TONY'S BANGKOK BLOG PART 1
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Bangkok Thailand Trip - Part 1 Current mood: sleepy Category: Travel and Places
Was off to Bangkok Thailand last weekend and wanted to post some comments on the activities of the weekend. I will post the pictures on Kodak Gallery with the rest of the pictures of my travels once I upload them. I know I should be using flickr, but since I started with Kodak Gallery I will just leave then there for now.The trip was planned for Friday January 12 until Tuesday January 16th Singapore time. Thailand is 1 hour behind Singapore, but that is irrelevant at this point. Three of my friends from Singapore came along for the ride and really I was thankfull since two had actually been to Bangkok and knew their way around. I do have one friend that I met in Singapore, Ann, who resides in Bangkok and we did meet up with her and her friends one night. Unfortunately she was ill and was not able to party with us for too much over the weekend as she needed to rest and recouperate for an upcoming business trip starting - I think, today. Thanks to Ann and her friends for hanging out with us and good luck on your trip.Two of the guys decided to fly on a budget airline - Air Asia and me and the other decided to travel on Thai Airways - myself because I need to collect the frequent flyer miles and my friend because he booked last minute. The two who travelled on airasia had no issues - we on the other hand, on the 'non-budget' airline almost died. Yeah, you heard that right - we almost "almost" died.During the flight there was some major malfunction - I think the plane was hit by lightning. For those of you who have never experienced this there is a huge - I mean huge, very lound boom accompanied by a bright flash of light and the smell of burning. The plane lurches and drops a few hundred feet while listing toward the side that got hit. Yeah, imagine what you would think it would be like if the engine blew up and the plane was breaking into a thousand pieces. That is what it feels like. Very scary - and this happenend about 10 minutes after take off so you could imagine how the rest of the flight was. Thai airlines is not all it is cracked up to be - certainly not much better than a budget flight. The plane was archaic and the food was horrendous - sorry Thai Airways, I mean no disrespect, but the flight was really bad. But I did get about 1000 frequent flyer miles - big deal! I could have saved the $100S and bought about that many miles and flew on the discount flight. Although, it did come in handy at the end of the trip. My original flight was booked for 11am on Tuesday although I couldn't wake up and changed it to 1pm at the last minute. Not sure if I would have been able to do that on the budget flight.After such an exciting flight I needed some heavy duty liquor - once on the ground - couldn't even think of drinking after that experience (minus one can of Singha to get myself in the mood). When we landed at the new Airport in Thailand, Suvarnabhumi Airport we were greeted on the tarmac and brought to the terminal via bus. Not sure why the regions biggest and newest airport isn't using their arrival terminal, but whatever. You have to love Thailand and the love of their King - that is the first thing you notice, the new airport, as is almost everything in Thailand is covered with images of King Bhumibol Adulyadej .The airport is the largest in the world and you really get that feeling when you are there - I mean the terminals are absolutely huge. And the immigration lines were really manageable except for the 'Visa on Arrival' which was extremely under staffed. All in all, the experience so far was not that bad - although again my cell phone didn't work and that really frustrates me.
Bangkok Thailand Trip - Part 1 Current mood: sleepy Category: Travel and Places
Was off to Bangkok Thailand last weekend and wanted to post some comments on the activities of the weekend. I will post the pictures on Kodak Gallery with the rest of the pictures of my travels once I upload them. I know I should be using flickr, but since I started with Kodak Gallery I will just leave then there for now.The trip was planned for Friday January 12 until Tuesday January 16th Singapore time. Thailand is 1 hour behind Singapore, but that is irrelevant at this point. Three of my friends from Singapore came along for the ride and really I was thankfull since two had actually been to Bangkok and knew their way around. I do have one friend that I met in Singapore, Ann, who resides in Bangkok and we did meet up with her and her friends one night. Unfortunately she was ill and was not able to party with us for too much over the weekend as she needed to rest and recouperate for an upcoming business trip starting - I think, today. Thanks to Ann and her friends for hanging out with us and good luck on your trip.Two of the guys decided to fly on a budget airline - Air Asia and me and the other decided to travel on Thai Airways - myself because I need to collect the frequent flyer miles and my friend because he booked last minute. The two who travelled on airasia had no issues - we on the other hand, on the 'non-budget' airline almost died. Yeah, you heard that right - we almost "almost" died.During the flight there was some major malfunction - I think the plane was hit by lightning. For those of you who have never experienced this there is a huge - I mean huge, very lound boom accompanied by a bright flash of light and the smell of burning. The plane lurches and drops a few hundred feet while listing toward the side that got hit. Yeah, imagine what you would think it would be like if the engine blew up and the plane was breaking into a thousand pieces. That is what it feels like. Very scary - and this happenend about 10 minutes after take off so you could imagine how the rest of the flight was. Thai airlines is not all it is cracked up to be - certainly not much better than a budget flight. The plane was archaic and the food was horrendous - sorry Thai Airways, I mean no disrespect, but the flight was really bad. But I did get about 1000 frequent flyer miles - big deal! I could have saved the $100S and bought about that many miles and flew on the discount flight. Although, it did come in handy at the end of the trip. My original flight was booked for 11am on Tuesday although I couldn't wake up and changed it to 1pm at the last minute. Not sure if I would have been able to do that on the budget flight.After such an exciting flight I needed some heavy duty liquor - once on the ground - couldn't even think of drinking after that experience (minus one can of Singha to get myself in the mood). When we landed at the new Airport in Thailand, Suvarnabhumi Airport we were greeted on the tarmac and brought to the terminal via bus. Not sure why the regions biggest and newest airport isn't using their arrival terminal, but whatever. You have to love Thailand and the love of their King - that is the first thing you notice, the new airport, as is almost everything in Thailand is covered with images of King Bhumibol Adulyadej .The airport is the largest in the world and you really get that feeling when you are there - I mean the terminals are absolutely huge. And the immigration lines were really manageable except for the 'Visa on Arrival' which was extremely under staffed. All in all, the experience so far was not that bad - although again my cell phone didn't work and that really frustrates me.
posted by Jo at 8:00 PM
