THAILAND 2010

TUESDAY 2nd November and early afternoon we departed for Humberside Airport to catch the 5.15 city hopper to Amsterdam. Our flight across the North Sea took 40 minutes but we seemed to take just as long to taxi to the ‘city hopper parking bay’ where we were transferred to the terminal building by coach. We already had our boarding cards for all our flights and with little time to spare headed straight for our departure gate where most passengers had already gathered. On board we climbed the stairs to the upper deck to occupy seats 78 A and B, Keith grabbing the window seat this time so he could have somewhere to put his birthday cards! As the steward came round with a tray of pre-departure drinks we had extra choices of cranberry juice or blue Curacao and champagne, which I was very tempted to go for but acted sensibly and chose the cranberry. We had already spoken to the very tall 4 flight deck crew at the security check where they too had the same rigorous search, including removal of shoes, as the rest of us. The Captain was extremely tall, and for those readers who are used to air travel, you will have some idea just how tall he was when I say he had to bend the knees to walk through the electronic gateway! As we sat waiting to leave the gate our Captain informed us we were still waiting for two passengers and then we could proceed to the runway. A few minutes later two youngish gents arrived on our deck following the steward who led them onto the flight deck and we never saw them again! We also had a lady sitting on a seat in the ‘wardrobe area’ at the top of the stairs which seemed very unusual to us. Slightly later than the scheduled take off time we were on our way to Taipei via Bangkok and our flying time would be approximately 9 hours 30 minutes, arriving in Bangkok at 1.30pm local time. As usual the food was wonderful and once again I felt I had over indulged! Just after midnight we celebrated Keith’s 65th birthday and as he opened his cards our stewardess offered to take our photo. Breakfast was served around 11am and as I was still full struggled to finish my scrambled egg or the plate of fresh fruits! We arrived in Bangkok on time and everyone was asked to vacate the plane so the cleaners could come on board. It was a long, long walk to the shopping area and even longer to the Domestic departure side of the terminal. It didn’t help that we had to keep asking staff for directions, one such person being a stewardess who had just left a plane from Nairobi and was delighted to hear we were going to be staying in her home town. Things now went downhill with the lounge being full of people whose flights had been cancelled to beach resorts in the South due to flooding – this was their second day of waiting to fly to Koh Samui for a young Scottish couple that we spoke to. We didn’t want any food and the only drinks available were tea, coffee, water or a terrible orange juice that Keith regretted getting, so we went in search of the shops and hopefully somewhere to have a decent drink. We found the only eating hall, and a place where we could also get a beer (at a premium - £10 for two cans and a coke) and sat on high stools overlooking the lovely airport garden with a shrine that personnel where paying homage to before entering the building. I got a little alarmed when a man threw a rucksack into the back of a pickup truck parked along the road underneath us, especially when he walked back into the building, but it didn’t seem to worry Keith. At last it was time to head to our departure gate which had been changed so it was a good job Keith had checked the monitor again. As we sat in the departure lounge staff from Gate 3A next door were frantically trying to trace a missing passenger and came to ask if anyone could speak Russian. A German lady sitting nearby said she would try and was shown into the ladies toilet. I failed to understand why the staff would think this passenger was stuck in the loo! We wondered if they every found her but they did look very upset at loosing a passenger. Our plane was not very full and we found we were sitting next to a young man, who turned out to be 42 and had a 20 and 15 year old daughter. He was returning home after spending 5 years working in a Thai Restaurant in Toronto, Canada, and was excited at the prospect of seeing his wife and family after all this time. This flight only took an hour during which time we witnessed a fabulous sunset above the ‘cotton wool cloud’. On landing I thought we would all be going to the baggage reclaim but as we came out of the tunnel from the plane a member of staff was waiting with a list of names which included ours so I was sorry I had not said goodbye to our fellow passenger. We had to go to the International baggage reclaim which again was another very long walk with very little signposting. It was a good job we had a Swiss girl in the small group who knew exactly where to go. Now the stickers that had been attached to our clothing in Bangkok stating ‘International Baggage Reclaim’ became clear but at the time totally confused us. Again our luggage took ages to arrive and when we exited into the concourse we saw no sign of anyone from ‘Baan Orapin’. One taxi driver said he was not coming but we refused to go with him and as we set off towards the Domestic arrival gate our man arrived. He had been waiting at that gate. It wasn’t a long ride to our ‘home’ for the next few weeks but there was a lot of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from me as we looked at the illuminated scenery of the city.
Opas, the owner of Baan Orapin, and his staff was waiting to greet us and once we had completed the official paper work he produced a map and marked various places in the immediate area that we may find interesting . ‘Pepsi’ , a nephew, and another young man brought our luggage as we followed Opas to our ground floor room at the back of the lush complex . It was exactly as the photos on the internet so we were not disappointed. Once we had unpacked we went in search of food! Thankfully we didn’t have far to go and sat outside on the terrace by the riverside to sample 3 Thai dishes whilst listening to the blues singer/guitarist as he competed with the sound of the fireworks being let off in the area. It was a lovely end to Keith’s special day and no longer will I hear him say “I’m nearly a pensioner” - he now is!
Returning to our guest house we saw a large white rabbit sitting on the lawn.