Last post. Finally made it to Bangkok yesterday morning after a long
flight over Mongolia & China. Left Mandy at the hotel for a couple
of hours & took the Skytrain west, across the river, I’d never been
that way before so decided it was time. Got off when I felt I’d gone far
enough & walked around, no farangs out there. Had a massage,
grabbed a soft drink & headed back to walk along the road to the
Chatrium, with a hair cut along the way. I love going into barbers where
no one speaks English & see what I come out with.
We headed to the pool for a few hours, a snack for a late lunch then
back to the room where we both crashed out for 3-4 hours. Reading on the
balcony rounded out the day before room service & an early night.
I was up early on the balcony. I love this crazy city at the best of
times, it’s total madness but the mornings I love more, when it’s just
waking & getting going. The Chao Praya is devoid of the
LED-encrusted party boats banging out tragic music, long tail boats
shuttling commuters home & the buildings atopped with their red
flashing beacons.
It’s calm, nearly serene, with the occasional tiny
boat towing empty barges up river to be laden with goods. The hotel
ferries, either from a bygone era, or made to look as such, start to
work travellers around. The city retains hints of days gone by when the
likes of Conrad, Maugham, Coward & Michener, or other travellers,
would have been frequenting the Oriental, perhaps in white linen suits
supping the local delicacies.
There is obviously many sides to this city, but I love it at this time of day.
It’s going to be a lazy day, we’re seriously disappointed that we lost a
day here due to the conflicts nearby, but we know we’ll be back again
soon, as we have been so many times.
Well it seems as though we’ve been in a weird social experiment. Once
the announcement was made that our flight was cancelled, the throng
raced to the counter to ask questions & demand answers. The local
Thai representative was snowed but gave 2 announcements, first in
Italian then English about what was to occur. We were being shuttled of
to the Marriott, about 1/2 way between Rome & the airport, basically
in butt@&$;! And it seemed like 1/2 European train station &
1/2 weird atrium with crass painting on the ceiling & walls.
We thought it was a conference-oriented hotel; it’s vast with 2 long
wings & views to Rome with snow-capped mountains behind. Makes the
Toyota office building next door look quite small.
But upon
chatting with the girl in the foyer tobacco shop, she informed me that
no one was ever there. She thought it was time for her to find a new
career choice as she was bored senseless all day with no customers.
We checked in and dropped our bags at the room, though nice, were
decoratively-challenging to stomach, what you must get if the decorator
was asked to use as many finishes as he could. Great views though, then
went downstairs for a mass lunch around banquet rounds served by buffet
tables. Moved to the sundeck, another magnificent day of sunshine, and
mused as to whether an Albanian reality-show host, that no-one knew
(sure, we all know Albanian TV personalities) was about to bound from
the bushes and start bouncing between groups of travellers asking
ludicrous questions. I digress, wrong pills yesterday obviously.
An afternoon doing work drawings, me, & reading, Mandy, pretty much rounded out the day.
Up early with a call saying we were off today. Breakfast & onto the
buses, onto the airport, loved this, the reservation network was
down. Took a while but got to the counter to find out that Mandy’s seat,
which she’d only reserved in June, was given away. I cringed fearing
Vesuvius was about to erupt. So, the manager later, then the hostess on
board, removed the interloper; the world resumed normal axis
gyration.
Found out we’re going north, over Mongolia & back down over China, so the flight will be a bit longer, who cares!
More from Bangkok.
We both set our alarms on our phone for 6:07am, however we didn't tell
some ingrate in Australia who decided to ring more than an hour prior to
that. I got up and started doing some work, went up to the roof for a
ciggie, only to be annoyed by the lift, which has a perfect ring-tone of
the first 3 notes of 'My,my,my (Delilah), so now the bloody song is in
my head, and will be until we walk out the front door in an hours time.
Nice calm morning up there, sun just thinking about whether it would
rise or not, no, back to bed it went. Back to the room to work out it
wasn't just passed 6am, bugger, so kept on working until Mandy woke.
Breakfast and now packing winter & summer suitcases accordingly, so
we don't have to open one. Picked up in an hour & off to Bangkok for
some rest & warmer climate.
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| Reeds of rooftops |
