The last 10 days of our far east tour were spent in Thailand over two locations. The first three nights were spent in Bangkok. I had family who lived here once. My grandfather had a business part, of which was run in Bangkok and this was back in the 70’s. Sadly though I have never been before now. I also have no idea if I do in fact have any relatives there.
From the airport to the Hotel took ages. Traffic is horrendous. I got an alert on my phone upon arriving at the hotel that I had booked an evening cruise, so we could see the Bangkok skyline at night. We got to the hotel at 5pm their time. The cruise wasn’t until 7.30pm. I showed the concierge the details of the trip. We were to leave from the area of dock known as ICONSIAM gate 1. We were advised to leave the hotel at 6pm and the equivalent of an Uber was booked for us. We were back down in time and set out at 6pm. The Uber driver spoke no English, so he communicated with us through an app that translated him to us and us to him. He was a young driver, who had never been to the place we needed to go, so only knew roughly where it was. He pointed over a bridge. We were in standstill traffic and I gathered he was trying to make it to the other side. We got off and went over the walkway bridge. We found ourselves at the doors to a massive shopping centre. Asking where gate 1 of Iconsiam was, we managed to arrive at a boat dock.
Upon showing our tickets we were shuttled from one place to another, until we reached the very end point of the moorings. From here we found our way onto a boat called the Chaiyya Princess. The cruiser was loaded up and we set out. As soon as we did so a wonderful buffet meal was served. The predominantly Korean guests must have been awfully hungry, because as soon as the crew announced the buffet open, they ran at it like their life depended on it. I and Asgar sat and watched in amusement. I had always thought Indians didn’t know how to queue, but at least amongst them it was possible to see a sort of a queue. This resembled a scrum. Anyway the crew took them in hand and created some semblance of order and finally everyone including us got our food and settled down to enjoy the scenery.
We got to the same moorings about 2 hours later, and in the meantime enjoyed a live band, as well as the food. The Koreans were all up to the Gangnam style, song and to several other Korean music. The time passed so quickly. At the shopping complex we took lots of pictures and walked through the shopping centre. It was colossal. It made Blue Water and Meadowhall look tiny in comparison. Getting a taxi back was a bit of an ordeal. The Sukhumvit area where our hotel is, is a long way apparently from everything. Luckily the only two excursions I had booked were hotel pick ups, so at least we didn’t have to worry about that again.
We arrived back at the hotel around 11.30pm and Asgar was behind me going towards the lift. A very drunk European, he could have been either German or Dutch, walked into the lift, just as I walked in and he turned towards me. He had a pint glass of beer in one hand and something in his other hand and he was nearest the buttons for the lift. He quickly gestured me as to the floor I wanted and then went to hand me the beer glass. His confusion was in how to take the lift up with both hands occupied. I had a delayed response and spoke the floor number and he responded with take the glass WTF! As he said this Asgar walked into the lift. It all happened so fast, and I saw Asgar lurch forward and shout “How dare you talk to my wife like that!” Holding the beer glass in my right hand, I stepped forward to get in between Asgar and the drunk man.
I kept telling Asgar to calm down. The drunk man said to him, I just needed her to hold my glass so I could press the right buttons. Asgar was still arguing with him as we arrived at our floor. The man apologised, shook Asgar’s hand for the misunderstanding, mumbled his name and told us he lived on the upper floor. I practically pushed Asgar out of the lift. I can only assume the lateness of the hour and the long wait at the taxi rank at Iconsiam had made him cranky.
Over the next two days we did two tours. One half day, that ended up taking more than half a day and one full day, which actually finished earlier than intended. Both tours were to see grand palaces, reclining Buddhas, Emerald Buddhas and mostly temples that looked a bit liked Angkor Wat, being influenced by Cambodian temple building architecture and the icing on the cake was seeing Buddhas stone face embedded into the trunk of a tree. We also had an impromptu Elephant ride. Why I put mysefl through these things I have no idea!
I managed to get to the gym on the first day and arriving back early on the second day meant we made it to the hotel pool. The Rembrandt hotel was a lovely hotel in a very busy area of Bangkok. On our final night in Bangkok, we joked with the foyer staff, who let us clown around with their Rickshaw. We went across the road and had a lovely foot and leg massage and went back to get ready for the last part of our trip Phuket.
Phuket was the part of our trip that involved, letting our hair down, chilling out and relaxing. We arrived at the hotel early afternoon and got a sandwich at the pool bar. After that we ventured out in search of the beach and anything else there might be worth seeing.
To my knowledge, Thailand had always had very strict drug laws. It seems unknown to me the laws had changed in October, November of 2022, so the very first shop I saw was a Cannabis shop and whilst Asgar was gleefully exploring the menu of an Indian restaurant, I had clocked several places of massage and food that offered more than massage and food. I was highly confused and had no ide that the hotel backed onto the infamous Bangla Road. This was a hub of private clubs, music bars, sex shows and other manner of hell that exploited young Thai girls and young ladyboys. It was loud and brash and absolutely jam packed. It was 5pm late afternoon and the road was essentially just waking up. We went back to our room, chilled out and as Asgar wanted to eat an Indian, that’s what we did.
The following 6 days involved swimming, Yoga and going to the gym. We took in a couple of shows in the evening. One was called the Simon Cabaret, a predominantly Ladyboy filled cabaret act. They looked gorgeous, mimed to some very apt songs, to make their various statements of wanting to be loved and seen as women. I noted how much physical work they must have had so that their bodies looked so incredibly feminine. The second show we went to see was like a theatrical circus act that involved animals, including 12 Elephants. There were fireworks and pyrotechnics and arial gymnasts. Parts of it were spectacular and parts of it were sad. I didn’t like seeing elephants made to do what I would call parlour tricks, but thats what happened. The stage was set around the story of Raman a ancient king who fought invaders that kidnapped the love of his life. Precision and timing was everything here and our phones and devices were confiscated. It wasn’t enough for us just to turn things off. They actually took them from us and returned them when we left.
In addition to these nights out whilst in Phuket we did two excursions. We went to an elephant sanctuary where I did the unthinkable and bathed with these beautiful animals in mucky water that I couldn’t wait to get out of and showered from. The second trip was to James Bond Island on a speed boat. Asgar loved it. The bonus was that we actually got to see several Islands on the East side of Thailand. We experienced a canoe trip that took us into inland waterways with deep set mangroves. We had lunch of one of the Islands where all the buildings were build on stilts in the water. One particular Island we waded through water and caves until we reached the centre of the Island that when the tide came in was submerged.
James Bond Island itself has been heavily commercialised since it was used to film ‘Man With the Golden Gun’. However, we picked up a couple of fridge magnets and we can say we have been there.
We achieved a late checkout on 28th February 2023 and arrived home to the UK at 10am on the 1st March. I can honestly say we had a wonderful trip. If you joined me on our various destinations, thankyou so much!
The experiences teach us so much and give us so much to reflect upon. Sometimes, it makes you grateful for all that we have and really how in the UK we are so lucky. Travel is a privilege that those with the ability to readily get visas take for granted. By travelling and learning the ways and workings of other cultures we realise how blessed we are.
The next trip which isn’t for a while is to Amsterdam. If you would like to be informed about that or any other blog that gets posted let us know your email address and we will send you a notification as soon as the blog is posted. Bye and thank you for now.