On the road ... in the air ...

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Geo: 13.7308, 100.521

Up at 04:30 after a pretty much sleepless night. My 'taxi' arrives on the dot of 06:00 as promised and we set off in the darkness for the 50 mile drive to Roi Et airport arriving just before 07:00.
It is quite busy here this morning unlike the last time we arrived and were the only people here in a dark hall. Seeing so many people raises my expectations of a decent plane. I say my goodbyes then check-in and sit down to wait. The plane arrives and whilst it is about twice the size of last year's excuse for an aircraft it is still powered by propellers and not jet engines.
. It was a pleasant flight and even sat quite near the props it was pretty quiet with zero turbulence - hurrah ! We arrive at Don Muang, Bangkok, about 20mins ahead of schedule which I guess was more due to the schedule being inaccurate rather than us having made up that much time in the air. As we landed I realised that I had forgotten there was a golf course here running between the two main runways. Its been a few years now since we landed here on international flights from the UK. Bus to the terminal buildings and don't have to wait too long before my suitcase appears on the carousel.
I wander outside to the official taxi rank and end up with Mr Crook for a driver. We had been going for about 5mins when I notice that he hasn't turned his meter on. It is a fixed price of 300Bht he tells me which is cheaper than the meter fare. Sorry matey but you have picked the wrong farang to try and con. I point out that the meter fare is usually between 180-200Bht and start to write down his driver ID from the windscreen. He quickly turns the meter on. We arrive at the guest house with a meter reading of 185Bht. He gets 200Bht and as he lifts my case out of the boot he implores me not to make a complaint about him. I give him the benefit of the doubt but warn him he is playing a dangerous game, especially with farangs arriving at Don Muang which largely services internal flights and therefore more likely farangs who have been here a while.
I get to the guest house to find that my usual room will not be available until midday and it is now only 10:00. I ask for a different room and the only one they can give me is on the fourth floor. That will have to do so I cart my suitcase, fortunately not very heavy, up to my room.
The temperature when we drove to the airport this morning was 10 degrees, it was 21 degrees upon arrival at Bangkok and it is forecast to be 32 degrees later. What a change in just a few hours.
I lounge in the room for a bit with a snack and watch the BBC news.
At 11:15, 24 hours before take-off, I am able to select my seat on tomorrows flight so I am sat at the internet watching BA's clock tick down. They have given me a window seat which I quickly change to an aisle seat so that I can get about the plane easier during the flight. I update this blog then it is almost midday and I am hungry. Eat at the guest house, probably the last time I will eat rice for a couple of weeks.
Go for a walk to the small park by the river and spend a couple of hours in the glorious sun people watching. I phone mum to check-in for the last time only to be told that it snowed there last night and this morning all is white - deep joy !!!!!
Back to the room with a coffee and lie on the bed with a book for a while.
Head out to the internet again with the intention of updating this blog with photos from the last few days but discover that the internet computers here have no way of inserting a phone card, USB, memory stick, CD or anything so photos will have to wait until I am home.
Hungry again so its a large submarine tuna sandwich. Deliberately avoiding anything that could be potentially dangerous to my stomach the night before a long flight.

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