Bangkok Update

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In one of those deals that only make sense to airline marketing staff I grabbed a heavily discounted ticket from Stockholm to Bangkok. I paid SEK 5.400 for a ticket that would take me from Stockholm to Copenhagen and then onwards to Krung Thep. The poor sods wanting to board the plane in Copenhagen would have to pay SEK 19.000. Go figure. This modus operandi kind of set the parameters for the trip in general. It was kind of marred by minor hassles all along the way, delayed and broken down trains, illness and scrubbed flights. Perhaps I am starting to become a bit complacent, intercontinental travel doesn't hold the same magical aura it once did, nowadays I just want to get on with the damned thing. In part this is mainly because my local airport has been rendered useless and a lot of time is wasted on overpriced domestic short haul of questionable quality. Oh, did I mention by the way the ingenious train ticket pricing system? I purchased a seat in first class since it was cheaper than getting one in second class. Yes, that's right. In addition, entrepreneuring citizens purchase all the cheapest priced tickets and auction them off on sites like eBay...

Swedish high speed railroad services also struggle with worn out trains and endemic delays affecting as many as one in four high speed trains. Thus you need to pad unnecessary air into your schedule, or you might find that a delayed train waiting for a malfunctioning signal to turn green may cost you an intercontinental flight. Nevertheless, I made it to Krung Thep in one piece and my mood definitely lightened at the 30-something degree weather and the thought of a week filled with delicious food.

They moved the taxi stand at the airport again, so I fumbled around a bit before I could find it. In the cab downtown I amused myself by trying to chit chat a bit in Thai with the driver. Let's just say my progress has been minimal, although this time around I did manage to pick up the cardinal numbers. I've attemted to pick up Thai many times, but I've always been put off by the various media I've tried. There seems to be no consistent approach to teaching Thai, and half the material I've come across must have been typed up between beers by some Phuket expat in desperate need of bar money. From videos with a Thai guy (with a Hitler moustache) speaking rapidly with his Thai friends to a Swedish author who came up with the brilliant idea of using bold, underline or indented text as notation for tones, I mean seriously...

The skeletal structures of the airport railway that is supposed to link the city with Suvarnabhumi airport still cast their ominous shadows on the highway taxis but progress is slow. At least by now the station platforms are beginning to mushroom a bit, so who knows, hopefully we passengers will be allowed to enjoy its services for a short time before the entire airport sinks into the marshland for good. With taxi driver blockades against regulations (and the prevention of their setting whatever prices they feel like) every now and then they should definitely start feeling the heat by now. Taxi travel in Bangkok remains a hassle; more often that not you'll find the drivers refusing to take you to where you want to go, citing traffic or wanting to pick up something more lucrative. You'd think that with the thousands of taxis clogging up the streets at any given time they'd be a bit more customer oriented, but as long as gridlocks remain par for the course I guess you can understand where they are coming from. The most positive thing about the Bangkok taxis is the fact that they come in all sorts of vivid colours and brighten the concrete cityscape with their palettes of purples, blues, reds, yellows and greens.

I spent a relaxing week in town not really doing a whole lot, mainly catching up on my sleep and avoiding work. I had envisaged a plan where I'd be doing some work during the weekdays to save a bit of treasured holiday time, but after a few emails from a client of the headbutting variety I kind of put that idea to rest. So before I knew it I was downloading old 1980s horror flicks from youtube and listening to the rain outdoors. Actually the weather was pretty nice, there were some showers in the afternoons but most of the time the sun was out and the environment filled by the exotic sounds of crickets in the trees emitting their pleasant humming. There was one glaring exception though, Kay and I had just sat down for some delicious Chinese lunch in a restaurant near her office when the rain started pouring down in floods. When we were done eating we waited for it to subside a bit before going out. That's when we noticed that the city block we were visiting had turned into an island, and the office was now located on the other side of a 20cm deep river.

While waiting for the floods to subside I sent some photos to a Bangkok-skeptical colleague of mine in Sweden. His pricesless and snide SMS-reply remains a joy to read. "So, did you go for a dip outside yet? You do realize that when streets flood, the excrements of people float up on the streets, but I guess that's eaten on a stick as well, right?"

A couple of nights before my return flight I was awoken in the middle of the night by an automated SMS, signed Scandinavian Airlines. They wished to inform me that their had been a change in the time table and that I should get in touch with the sales office in Sweden for further information. Time table change -yeah right- I know exactly what that means, they cancelled the flight entirely. I pounced on the phone figuring 150 something people were about to do the same, and I'd really want as many options as possible still open. After all, considering how crowded the flight was I was a bit worried that other planes would be pretty full as well, seeing abysmal indirect flights and long transfers in front of my eyes. After patiently holding in line for 23 callers to finish before me I managed to get hold of a ticket on the same day I had planned to leave, and the detour wasn't that bad; a couple of hours in Vienna. There was no reason given for the scrubbed flight.

On my last day in Bangkok I woke up with a slight fever and a bit of an unruly stomach, wonderful conditions for intercontinental travel for sure. Fortunately, some extra hours in bed (that would be pretty much the whole day) worked wonders and I was actually pretty fit for fight for the flight. The second surprise that followed was that the triple seven flight to Vienna was anything but crowded, meaning we got some extra legroom and lebensraum which was a pleasant bonus. As we landed in Vienna at five in the morning it was back to the autumn chill and dull rain again. The airport was very quiet, I found myself sitting in a near empty restroom at the end of an equally empty corridor, listening to someone vomitting their guts out in the opposite stall. Welcome back to Europe!

As the connecting flight made it back to Stockholm Arlanda we were fifteen minutes early, meaning I just got served a chance to catch the 10.20 train back home instead of having to wait until noon. From the airport train I enlisted my mother to make a ticket purchase online and then dashed to a ticketing terminal to collect the ticket as soon as I arrived at the Stockholm central station and hurried to the platform. There I was greeted with a dark and closed train and a platform full of waiting people. With just a few minutes remaining before departure there was still no change and the platform monitor started flashing "Train departing". Needless to say, this train wasn't going anywhere. Finally someone managed to open the backdoor of the last carriage and climb onboard. I was just staring in disbelief expecting the train to turn back to the depot with its unlucky passengers but nothing happened. We finally departed a bit behind schedule while the crew announced that they had been waiting for the cleaning staff to arrive. To further impress on their passengers they announced that the carriage tilting hydraulics were damaged which resulted in quite the unusual type of journey...

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Photos

Sanam Luang
Temporary structures erected at Sanam Luang. This is where the ceremony for the Royal Cremation of Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana will be held.

And we're eating...
Japanese vegetables, nabe style

Gridlock part 167
The best thing about the bangkok taxis is that they add some colour to boring stuck in traffic shots...

...and eating...
Japanese ramen noodles