Yesterday I safely arrived in Bangkok, after two enjoyable, but exhausting flights. As always the service on Etihad Airways was excellent. On my Brussels - Abu Dhabi flight I was traveling next to a French guy from Toulouse. He introduced himself to me as a former police officer of the French police and started talking about himself. He quit his job because he found it to be too heavy and frustrating and thus he decided to become self-employed. He also told me quite immediately he had severe sleeping problems due to the things he saw and did in his days as a cop. As it was a night flight, that wasn’t good news. The six hours from Brussels to Abu Dhabi he didn’t stop talking about himself, his family and his daughters. I tried to act as if I was falling asleep, but it didn’t seem to bother him, so he continued rattling on. When he learned I was single, all of a sudden he started me showing lots and lots of pictures of his daughter. As the guy was on his way to Phuket, he also asked my advice on… Thai women! So I made up some story about how to hit on Thai girls and that he has to be careful as the most beautiful Thai women often come with a small package between their legs. At the end of the flight I felt tired, but it didn’t disturb me that much as I really had a good chat with the guy; I even didn’t have the time to watch a movie on the in-flight entertainment system.
During my 3h50 stopover in Abu Dhabi I bought some tax-free stuff for the folks home and enjoyed the courtesy of the Al Reem Lounge. As I was really tired, I fell asleep in the lounge and I woke up about 30 minutes before my Abu Dhabi - Bangkok flight was due to depart. As the lounge was in terminal 2 and my flight was departing from terminal 3, I got a bit stressed. Luckily there was no queue at security and the terminal transfer went quite fast. When I got to my gate, there wasn’t anyone queueing anymore, which made me think the gate was already closed. But when I got to the counter, I saw that the gate was still opened and that boarding was still going on. When I entered the aircraft, I said to myself that I was definitely not the last one boarding as there were still lots and lots of seats available. In the end I was the penultimate passenger to board and the aircraft was almost empty, what made that the stewardesses were even friendlier as usual. I watched Interstellar on the in-flight entertainment system and slept a bit. I also tested the on-board internet which functions great, though in the end I couldn’t login as I forgot my password (stupid me) and I had to pay a second time. Luckily T-Hotspot has a great customer service that refunded me my first payment.
When I got to Bangkok Airport everything went really smooth: I passed immigration really quick, my luggage was on the belt when I got at the carroussel and there was an immediate train departure to the city centre. Thus from the airplane to my hotel in Silom, it took me just over an hour. I dropped off my luggage at the hotel and went for my first cocktails and first foot massage for this trip. As always, I went to the Balcony bar. The waiters were again very happy to see me there. The first cocktail I had was a cosmopolitan, followed by a mai tai and for dessert I had a margarita.
Whilst drinking my cocktails on the terrace I met 2 crazy girls, Karen and Karen. Karen 1 was from London in the UK and Karen 2 was from Hasselt in Belgium. They were ‘celebrating’ Karen 2’s last day on holiday, which was a quite painful fact as she had been traveling for 1 year and a half. At some point Karen 1 made some drunk vomiting scene. But everybody in Europe knows that it’s just standard British travel behavior, so we weren’t really surprised by it. In fact, I had the very social gesture to be a good drinking partner and kept her hair out of the vomit. In the end Karen 2 had to finish all the alcohol, as Karen 1 couldn’t stand it anymore. No really, they were 2 really nice girls and as we were blabbing about everything and nothing, another Belgian guy from Brussels joined us. His name was Koen and he was on his first Thailand trip, which he got from his friends for his birthday. We had so much fun at the bar that I didn’t go for that foot massage.
Around 2 am I got back at my hotel, after making sure the girls found their way back to their apartment. This morning I woke up quite early, but I felt really rested, awake and most importantly, I had no hangover! I got out of bed, made my backpack and went out to find some fresh fruit for breakfast. I enjoyed the pineapple I bought, together with a cup of tea. I then took the train back to the airport to catch the 13.30 bus to Hua Hin. I miscalculated the transfer time from the city to the airport a bit and got to the airport two hours early, so I took the time to eat Tom Yam Kung (sour & spicy prawn soup) there. I still had more then an hour left after my lunch, so I took a foot massage, as I originally planned to do yesterday evening. After the foot massage I went to my luxury first class bus and we left for Hua Hin. I’m currently on that bus and it is packed with old people. Thanks to me the average passenger age went down with 10 years. Anyhow, I’m looking forward on seeing my dad, his wife Kanya and her daughter Kai-Mook in a few hours.
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