Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 14

I didn't come to Bangkok with many specific sightseeing goals in mind. Rather, my goal in coming here was more abstract - I wanted to reconnect with the city that shaped and defined much of my life as a young adult. Bewarned that this blog entry is somewhat introspective. A Sort of Homecoming I landed in Bangkok on the evening of December 2nd. From the airport, I took the Airport Rail Link to my hotel, FX Metrolink Makkasan. I stayed in this hotel back in 2013, and I specifically chose it again because it is located next to three critical transport lines: the Airport Rail Link, Petchaburi MRT station on the blue line, and Asoke Pier, a stop on the Klong Saen Saep water taxi route. After checking in, I took the MRT to Terminal 21 ... read more

Prologue As you may recall from my New York blogfrom July, I decided to resume limited and cautious travel when I came to realize that Covid was here to stay. Up until mid-October, I was dithering on whether and where to go. My first preference was Singapore because I hadn't seen my family in almost two years, and so I monitored whether Singapore would waive quarantine for vaccinated travelers. My backup plan was to go to Canada or Europe. In September, Singapore opened up Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTL) with Germany and Brunei. I wasn't holding out hope that they would add a VTL from the United States in the near future because the Covid situation in the US was awful, and vaccination rates had stalled. But, rather unexpectedly, Singapore announced a VTL with the United States. ... read more

We have a COVID test first thing tomorrow morning in Bangkok. We found one that's only ridiculously expensive, so we booked a hotel within walking distance of it, and we'll stay there for our last two nights in Thailand. But we have the whole day to go before that! And no hurry. So we started our morning with a nice breakfast at the hotel and then went for a walk on the beach. The Cha-Am beach isn't nearly as picturesque as Thai beaches appear in the brochures, it's a narrow strip of sand lined with tamarisk, not the wide white sand lined with coconut trees, but it's ok. After a short walk we checked out the hotel pool and had a nice relaxing swim. A quick shower later and with our bags all packed we checked ... read more

Today was intended to be a relaxing day (relatively speaking).We're going to spend the day in this area, and sleep in town another night. But not in this hotel. The breakfast served here is bad, the coffee worse, and the room is just too gloomy. So we reserved a room at the Water Park Hotel Kanchanaburi as it had good reviews and price. More on that later... We went for a walk to the famous bridge over the river Kwai, walked across it and took some selfies. We sat on the grass under the bridge and read a bit about it, and found that not only is the name a misnomer, but it's mispronounced as well! The bridge spans a river of a different name that, together with the Khwae Noi rover flows into the Mae ... read more

Today wasn't our best day yet. As I mentioned yesterday, we arrived by night bus (not recommended!) in Bangkok at 5:00AM, and were immediately mobbed by taxi drivers. After some harsh bargaining we got one to take us to the airport for 700 baht (about 70 NIS, or $22, more or less) instead of 1,200, and we paid the 25 for the toll road. When we got there he tried to get 800 from us. We stood fast. Then he didn't have change. We found someone who did and saw his back fast! We found the rental agency (it was open and the rep was there). After some paperwork we got our car for the next week, and sat down for some very much needed coffee! It was getting light now, and we headed on our ... read more