Chasing the Sun
- Departed Denver International on January 8: 12:35 pm
- Departed San Francisco January 8: 5:30 pm
- Departed Taipai January 9: 11:00 pm
- Arrived Bangkok January 10: 2:20 am
- (One bag missing!)
- Arrived hotel January 10: 4:20 am
- Awoke in hotel January 10: 9:30 am
- To the first daylight we had seen since our flight crossed the Rockies!f
- P.S. EVA Air delivered our bag the next day!
No Luck at Joy Luck Club
Luck, more than skillful and attentive planning, seems to win out when picking a moderately priced place to stay in Bangkok. Usually it is with us. This time, our luck ran out. We had reservations at a guesthouse auspiciously named, Zone Discovery Lodge, located next to the better known Grand Hotel. It is a bit far from the usual tourist haunts and sight-seeing venues but near the Victory Monument where we could catch a minivan to visit Aon in Chonburi. That never happened.
Instead, Aon and her roommate Mot decided to join us in Bangkok instead. And the guesthouse we so thoughtfully selected (by internet) turned out to be on the top level of what looked like an old parking garage lined with small apartments, doors opening to the car ramp. The path up the ramp was dark and littered with garbage. Seedy people scantily clothed hung out along the railings smoking cigarettes and drinking, staring at us with glazed eyes as we crept past. By the time we reached the third floor of the garage, neither of us could bear to go further. We told the taxi driver to take us next door instead, to the Grand Hotel.
Like royalty to a palace, he escorted us up the curved drive, through an arched gate and deposited us on the broad marble steps of the hotel. It was after 4 am when the dark uniform clad doorman reached for our door, crisp white shirt cuff just showing under the gold braided jacket sleeve. What emerged from the door was less than elegant: two fat farangs (foreigners), exhausted, wrinkled, and smelly, more fitting of a Monty Python movie than this grand setting.
Past gold leaf columns, beyond the three story staircase and intricately caved teak counter stood a perfectly coiffed Thai girl in traditional dress. I asked about a room:
Mee hong high chow, mai ka? (Do you have a room available?) I ask.
Mee, ka. (Yes, but only one with two single beds.) she answers.
Mai ben rai, ka (That doesn’t matter.) I say.
Aow “smoking or non-smoking,” ka (Do you prefer smoking or non-smoking?) she asks.
Non-smoking
Gee khuen, ka? (How many nights?) She queries.
Song khuen, ka. (Two nights!)
Hong tao rai? (How much is the room?)
Sahmpan baht. (3000 Bt)
Sahmpan baht samrap song khuen, mai ka? (3000 Bt for two nights, right?)
Mai chai! Sahmpan baht khuen la, na ka. (No, 3000 Bt per night.)
My jetlagged brain struggled with fast calculations: 3000 Bt per night for 2 nights = 6000 Bt at 36 Bt per dollar. About $80 a night, Norbert interjects before I can figure it out. Wow, that is expensive by Thai standards.
In times of extreme fatigue, I – we all perhaps – resort to rote patterns of behavior.
Pang bai noi! (A little expensive.) I say. Lot noi, dai mai? (Can we get it a little cheaper?)
Her startled look was instantaneous. Oops, wrong setting! Those words I had been rehearsing for the past week were meant for the market place.
Ching, ching! (Just kidding!) I blurted out quickly much to her relief. I’d managed to save face.
The room was nice. Not superior, but very nice with only the faintest whiff of mustiness. Is this how people get Legionnaires disease? I wondered as I drifted off to sleep.
Eating in Style
Our room was on the 25th floor with large windows overlooking Bangkok. It was Norbert, not the sun, however, that woke me at 9:30 am. He wanted to take advantage of the free breakfast that closed at 10 am. I was surprisingly awake and refreshed.
- The buffet filled two rooms:
- Fruit of every kind imaginable
- Muffins and sweet breads
- Yogurts & cereals
- Dozens of noodle and rice dishes in steaming serving bowls,
- all in addition to the Western fare:
- Eggs prepared any way you like
- Bacon, sausage and hash browns
- Plus, all the coffee, tea, and fresh juice a person could desire.
As usual, there were ten waiters for every customer:
This way please!
Would you like some coffee?
Would you like some tea?
Can I get you more juice?
May I help you with anything?
We shared our table with a lovely woman from New York here to surprise her son at his wedding to a local girl. (We bumped into her again later at the train station.)
The Rest of the Day
To keep it short, we spent much of our first day at a salon getting much needed manicure and pedicures, stuck in pollution choked traffic, and, once EVA Air delivered our missing bag, putting luggage in storage at the train station. For us, it was early to bed!
A Hard Day
Aon and Mot arrived at our hotel at 10 am
and took us on a very slow tour of the Royal Palace. We had been there before but not with a video camera. Despite the unusually cool weather predicted for the week, that afternoon was warm and muggy.
Norbert had a difficult time negotiating the cobblestone walkways and stairs with his rollator and rested often. As usual, the Royal Palace was crowded. Three hours
was enough for us. The girls, Norbert and I found a small restaurant just outside the gate before Mot
said good bye and caught a bus to visit her family for the weekend. Aon, Norbert & I caught a minivan to U-Thong near Aon’s home.
There are many careful and reasonable drivers in Thailand. Unfortunately, our minivan driver was not one of them. He developed tailgating into a high speed art and managed to find an extra lane no matter how narrow or crowded the roads. Suffice it to say, we made it from Bangkok to U-Thong in record time. Aon’s cousin, Wit, picked us up in his father’s truck and drove us to Na Lau. Sixty kilometers and a world away >from Bangkok, we were greeted with big hugs and smiles in our first Thai home, the village of Na Lau.
Na Lau is one of those places that never seem to change. The same gene pool of dogs meets us every time. More about our visit there in the next newsletter!
- Carol & Norbert