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Published: October 12th 2011
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The crappy EasyHotel...If ever there was a synonym for "completely useless" it would have to be: EasyHotel. I've never stayed anywhere that was that basic and tight-fisted. I suppose the 30quid price tag should have warned me, but having to pay for a remote just to use the TV in your room? If you're on a budget like we are then it makes sense, but otherwise avoid!
Got up before dawn to get the bus back to Heathrow and our 9:30am flight to Mumbai. Everything went pretty smoothly and we didn't have much of a wait before jetting off for the 9+ hours it took to get there. I have to say, Jet Airways are probably the nicest airline I've flown with yet. Curries for every meal = awesome.
Landed in Mumbai to some SERIOUS heat at 11pm. The humidity must have been off the scale. Thankfully the bus was air-conditioned, but that didn't stop me stinking by the time I got to security... speaking of security, I've never seen a bigger shambles in all my life. Took us about an hour and a half to get through the scanner, just to be rushed to our next plane by flight attendants
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Flight to Mumbai, with extra mood-lighting! telling us to run.
Flight to Bangkok was much quieter (and shorter). In-between Kate's altitude sickness and having to be looked after by the cabin crew, I actually managed to get some sleep.
Arrival in Bangkok was nice and easy, just a simple passport check and wave-through. After hearing about the heavy-handedness of Thai customs, it was really a nice surprise. We grabbed our stuff and hopped on an express train to Makkasan. There were some pretty crazy views on the way in: lots of elevated motorways, HUGE billboards, and slums interspersed amongst much nicer-looking buildings... I guess the rich-poor divide here doesn't know so many geographical boundaries, much like at home.
Getting off at Makkasan we had planned to get on a riverboat up near our hotel, but a European guy (couldn't quite place his accent, I guess he must have gone native) we bumped into advised us against it. The gist: small boats, no room for luggage, useless if you can't speak Thai! We opted for a taxi instead which was almost as useless without being able to speak Thai, but we managed to point where we wanted to go on our map and he
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The Iraqi mountains (I think...). got us there fine.
So, we checked into our hotel, had a nap and have since just been wandering around the area nearby. It seems quite touristy here, but that's not such a bad thing. There's plenty of street food about and 7/11's to pick up essentials. The streets are very exciting by night, when all the lights come on and the food vendors come out in droves. The sights and smells are really something!
- Calum
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