We’ve been in the air for most of the last 18 hours. Finally, we’re over Thailand. It looks beautiful down there. Everything is green, green, green. As we get closer to Bangkok, we start to see more signs of life. Farms, of course, but also small towns, a golf course or two, and what appears to be a busy freeway. Final descent — started.
Thailand is special. So exotic, but at the same time, so modern and up to speed with the rest of the world. It’s neighbors are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Malaysia. Not everything is wonderful in Southeast Asia, but what an interesting part of the world, no?
The Ride Into Town
Suvarnabhumi Airport, (or “Bangkok International Airport” if you’re not quite ready for words like “Suvarnabhumi”), has a fresh, architecturally pleasing look. Inside, everything is clean and orderly. Nice airport.
We indulged ourselves a bit on this trip. Instead of finding our way from the airport to the hotel on our own, we arranged to be picked up by someone from the Royal Orchid Sheraton, where we’ll be staying. We got our luggage and sure enough, standing there as we left the baggage area was a guy holding a sign with our name on it. Nice! Especially after 18+ hours of travel time.
The airport is twenty miles from the heart of Bangkok. We went in on a freeway that looked like it could be anywhere, with the exception of the signs in English and Thai. Traffic wasn’t an issue. In fact, it was light. I’m sure we’ll encounter the famous Bangkok traffic soon enough.
The main thing that hit me coming in from the airport was how huge Bangkok is. We were nowhere near our destination, but buildings that looked like they might be apartment towers were already sprouting up everywhere. Pretty soon, we were in a forest of tall buildings, but we still had a ways to go before reaching the heart of downtown.
I looked up the population of Bangkok: 8+ million. Well, no wonder!
The drive from the airport to the hotel took 45 minutes. It was right around noon when we arrived. We checked in, unpacked, and took naps before heading out. Our plan was to stay awake long enough to be able to go to sleep when everyone else here was doing the same. If we could do that, jet lag tomorrow probably wouldn’t be an issue.
Made it! Ahhhhhhhhhh.
Our plan is to meet another couple — two traveling buddies — here this evening. They’ll be flying in from a resort on the Thai coast, where they started their vacation. We’re going to spend the next two weeks together in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. And for us, it starts tonight!
After napping and getting cleaned up, we felt pretty good. (We knew it wouldn’t last, though). We took a walk around the hotel grounds and the immediate vicinity. We’ve stayed at this hotel before, when we were on our first trip to Thailand years ago. We didn’t recognize most of it now, but we were glad to see that a stand-alone traditional Thai restaurant was still here.
This restaurant had been our first stop after arriving. We had walked in just after they stopped serving lunch. A very polite, friendly young man explained to us that they were closed, but then he invited us in, anyway. Except for a few people who were finishing their lunch, we were the only customers in the place.
The restaurant was beautiful inside. Totally Thai. Everything was polished wood. The ceiling curved up gracefully in the classic style. There weren’t any chairs. We sat on the floor at a low table. Fortunately, there were holes in the floor for us westerners to put our feet into so we could sit comfortably. (And perhaps we’d be able to stand up afterwards, too, eh?)
The young man was extremely nice and talkative. He wanted to practice his english by talking to some english-speaking foreigners like us. After awhile, he asked where we were from. We asked him to guess. His first guess was Australia. He said he thought our accents were American, but we were “too nice” to be Americans, so he figured we must be Australians. Kind of a compliment, but a sad one. He took very good care of us and provided us with an amazing lunch.
Back to the present – the cocktail hour arrived and we met our friends as planned. It’s really fun to meet up with someone on the other side of the world. Even though we had it all planned, it still seemed like a big surprise when we saw each other. We had drinks out by the river, caught up, and unwound. We had dinner at a casual little restaurant near the hotel, then called it a night. We’d all made it!
One more thing…
On our first trip to Thailand, we went back to the Thai restaurant where we had eaten lunch to get an after-dinner drink. Just like our timing for lunch, we got there just after closing time. But our friend from lunch was still there. He spotted us, and even though they were closed, asked us what we’d like to have.
We asked for a Courvoisier and a small glass of Grand Marnier. He showed us to some outside tables on a deck that skirted the river. He told us to have a seat, and that he’d be back shortly. We hated to trouble him, (again), but he said they were cleaning up, so he had to be there anyway. It was really no trouble at all. And then he disappeared.
It was dark outside, or as dark as it ever gets at night in the middle of a big city. The outside lights had been turned off because the restaurant was closed. There was a warm, tropical breeze coming off the river. It was so peaceful, even though the never-ending activity on the magnificent Chao Phraya river was on full display in front of us.
Our friend returned with two glasses, a bottle of Courvoisier, and a bottle of Grand Marnier. He left the glasses and both bottles with us and said we could just tell him how much we had drank when we were ready to leave. “Whoa,” we thought to ourselves. “We really ARE a long way from home!”
That was our first impression of Thailand. No wonder we wanted to come back.
To be continued…
