In Bangkok

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Dear readers of the Blanchard blog - welcome to the first installment of our actual on-the-way blog. We departed Wenatchee's Pangborn airport via Hoizon Air for Seattle at which time Jim got throughly checked out by TSA. This was mostly due to his metal suspender clips. Lesson here is don't wear mental suspenders when flying. He also got checked again at Narita Airport.

We departed Seattle via NWA on an Airbus A300. It could be a nice plane but the seating and bathrooms were very small. It was a very uncomfortable trip. We did not get to sit together. Ann had a small boy with ADH next to her (that was fun) and Jim lucked out with a nice looking female Airforce officer on her way to Guam. The mother of the child actually did a good job with her son on the long flight.

We arrived at Naita airport 10 1/2 hours later. We were very tired and felt beat up. Not as young as we used to be. As we were boarding four flight to Bangkok it was Ann's turn to get searched. The security at each airport was tight but not difficult to endure.

We arrived in Bangkok after a 5 1/2 flight. We spent what was left of the night near the airport at the Queen's Garden hotel. When we got up we took a taxi to the Grand Ayudaya Hotel. Ten years ago it was probably a 5 star hotel but today it is a 3-4 star hotel.

A lesson we have learned is that hotel pricing is now better when booking on the internet through "Skoosh". The last time were were here you could haggle a better price, especially during the off season. Now the best price is the internet. We will be using he internet to book our future hotels. We are planning to move to the river area - hopefully the Shangir-La or Oriental.

We are finding jet lag a bit more difficult than 16 years ago. We were up way too early this morning and have been going to bed around 8 pm. Our internal clocks are not adjusting as quickly as we would like. But we are not in a rush. Being from Washington State most of our lives, climatizing to Bangkok and SE Asia environments is tough. The heat and humidity is hard on us. Therefore we are going to Koh Samui for a while before traveling to other countries. Koh Samui was one of our favorite places in the past but have heard it has grown up significantly and even has fast food resturants.

The polution in Banglok is still poor. It is much better than 16 years ago and Bangkok is going "Green". There are fewer tuk tuks in Bangkok now but on a positive note there are many newer vehicles such as Toyota, Volvo and Honda which has kept the air polution in check some what. Visibility is only 3/4 of a mile on a good day but better than the 1/4 mile 16 years ago. There is also lots of construction going on for high speed rail.

We will try and add some pictures if we can figure it out.

all for now,
Jim and Ann

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Comments

[GLENN]

HOMESTEADING
HI YOU TWO. GUESS WHERE WE ARE. WE FOUND A CABIN IN THE WOODS COMPLETELY FURNISHED, AND INCLUDES RECREATIONAL VEHICLES, SO WE MOVED INTO IT.. NICE NEIGHBORS TOO. WE JUST HAD PIZZA WITH THEM. SAW BONNIE, CARL, CHERYL AND SOME OTHERS. MET CINDY. PONDOPAUL GOT INTO THE COMPUTER AND NOW I AM TOO. DON'T YOU WISH WE ALL WOULD HAVE TRAVELED THE WORLD WHILE WE WERE YOUNG INSTEAD OF WORKING? HOPE YOU WILL HAVE TIME TO CATCH YOUR BREATH AND GET RESTED UP WHILE IN KOH SUMI. HAVE A GOOD TIME. WE LOVE YOU. OLD AGE SUCKS!

[Martin]

Thanks for the tip about SKOOSH
Hi Jim and Ann, I stumbled across your blog entry when looking for information about the Grand Ayudhaya and checked the price on Skoosh which was far cheaper than the one I was about to book. It's is a great site I'll be sure to check Skoosh more often. http://www.skoosh.com/bangkok_hotels/grand_ayudhaya_hotel_bangkok2.html