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Published: September 12th 2007
The happy couple
The only photo we have of our first night. A reassuring cuddle after the insect scare.After an early start, we grabbed the shuttle bus from our hotel to the airport. We struggled to find the check in desk as it was all marked in Cantonese. Even then, it was not numbered as to what desk it was but we bluffed it and after rushing through, we were on the plane.
A quick 2 hour flight and we had landed in Bangkok. Karen had already forewarned us about passport control at the airport, encouraging us to sprint off the plane. We didn't run fast enough obviously. It took us around 2 hours to wait in the queue and then we staggered through customs.
However, we had a slight problem. No Thai money, no accomodation or little idea where to go. We took out some Baht from the ATM and ignoring the courtship of the limousine taxis, we headed outside.
The woman standing at the Shuttle bus took one look at us and said "Khao San Road?". We obliged, having some vague knowledge this was Backpacker central in not just the city, but seemingly the whole of Southeast Asia.
A long journey later (traffic is a nightmare in the city centre) we emerged sleepily onto a neon lit street with many touts trying to sell us anything and everything.
We decided to make our way to an area just off Khao San as we didn't really find it too welcoming at this point in the game. We made our way down an alley on the Soi Rambuttri and found Lamphu House, a nice looking hostel. No room at the inn however.
Headed next door to a plaza style hostel who we dutifully paid and made our way to our room. We were surprised at the quality of this room as it was extremely clean, modern, with full mod cons, although we were paying a little bit more than other hostels we passed. Undeterred, we were too impressed with this place and it was still under a tenner a night for both of us.
After a brief settling period, we took a walk around our new surroundings and ended up at a bar to soak up some beer. Emma however had a bit of a fright when a huge winged insect (Emma attests it was a monster) landed on her arm. Following the kerfuffle, it landed on her again and she looked down to notice a few cockroaches swarming around her sandals. Emma was being accepted by the locals over here it seemed. (Please note, we are not being disparaging about the lovely Thai people. They were also very welcoming though.)
We headed to the ubiquitous 7-11 and bought water and headed to our hostel, looking forward for some exploration tomorrow.
Following the insect incident (I might also add at this point Emma hates anything small that crawls or flies), Emma had a bit of trouble settling in and wanted back to Hong Kong. I fruitlessly tried to reassure her, however I think I made it worse by saying that we would encounter a lot of insects during our travelling and it was something to get used to (can I add that Gary does not really like them either). Emma said that she knew that we would and didnt mind them as long as they didnt encroach on her space as that one was clearly doing earlier in the night!!
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lorraine
non-member comment
hi there glad you are well as you can see i've managed to get on this without you looking over my shoulder haha, i was happy to read you are not letting gary waste the day.we are all missing you. the move back was chaous the kids got an extra week so no complaints from them.settling in now and its like we have never been away. you two keep safe and have loads of fun luv from all of us in learning support lorraine xxxxxxxx