measures when moving through customs. Everyone very patiently removed all their jewellery, money and other metallic objects, removed shoes, and (new to me) had all our liquids confiscated. May be I have been lucky up until now, but it was a shock when I was pulled aside (quite politely) and asked to open my bag and remove my water – for after all water is highly explosive. The irony is that I had to drink it all there and then (or throw it), and buy more water not 20 feet the other side of customs and refill my bag for the trip.
We were ready in plenty of time for our 11:50 boarding, so as planned we wandered round the duty free shops, and grabbed a spot to eat. I’d chosen a sushi set and some root vegetable crisps which turned out far less exotic and tasty than their name suggested.
We boarded the plane a couple of minutes later, not that it mattered as we ended up taking off after 13:00 due firstly to our plane missing a slot, then one of the engines failing to start properly. Not an auspicious start! Finally in the air at 32,000 feet, 600mph and with a 20mph tail wind we’d hoped for an easy flight.
The in-flight entertainment was acceptable – National Treasure 2 being the main film half way through, although I had my eye mask on by that point hoping to snatch what little sleep an economy class seat could provide. The food was reasonable if a little forgettable, but both meals (and a morning sandwich) were welcome breaks from the monotony of the flight.
I’d shared the seating (61A) located just behind the left wing with a gentleman who had done the trip many times, and told me all about his love for the country and his Thai restaurant back in England. He also gave me a few useful tips and anecdotes about Bangkok, some of which were later eagerly reinforced by our taxi driver from the airport.
Bangkok
Finally at 06:50 local time we touched down at the new Suvarnabhumi airport a few miles east of Bangkok. After a painless migration through customs we found ourselves at the entrance and were immediately hit by the early morning heat and hustle & bustle of the taxi ranks. We were offered numerous taxi offers before we were approached by a smartly dressed Thai who looked the part and offered us a Taxi (in good English) to our hotel. When we reached the car doubts set in as it was an unmarked taxi, although I had spied a meter on the dashboard, we felt less convinced by the offer and particularly when the price of 1700bht (about £25) was proposed for the 25km drive. Daniel rose to the occasion and dashed over to the multi-coloured and marked taxis a few meters away to get an alternative price. He soon came back with an offer of a far more reasonable 600bht. Needless to say, we politely made our apologies and made for the safety of our cheaper and more trustworthy taxi.
We were whisked through the morning traffic across the expressway into town, being entertained in pigeon English by our driver. This trip was an introduction to the somewhat more relaxed approach to road rules, as well as a good insight in to the friendliness and helpfulness of nearly everyone we later met. We were told in no uncertain terms that the other taxi was controlled by the mafia , and it was a good job that we hadn’t taken the ride! We were also repeatedly informed of the inexpensive 7-Eleven chain of shops.
It turns out that 7-Eleven is a worldwide chain of convenience stores which is a subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Co. of Japan. It is, since March 2007, the largest chain store in any category, beating McDonald’s by 1,000 stores. Its stores are located in eighteen countries, with its largest markets being Japan, the United States, Taiwan, and Thailand.
At 08:30 through the maze of streets we approached the less than inspiring Viengtai Hotel. I’d checked out the website a few days before, and the hotel looked very comfortable, and once inside the spacious cool reception offered us some hope that we had indeed struck lucky.