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Day 7
6:00am, 4:15am, 7:00am … I was in need of a lie in. So I got up at 10:30. Not a problem, I’ve already got Bangkok done and dusted from a previous trip, so I didn’t have anything I desperately needed to see. Apparently there’s a new metro system, but I was willing to bet it was pretty much the same as every other new metro system in the world.
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Day 24
I had an hour to kill before boarding, and another before takeoff, so I wandered along the concourse looking for somewhere to get a final Thai massage before leaving. I found somewhere, but the prices were six times what you’d pay in town, plus there was a queue. I found an internet area and had to buy prepaid credit in blocks of 100 baht, so I wasn’t exactly rushed. I spent an hour online, chatting to friends back home (where it was still early evening), checking my email and reading the news. Thinking about Palm and her upcoming trip to the states, I checked into the climate in Utah – wow, cold.
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Day 23
I woke at about 5:30, and showered before i realised what the time was. I went back to bed again until a wake up call rang my phone at 8:30. I phoned Palm, to remaind her to bring her uni report on the River of the Kings show, which I was really interested to see. Fortunately by the time they showed up in the lobby Palm had found a baby to play with, which always seemed to make her smile. Wee had brought along her boyfriend, Bernard, who was pretty hard to miss at 6ft 8in. I’d guess Wee was about 5ft, if that, so it made so quite a contrast.
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Day 22
Wee and Palm showed up a little late, and while I waited Charlotte appeared again. She spent last night on the sleeper train and had just arrived – a proper goodbye was now in order but we’d done it twice already so it didn’t seem necessary. We walked to the local pier to get an express boat to the skytrain stop. We were heading for the weekend market, and I wanted to use the skytrain to get there since I hadn’t used it yet. We got sidetracked temporarily by a couple of german students who needed a complex set of directions, so we took them to their pier to get them started.
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Day 8
I got up early to pack. After checking out, I met Charlotte, my tour leader. She looked puzzled, and asked why I’d checked out. Obviously we were going to stay at the Viengtai another night then. As I checked in again, to the general amusement of the reception staff and confusion of the porter, another member of our tour group arrived. Lorna, who was travelling alone, worked at a hotel in Edinburgh. The final two members of the group were apparently sleeping off their jet lag after arriving only this morning. I got a different room, with quieter plumbing, but a distinct smell of cigarette smoke. I put the aircon on and went back to the lobby in time for the first full group meet at 12:30. Sue and Steve, a couple from Swindon, completed the group.
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Day 7
I woke up to find it was almost noon. Wow – slept for AGES. Then I realised that I’d sent an email to Wee telling her I’d be in the lobby at 12 if she wanted to meet. I’d never make it in time, but fortunately she phoned just as I was starting to panic and asked to meet at 2, which got me off the hook. I had a chocolate croissant for breakfast. The regular ones had run out and the breakfast buffet was long gone. In fact, they were serving lunch. Wee arrived at 2:15, and we set off for the National Museum.
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Day 5
I was in the lobby by five to seven for my trip, and at 7:45, remembering what happened yesterday, I asked the reception desk to phone the travel company and find out what had happened to the guide. Turned out he’s already been and gone, so obviously he hadn’t looked for me very hard. I decided to abandon governments of Thailand past and go look at the current administration while I waited for the travel agent to open. A very moody taxi driver takes me there after I insist that he switches on his meter instead of charging a flat 100 baht. Saved 40 baht in the process.
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Day 4
As instructed, I was in the lobby at 0600 for the canal tour. The bus didn’t arrive until 0715, which didn’t seem like a very good start, though apparently it was the travel agent’s error. I picked up a croissant for breakfast and got into the bus to find only one other occupant – a costa rican girl working as a marine biologist in Australia. When we arrived at the pier there were more people, so the boat was actually about two thirds full. It motored down the river to the lock gates at one of the entrances to Bangkok’s canal system. As we moved from the flowing waters of the river to the stagnant canals, I was hit by the smell, which I thought would have to be unbearable for the people who lived here. Fifteen minutes later I had forgotten about it – it’s amazing how quickly you can get used to your environment.
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Day 3
Got up around 7:30, and went down for breakfast shaking off a light jet lag. There wouldn’t be any spicy food served for breakfast, obviously, so I got a plate of somethig that looked nice and took a big bite. How wrong I was. Strictly as a face saving exercise I ate most of it then rushed back to my room to drink several gallons of water. I phoned Wee, and we agreed to meet at 12, which left me enough time to buy a map of Bangkok. Wee arrived on time and suggested visiting a floating market but this turned out to be too far away. Instead she took me on a brief tour of the city by bus, ending up in her favorite hang out at Siam Square, a very westernised shopping and entertainment complex. We met Wee’s friend Jill (pronounced ‘Dew’ for some reason I was unable to establish), and I got my first proper taste of Thai cuisine, as well as a crash course in speaking Thai from Jill and Wee, who found my pronounciation very funny. To my amazement, Wee and Jill both support Enlish football clubs, Liverpool and Leeds respectively, although Wee doesn’t know where Liverpool is, and Jill only knows the location of Leeds because her boyfried lives there. As relationships go, I don’t think you can get much more long distance than that!