CHIANG MAI Day 25
SATURDAY 27th. Opas has kindly let us remain in our room until we are ready to leave for the airport at 4.30pm so once again we took the opportunity to soak up a little more sun. It was the cloudiest day we had encountered during our long stay but at least the heat was still there. My voice was a little improved but the cold symptoms were getting worse. Keith doesn’t seem to be getting any better either.
We packed before taking a late lunch again in the Regina riverside restaurant sampling deep fried prawns with a chilli dip. Lovely – we are going to miss this delicious seafood.
Opas came to see us whilst we were sat on our balcony to give us a present of a book of pictures of old postcards of Bangkok and other parts of Thailand. He had been with the family to the Book Fair that I noticed was taking place this weekend and he thought we would like this – how right he was. The afternoon passed all too quickly and at 4.30 a member of staff came to assist us with our luggage whilst Pepsi was stood by our taxi to say goodbye. We had the same driver who brought us to Baan Orapin which again was nice and as we began our journey he said the traffic was bad on the main highway so he took us through some lovely back roads which would have been ideal to cycle along. We joined up with the highway only a short distance from the airport so arrived in good time.
Checking in we couldn’t decide whether we should be Domestic or International – we had arrived International but the clerk on the Thai Airways desk said we should go to Domestic to Bangkok Airways, our carrier. No problem and our luggage was checked all the way through to Humberside. We were then invited to go to the International lounge to await the departure of our flight to Bangkok. This lounge was lovely compared to the one in Bangkok and as we were sitting close to the refreshments I couldn’t resist sampling a square of marble cake with my cup of tea,
On arriving in Bangkok we had a long wait for our flight to Amsterdam but again the lounge was good and we settled down in comfy seats in the television lounge where the BBC World News Channel was on but no sound. Time to board our 23.55 flight and once again we were upstairs in row 74. The plane had come from Taipei and with a crew change service of our pre departure drinks was a little late in coming. Once airborne dinner was served but with it being so late I settled for the cold plate of salmon with red and yellow melon and potato in horseradish sauce a combination I would never have thought of serving with salmon but it was delicious as KLM food always is. Everything cleared away people began to settle down for the night. I kept my chair upright to try and ease the coughing but as the night progressed I reclined my chair further and further back until I nodded off but only for a short while. When I awoke I was sure I had left my over the shoulder reading light on. By now the man in front had fully reclined his chair and most items had fallen out of the seat pocket including my book. In the semi darkness I searched everywhere and eventually found it under Keith’s footrest. Settling down again I hadn’t been reading long when the man on the aisle seat almost opposite us complained about my light and asked me to turn it round. It doesn’t do that – it’s fixed to shine over the shoulder but I did my best to pull the light down causing me to sit in an awkward position to continue reading this exciting thriller. I should have told him to put his eye mask on or put his hood up which is concealed in the back of the headrest. Keith was reading his e book and told me he had been disturbed by this complaining passenger switching off my reading light! Just after 4am the cabin lights came on and breakfast was delivered. I had pre-ordered bread and butter pudding in a raspberry coli which came with a selection of slices of fruit – good choice. 5.30am we landed in Amsterdam and the temperature was -3!
Another long wait in Amsterdam for our 10am flight to Humberside. The airport had been beautifully decorated for Christmas and with only a few passengers around we could have a good look at the displays. What a difference when we left the lounge to make our way to Gate D6 as by now the place was full. I was glad I had had the foresight to put my Pashmina in my handbag as I needed it to take the bus out to the city hopper parking bay. At least our driver had parked the bus in the early morning sunshine so it wasn’t as frozen as the bus collecting passengers for Leeds Bradford. The windows on that bus were still frozen over. We had to wait in the bus until refuelling was complete before boarding and then before departing had to join the queue of planes being de-iced. If we thought it was cold in Amsterdam we were in for a shock at Humberside. As we began or approach our pilot informed us the temperature was -5 and snow. The cloud formation and colours and snow over the landscape with a ship in mid river would have made a superb photo but alas the camera was stowed in the overhead locker. On landing our pilot taxied as close as he could to the buildings –bless him. We had a long wait for our luggage during which time I went to the loo. I couldn’t decide which was worse, the temperature outside or the icy cold loo seat! There were lots of Police presence but we saw no signs of anyone being stopped. The lady on passport control said her car had registered -9 as she drove to work.
Before proceeding to the carpark we had to get our ticket verified at the Information desk as we had prepaid. It seemed a long walk as we tried to avoid the slippery sections to reach our car. It’s a good job Keith could remember where we parked it. Thankfully he had no trouble getting the door open and the engine started. I couldn’t get in the passenger side as the snow was frozen solid so sat behind him. We had a while to wait to clear the windows and as the frozen snow began to melt he helped clear it with one of his credit cards. The roads were not too bad until we got the other side of Beverley where we travelled at a snail’s pace in the line of traffic to reach Bridlington at mid-day. The main roads were treacherous and looked as if no gritting had taken place. This was the last thing we expected to see after nearly a month away and listening to the radio hear that it is due to last for several days. We knew we should have stayed in Thailand when the staff had problems scanning our boarding cards at every airport and joked with the staff that we didn’t really want to go back to the UK!
