Blogs from Bangkok, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 746

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok May 22nd 1989

The only seats available back to Bangkok were on the economy bus, so Tiny and I decided to head back so that we could do some of the tourist bits and the others would follow later on the VIP bus. They had probably managed to find a snooker hall in Chiang Mai. The first day back in Bangkok started early as we arrived at 6.30am, and it turned into one of the most 'eventful' of the whole year away, potentially bringing the year to a premature end. Naive is a word that comes to mind regarding this story. Gullible, is another, along with reckless, foolish and stupid. Any second hand car salesmen or confidence tricksters who are reading this and think that they'll be able to pop around here for some easy money, please note that ... read more

Except for The Shopping, Snooker and Crocodiles

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok May 13th 1989

Crocodile Wrestling

waterfia

Next we wanted to head north which meant going via Bangkok. This time, we found a guest house which did not turn its fans off at night. Tiny and I set off for the American Express office as they have a service whereby they will accept mail for anyone who has American Express Travellers Cheques. Tiny had fourteen letters from his girlfriend back in England, which considering how long we had been away was pretty good going. That brings me to my next travel tip, although email has probably made it obsolete now. Your parents may not be very impressed about you turning down a job to go off round the world and your girl/boy-friend might be all bitter and twisted about being dumped for a year, but there is a chance that somebody somewhere might ... read more

Hitting The Bangkok Tourist Circuit

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok April 20th 1989

The Grand Palace

waterfia

Despite the lack of sleep we had the energy to do the tourist bit and visit the Grand Palace. To get to there, we took a ride in a glorified three-wheeled lawn mower called a tuk tuk. The combination of this being seriously overloaded and the psychotic tendencies of the driver meant that it was a hairy ride. Two of us had to hang out of each side of it and then grit our teeth as the driver swerved between traffic on both sides of the road. We learnt the hard way that you agree the cost of the journey before you travel as it saves a lot of arguing. That was only our first mistake of the day. The second was to try and get into the Grand Palace in shorts and tee shirts. A ... read more

Living in Style in Khao San Road

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok April 19th 1989

waterfia

We arrived in Bangkok and got reunited with our backpacks (always a relief) and then proceeded through customs unhindered (always a relief, but then who in their right mind would smuggle drugs or anything else for that matter into Thailand). There were a lot of very stern looking guards with very big machine guns in the airport, but that didn’t stop you being accosted by people offering you everything under the sun. It was basically a case of "spot the foreigners who have just got off a plane and are therefore disoriented, tired and haven't got a clue about the country they've just arrived in. As I will elaborate, this is one of those times when it's handy to have a backpack. It also means that the porters who frequent many airports can't grab you luggage ... read more

Jan 03, 1989

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok January 3rd 1989

Koh Samui, Thailand

andjulbed

Geo: 13.7308, 100.521... read more

Back to Thailand with Linda - our home in Bangkok

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok February 1st 1973

Linda on the flight to Thailand

Home and Away

I graduated from college in June 1972, then worked in Norfolk VA for five months while arrangements were made to move to Thailand. During this time I got engaged, was married to my college sweetheart Linda, and spent our honeymoon getting shots and applying for passports and visas. On February 1, 1973 we flew from Pittsburgh to San Francisco, and took a bus to Travis AFB where we caught a Military Airlift Command chartered flight to Bangkok. Our first stop was Hickham AFB, Hawaii, and then on to Anderson AFB, Guam. We were supposed to be there long enough to offload passengers and cargo, but the forklift punctured the side of the aircraft, which took about 8 hours to patch. Then we were off to Clark AFB, the Philippines, and on to Ton Son Nhut Air ... read more

Darryl, Marilyn and Melissa were there to greet us

Marilyn, Darryl, Bob, and Linda having dinner at the Guest Homer dining room to our upstairs living room

Our first home at the Alliance Guest home

1965-1968 Korat and Bangkok

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok August 21st 1965

Bridge on the River Kwai

Home and Away

After one year in Korat, my parents were reassigned to Bangkok where my Mom managed the mission guest home off of Silom Road, and my Dad was mission business manager, teacher at the Bangkok Bible College, and pastor of the Evangelical Church. The church initially occupied the guest home garage, but soon my Dad moved it to a rented conference room at the Hilton Hotel. It eventually ended up in a new church building on Soi 10 Sukhumvit Rd. This location attracted many expatriates, including my dearest friends Darryl and Marilyn. He was a civil engineer with the Officer in Charge of Construction/Thailand, the U.S. construction contracting agency for Southeast Asia (they built all the American bases for the Vietnam War). They were in their mid 20’s, so not much older than me. Darryl became my ... read more

Brief history of Thailand

A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy....more history

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