So, as our driver sat merrily telling us all about the new member in their household - a little pet Chihuahua called Lily - I was staring out at the road thinking something looked strange. Suddenly, me South London Geezer; who up until now was sat in silence in the back, mutters: “You’re on the wrong side of the road”. But the chit-chatter continued and a cold sweat started to break out across my whole body, as I realised exactly what he meant. “You’re on the wrong side of the road, you’re on the wrong side of the road!!! He finally screamed from the back seat of the car.
“Oh really?” The driver says very calmly. “Never mind, is ok”. And she calmly reverses back up to the traffic lights, saying it was because we, (WE?!) were chatting so much she got confused and didn’t notice, but not to worry all was fine.
Luckily at that time of the morning, there wasn’t too much traffic, save for for some poor driver in an oncoming car, who thankfully wasn’t going at speed and understandably gave us an extremely shocked look as we reversed away from him at speed with Tooting Tony desperately asking our ‘chauffeur’ to just drive over the central reservation!
Suffice it to say we made it to Terminal 4 in one piece and with plenty of time to check in and have breakfast. The rest of the journey consisted of a seven hour flight to Muscat (Capital of Oman) where we picked up our five hour flight to Bangkok. The only bother we had, was a middle-aged man who was getting on most of the passengers nerves, as he spent most of the flight, stood in the aisle, talking loudly across to his friends who were sat in various groups scattered around our section of the cabin. At the end of the flight when we were all buckled into our seats while the plane came into land, the aforementioned ‘pain in the arse’ refused to sit down, despite various cabin crew calling over to him from their seats, demanding that he did. I think at that point, there was a collective wish from crew and passengers for the overhead locker to spring open and his oversized suitcase that he’d dragged onto the plane to ‘sort out the problem passenger’ ... It didn’t.
We got picked up at the airport and taken to The Prime Hotel Central Station in one piece by 8.30am, jet-lagged and intending to drop off our luggage and head out for breakfast. But, the room wasn’t going to be ready til for another three hours!
So we stepped outside, into the already searing heat but couldn’t find anywhere local to eat, plus we were still dressed in jeans etc and overheating and ready to pass out. So, we decided on the breakfast buffet at our hotel, where I managed to eat almost constantly and possibly the whole buffet, until serving finished at 10. (Jet lag has a strange effect on the appetite).
The room was still not ready, so we sat in reception completely dazed, shattered and ready to explode from noodle overload until finally, we were allowed in our room at 11.30 only to find as lovely as it was, there were no windows! This can be quite disconcerting on the best of days, let alone when struggling with jet lag!
Still, we managed to slip into a few hours sleep and despite waking up and feeling really confused as to what time, day or even planet we were on, we jumped in a Tuk Tuk and headed down to the Koh San Road for a mooch around the numerous market stalls, selling the usual clothes, bags, shoes and weaponry! I kid you not! One stall had on display various knives, knuckle dusters and stun guns - not sure any of that would get past customs?
Then it was time for a bite to eat, a couple of drinks and a foot massage - ok the latter part was for me - after which we went back to the hotel for a decent nights kip. Well we can live in hope ....
And so, after a really bad nights sleep, we dragged ourselves to breakfast then headed up to see Jim Thompson’s House. For those of you who don’t know, he was a very talented Architect who joined the American Army during the Second World War and was stationed out here in Thailand just after the war came to an end. He is most famous for re-introducing the silk Industry over here and putting this country on the map as part of the silk route. He was also a collector of fine Asian Art, which he gathered (some say pillaged) from his travels around this neck of the world; treasures such as Vases, paintings, furniture and even a whole Chinese house. I would definitely suggest reading up on him, he lead quite an interesting life. But what happened to him in the end is even more interesting, no one knows .... some say he went out for a walk, some say for a cigarette, but either way one fateful day in 1965 he went out and never came home. And to this day no one knows why or what became of him .....
The rest of day was pretty simple, we slept in our darkened, no windowed room until it was time to meet the group we are to be spending the next six days with and so at 6pm, refreshed from our sleep we gathered in the lobby.
Turns out we are a group of 15: four Canadians, one American, two Aussies, two Germans, an Italian and five Brits (all from England). I’m not very good at remembering names, except I know there are two Daves, however, I can’t remember which two they are.
After a lovely dinner at a local restaurant, a few of us went for a walk around China Town with our group leader.. His name is Samet but everyone calls him Joe, or as he likes to be called: ‘Spicy Joe’. Now that name I can remember.
And so now it’s time to bid you all goodnight. We have an early start tomorrow visiting a temple, a floating market and a two hour drive up to The River Kwai where we will spend the night on a floating Raft House. Should be fun ..... I hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment