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Published: March 29th 2011
HE SAID... It took us 2.5 hours to get through
Bangkok’s peak hour traffic on our return from Ban Phe on Friday afternoon. We experienced another side of this enormous city altogether. It was pure traffic chaos. An ambulance was stuck beside us again with its emergency lights flashing. We inched along the freeway beside it - sometimes it would get in front of us, sometimes it would fall behind us. I really wouldn’t want to get sick in Bangkok. The trip was slow and painstaking, and I was tempted to buy something to eat from the food hawkers at the traffic lights - at one stage I almost opened the window to buy what looked like fried banana, but we sped off before I could summon the courage. 😊
We eventually arrived at
Royal River Hotel at 6pm (after leaving Ban Phe 4.5 hours earlier). We were exhausted, hungry and thirsty. We dropped our packs and headed down to our favourite local family restaurant located in the same street as the hotel. When we ordered, the waitress remembered that Ren had asked about a patron’s meal the last time we were there - four days earlier! We abandoned our menu decisions
and went with her suggestions - Ren had
gai pad preaw wharn (chicken with sweet and sour sauce and a fried egg) - the meal that had caught her attention the last time we were here. I had
pad kee mao talae(drunken rice noodles with seafood, spicy vegetables and green peppers). The food was sensational and the family was unbelievably friendly. While we ate, news of the Burma earthquake was being broadcast on the family television. The waitress (the daughter of the owners) told us that her husband was from Chiang Rai but that his family was safe. The mother was in charge of cooking, and I think she may have held back on the spiciness to save our fragile palates. However, it was fantastic food - I love this place! It had been a long day, and this was the perfect way to end it.
We went back to our room and I turned the television on for news of the Burma earthquake and the Libyan conflict (one of the rare times we bothered watching television). I was asleep within minutes, but Ren got hooked by a French film titled “A Sham Marriage”.
I woke at 6.30am
to catch up on my writing. A convention of young Thai adults (age range 18 to 25) was staying at the hotel, and there was absolute chaos on our floor. They were great - just excited (as I’m sure I would have been). It was difficult to estimate, but there was somewhere between 500 to 1000 of them, and they all had matching t-shirts, luggage bags and shoulder bags. They were far better behaved than the French tour group we encountered at the hotel the last time we were here.
Luckily we didn’t have to share breakfast with them, as they had their own convention centre. This time we shared breakfast with two tour groups - one French and one English - and they were ok. I accidentally stole a French woman’s toast, and she took great delight in pretending to scold me as I apologised profusely (laughing as she looked over her glasses and shook her finger). I love meeting tourists who take life as it comes. To be honest, all you need is a sense of adventure and a sense of humour.
After breakfast we showered, jumped onto the hotel’s complimentary river boat (which we had
to ourselves) and headed to the Banglamphu Pier. We jumped off and walked to the Khao San market stalls to look for a few important gifts. The day was overcast and cool, so it was comfortable walking in the middle of the day. We freshened up with a mango shake and an iced coffee, picked up some Thai incense and a new cap, and then jumped into a taxi to head back to our hotel at 1pm. Our flight was at midnight and we wanted to make sure we were completely rested beforehand. We had a few issues with our room (we’d booked through to the following day - even though we were leaving at 8pm) but we sorted them out reasonably quickly. By 2pm we had fresh towels, soap and drinking water (luxuries for anyone who has checked out at 10am and then waited for a midnight flight).
Ren tried to watch television but she was asleep within minutes. I chomped my way through wasabi peanuts, salted peanuts and salted broad beans with a welcome Chang beer while I caught up on my writing. I eventually gave way to sleep and fell into bed for a 30 minute
power nap. It made a lot of difference. I woke around 4.15pm and started to pack. We’d picked up a few special gifts, and these needed to make their way into our already bulging packs. However, we had become masters at the art of packing, so it wasn’t long before we were prepared. We lay back, relaxed and channel-hopped between Thai, BBC and CNN television news. At 6.30pm we showered and by 7.30pm we were ready to leave. We went down to the hotel lobby and met our transfer driver. By 8pm we were on our way to the airport. The traffic was good - it only took 30 minutes to get there.
We checked in and headed through passport control. Once we were in the international departure area we browsed the shops looking for last minute gifts. We started to get hungry and decided to have a final Thai meal in Bangkok (well - in a Thai restaurant at Bangkok Airport). The meal was great - we had spring rolls,
gai gaeng keaw wan (chicken in green curry) with steamed rice, a banana smoothie and a Chang beer. I love Thai food, and this was great - it
was cooked fresh and on the spot. There were only four other people in the Thai restaurant with us, while the queues to Burger King (which was opposite) were five deep.
We finished the meal and headed to our departure lounge. The flight was delayed by 45 minutes, so we didn’t board until 1am. By this stage we were tired and ready to sleep. However, there’s nothing better to pass the time at an airport lounge than watching impatience grow exponentially amongst tired and grumpy tourists. We boarded, settled and watched our plane taxi on the runaway and take off via the pilot-view camera attached under the cockpit and relayed on the in-flight screens. The flight was smooth and the food was great -
goong gaeng phed (prawns in spicy red curry) as the Thai option and pan fried chicken as the western option. I ordered both while Ren slept - I had the chicken and Ren had the prawns. It was the first time I’d had red wine since leaving Australia, and it was a great taste. I even ordered a few cognacs - plane travel is the best. There are times when the travel to and from
a destination is as good as the destination itself - or maybe that’s just me. The whole concept of travel is what we live and work for. 😊
Ren was well and truly asleep and I was typing my last few travel notes with a cognac at hand. It was time to retire; time to sit back and enjoy the journey. Thanks so much for following this fabulous trip - I’ve loved sharing it. I know I need to write a retrospective, but right now I need to sleep. It is 3am Thai time, and it’s a time I’ve completely adjusted to…
We arrived in Melbourne at 1.30pm. By the time we got off the plane, picked up our packs and made our way through customs it was around 2.30pm. Roy (Ren’s father) was waiting for us as we walked out of the international arrivals area. We all had a coffee and then walked to the domestic departures area. Roy caught the Skybus home and we checked in at 3:30pm. Our flight was at 4pm so we didn’t have long to wait. We boarded, took off and in what seemed like an instant touched down in Hobart. We
picked up our packs and met Yvonne (who had been waiting outside the airport for about an hour - sorry about the mix-up Yvonne), who drove us home and filled us in on all the news from home. We arrived at the Schoolhouse at 6.30pm. It had been a long travel day and it was great to be home. Jasper, Oscar and Nungi were all in high spirits - testament to the fantastic babysitting from Yvonne, Damian and Darcy. Thanks so much guys. 😊
We unpacked, sorted our clothes into towering piles of washing, collapsed on the couch with a glass of red wine and watched an episode of Midsomer Murders... we were home! It was funny to watch Midsomer Murders, because we’d met a German woman in southern Thailand who absolutely loved it and we had spent time talking about it.
SHE SAID... Alas our days filled with sparkling sand and warm seas in Koh Samet came to an end. After a last sumptuous breakfast on the beach, we checked out and began the return/reverse journey to
Bangkok. We walked along the beach to the portable pier and caught the boat back to Ban Phe,
and then got on to our transfer bus to Bangkok for a four hour journey back to
Royal River Hotel. There was a moment of huge embarrassment (even though it was no fault of ours) on the way... when we arrived at the Ao Prao Ferry office in Ban Phe, the ferry staff failed to tell us that our transfer minibus was already waiting. The driver was not supposed to be there until 1:45pm. So when we arrived at 1pmish, we took our time using the bathroom, I bought my now favourite red bean ice cream and settled in at the air conditioned Ferry office with the Bangkok Post. About 15 minutes later, after all the other transfers had left, our driver decided to check where we were! I felt so bad for the seven other poor passengers who had been sitting in the sun waiting for us! I really hate keeping people waiting. 😞
The drive to Bangkok was fine, but driving through Bangkok’s Friday night peak hour traffic was part fascinating and part mind numbingly boring. We got to see a wide cross-section of the city finishing work, meeting friends, setting up stalls for the evening trade etc, but when
it takes 15 minutes to make it across two blocks; I just wanted to get out and walk. The fact that we were hungry didn’t help matters either.
In hindsight, this may also be the reason why I was starting to get agitated with the check-in staff at the
Royal River Hotel. I love that they seem so committed to training, but I think having four trainees on reception and only one supervisor was pure incompetence - especially when the supervisor was the only person who could speak English or who knew anything about the check-in process. We had experienced this the first time we checked-in a few days ago, but this time the supervisor actually abandoned the reception desk. So this was roughly how it went after that - I would ask the trainee ‘so we are booked in for two nights right?’ She would say ‘yes, room 643’ and point to the key, and I would say ‘ok, but is this booking for two nights?’, and she would say ‘yes breakfast is for two people’. And so on and on...until we gave up, smiled, said ok and went up to our room hoping for the best. As soon as
we had dropped our packs we raced down to the little family restaurant on the corner and sat down to a fantastically refreshing Thai iced tea for me and a cold Chang beer for Andrew. The waitress recognised us from our last visit and decided that she would recommend meals for us. I was glad we went with her choices. I had asked what a guy had been eating the last time I was there and she recommend that I have it -
gai pad preaw wharn (chicken with sweet and sour sauce) with steamed rice topped with a crispy fried egg. Oh my god - comfort food! Andrew had
pat kii mao talae (drunken noodles with seafood, spicy vegetables and green peppers) and it was exactly to Andrew’s palate - smoky and salty. I would have liked the meals a bit spicier, but with an international flight the next night it was probably prudent be conservative in our food choices.
Even though there is always a lot to see and do in bustling Bangkok (and the meal had pepped up our spirits), our nerves were still slightly jarred from being thrust back into a big loud crowded city
after the seclusion on Koh Samet. So we decided on an early night and returned to our hotel to watch the city and bridge lights from our window. Andrew had spotted a large Thai Youth group checking into the hotel soon after we did, and most of them were on our floor. They were a very social bunch and were running around and giggling in the hallway until all hours, but it really wasn’t that bad - it was actually very cute and after all it was a Friday night in Bangkok. We lay our heads on our pillows on that last night in Bangkok with a little sadness but also with a feeling of immense satisfaction and contentment gained from a month of doing something we absolutely love...and acquiring a wealth of new experiences along the way too.
We steeled ourselves for the onslaught at the breakfast buffet the next morning (given our last experience there), but this time the large groups were much more decent and it resulted in a quicker and easier breakfast. However, the sheer volume of people around the lobby and lifts still made it a messy and noisy affair, and for this reason
and the incompetence and surliness of the reception and restaurant staff, I really wouldn’t recommend staying at this hotel. Unless of course you like getting jostled while getting your guava juice in the morning, and would possibly enjoy a short spooning session in the lift with an embarrassed Japanese woman when returning to your room. Anyway, enough bitching about the hotel; and to be honest it did have some positive sides - the room was very comfortable, the views from our room were unbeatable, and they have a complimentary hotel shuttle boat!
Our motivation levels were back to normal the next morning, so in a moment of brilliance Andrew decided to book us on the hotel shuttle boat that dropped you off wherever you wanted along the river. I love this big churning busy river the city is built around, and it was lovely to have a private boat cruise on it, even if it was only for four pier stops to Tha Phra Athit for Khao San Road and Banglamphu. Because against all odds, we had determined that we weren’t shopped out yet and wanted to engage in one last shopping experience. 😊
As mad and unruly
as they are, it was nice to go back to our familiar old haunts. And it was also relatively more manageable in the early morning when only a few of the shops were open and the spruikers and touts hadn’t begun their hassling calls in earnest yet. We had a mango shake and an iced coffee to get our sugar levels up, before walking the length of Khao San Road, Rambuttri Road and the side streets off Rambuttri Road that took us into smaller streets where the locals shops were. We had a few presents to buy for ourselves and for family... and I was undecided about getting a final massage. The massage didn’t happen, but with all the presents bought, we caught a taxi back to the hotel and decided to chill out for the rest of the day.
Upon arriving back the hotel, it became apparent that as suspected, we had only been checked in for one night, so off we went back to reception. This time I ignored the trainees and walked past them to the supervisor. It was sorted out in about 20 minutes (which is quick for this hotel), after which we called past
the trusty local 7-11 for snacks and drinks for the afternoon. After a leisurely afternoon of napping, snacking, reading, writing, packing and watching TV, we checked out and made our way through almost no traffic to Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Everything went smoothly at the airport and after a last Thai meal of spring rolls,
gai gaeng keaw wan (chicken in green curry), a banana shake and a Chang beer (even the airport food is fabulous here!) we indulged in a bit more shopping and then sat down to wait for the flight and reflected on our month in Thailand. In short: Pros - food, cocktails, fruit shakes, people, landscapes, seascapes, small islands, massages, more food and massages; Cons - insect repellent with 30% deet and still getting bitten on the soles of my feet, old men who hack up and spit at your feet, potential dehydration on travel days, scabby dogs and cats.
Before I sign off in Thailand, I really should talk about the street dogs and cats in Thailand. There are many of them, but most of them are harmless and spend their time dozing in the shade and not moving for love or money. The reputation
they have for being rabid and ferocious may even be slightly unjustified, as we only saw two cases of ‘ferocious’ behaviour - a rival pack of dogs at Ayuthaya train station, and unfriendly and nervous dogs sitting on the bridge in Kanchanaburi. Given the number of street animals we saw in our month of travel, I would say that there are more unpredictable and ferocious dogs in Australia (although we don’t have rabies). About 50% of the animals are in good to passable (but skinny) condition, but the underdogs in the packs are very scruffy and mangy and this broke my heart every time. The cats seem to get more love, but there were still a few battle scarred and raggedy ones which made me want to bundle them up and take them home. The government apparently proposed culling the street animals but this was met with stiff opposition from the population as contravening Buddhist principles. The only other option that has been proposed is a neutering program, which although more humane, is so underfunded that it hasn’t made much of an impact at all. As a lover of animals it was hard to see some aspects of the street animal problem; but on the other hand the happy animals were very happy, or were in a zen-like calm state. This forced me to make the comparison of dogs cooped up in backyards all over Australia who would probably trade some of their food or a cuddle to have the freedom to come and go as these animals do.
If our visa hadn’t run out today I have a feeling we may have stayed a little longer in Thailand. But as it is, we are now on our return trip to Hobart via Melbourne. Apart from the flight back home being slightly delayed; I really don’t have much more to report in this post. I was asleep before the plane took off and only woke for dinner and then breakfast, an hour or so before we landed in Melbourne. I wish all our international flights were this easy and short. Could someone please put the kettle on? We need a nice cup of tea! 😊
The Melbourne part of the trip was short but sweet, with Dad waiting at the International Terminal for us. After a coffee stop it was time to board our plane home, and as you would have come to expect with me and planes by now, I slept all the way until I felt the wheels hit the tarmac in Hobart. 😄
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Bangkok Traffic
Some people told me about Bangkok traffic in Taipei (no slouch in the lunatic traffic department) nearly thirty years ago. Good to see that some things never change?