We packed before taking a late lunch again in the Regina riverside restaurant sampling deep fried prawns with a chilli dip. Lovely – we are going to miss this delicious seafood.
Opas came to see us whilst we were sat on our balcony to give us a present of a book of pictures of old postcards of Bangkok and other parts of Thailand. He had been with the family to the Book Fair that I noticed was taking place this weekend and he thought we would like this – how right he was. The afternoon passed all too quickly and at 4.30 a member of staff came to assist us with our luggage whilst Pepsi was stood by our taxi to say goodbye. We had the same driver who brought us to Baan Orapin which again was nice and as we began our journey he said the traffic was bad on the main highway so he took us through some lovely back roads which would have been ideal to cycle along. We joined up with the highway only a short distance from the airport so arrived in good time.
Checking in we couldn’t decide whether we should be Domestic or International – we had arrived International but the clerk on the Thai Airways desk said we should go to Domestic to Bangkok Airways, our carrier. No problem and our luggage was checked all the way through to Humberside. We were then invited to go to the International lounge to await the departure of our flight to Bangkok. This lounge was lovely compared to the one in Bangkok and as we were sitting close to the refreshments I couldn’t resist sampling a square of marble cake with my cup of tea,
On arriving in Bangkok we had a long wait for our flight to Amsterdam but again the lounge was good and we settled down in comfy seats in the television lounge where the BBC World News Channel was on but no sound. Time to board our 23.55 flight and once again we were upstairs in row 74. The plane had come from Taipei and with a crew change service of our pre departure drinks was a little late in coming. Once airborne dinner was served but with it being so late I settled for the cold plate of salmon with red and yellow melon and potato in horseradish sauce a combination I would never have thought of serving with salmon but it was delicious as KLM food always is. Everything cleared away people began to settle down for the night. I kept my chair upright to try and ease the coughing but as the night progressed I reclined my chair further and further back until I nodded off but only for a short while. When I awoke I was sure I had left my over the shoulder reading light on. By now the man in front had fully reclined his chair and most items had fallen out of the seat pocket including my book. In the semi darkness I searched everywhere and eventually found it under Keith’s footrest. Settling down again I hadn’t been reading long when the man on the aisle seat almost opposite us complained about my light and asked me to turn it round. It doesn’t do that – it’s fixed to shine over the shoulder but I did my best to pull the light down causing me to sit in an awkward position to continue reading this exciting thriller. I should have told him to put his eye mask on or put his hood up which is concealed in the back of the headrest. Keith was reading his e book and told me he had been disturbed by this complaining passenger switching off my reading light! Just after 4am the cabin lights came on and breakfast was delivered. I had pre-ordered bread and butter pudding in a raspberry coli which came with a selection of slices of fruit – good choice. 5.30am we landed in Amsterdam and the temperature was -3!
Another long wait in Amsterdam for our 10am flight to Humberside. The airport had been beautifully decorated for Christmas and with only a few passengers around we could have a good look at the displays. What a difference when we left the lounge to make our way to Gate D6 as by now the place was full. I was glad I had had the foresight to put my Pashmina in my handbag as I needed it to take the bus out to the city hopper parking bay. At least our driver had parked the bus in the early morning sunshine so it wasn’t as frozen as the bus collecting passengers for Leeds Bradford. The windows on that bus were still frozen over. We had to wait in the bus until refuelling was complete before boarding and then before departing had to join the queue of planes being de-iced. If we thought it was cold in Amsterdam we were in for a shock at Humberside. As we began or approach our pilot informed us the temperature was -5 and snow. The cloud formation and colours and snow over the landscape with a ship in mid river would have made a superb photo but alas the camera was stowed in the overhead locker. On landing our pilot taxied as close as he could to the buildings –bless him. We had a long wait for our luggage during which time I went to the loo. I couldn’t decide which was worse, the temperature outside or the icy cold loo seat! There were lots of Police presence but we saw no signs of anyone being stopped. The lady on passport control said her car had registered -9 as she drove to work.
Before proceeding to the carpark we had to get our ticket verified at the Information desk as we had prepaid. It seemed a long walk as we tried to avoid the slippery sections to reach our car. It’s a good job Keith could remember where we parked it. Thankfully he had no trouble getting the door open and the engine started. I couldn’t get in the passenger side as the snow was frozen solid so sat behind him. We had a while to wait to clear the windows and as the frozen snow began to melt he helped clear it with one of his credit cards. The roads were not too bad until we got the other side of Beverley where we travelled at a snail’s pace in the line of traffic to reach Bridlington at mid-day. The main roads were treacherous and looked as if no gritting had taken place. This was the last thing we expected to see after nearly a month away and listening to the radio hear that it is due to last for several days. We knew we should have stayed in Thailand when the staff had problems scanning our boarding cards at every airport and joked with the staff that we didn’t really want to go back to the UK!
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13:35
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