Our initial impressions of Bangkok (and remember we arrived from Varanasi, India): exceptionally clean and organized with a shiny, modern sky-train; 7/11 store on every corner; friendly smiling Thai faces; hot and humid weather (Hawaii-esque) contrasted against Shelley’s first impressions (and remember she arrived first class on United with a hired private car from the airport): uneasiness for unknown surroundings - we maintain she read the “warnings and annoyances” section of Lonely Planet book too often... she brought a whistle, enough said. We couldn’t harass her too badly though, as her packing skills put us to shame (guess who’s bag is who’s). Plus, she “muled” over six kilos of mail, holiday cards, presents, Kindle Touch, flash drive, and a much coveted US Weekly.
We cashed in my points for two free nights stay at the opulent Millennium Hilton - the most extravagant hotel we’d ever stayed at, complete with glutinous breakfast buffet, exclusive rooftop bar and spacious infinity pool. Shelley arrived, surprisingly not jet-lagged, at midnight to our Wolfpack Welcome Wagon of beer and Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Hilton’s lighting fast Internet speed tempted Ken’s weak spot: he downloaded five movies and nearly crashed our hard drive. Shelley be-lined for tanning at the rooftop pool overlooking the Chao Phraya skyline. I spent the day addressing holiday cards; unfortunately, Ken wasn’t too thrilled when the postage bill equalled an amount which could have sustained us for twelve days in Thailand (thankfully, the cost of living is minimal with the $1 lunches, $11 hotel rooms, and $3 dresses). Ken also succumbed to a weakness for painful but healing Thai massages - although can you blame him at $5 per hour? Shelley and I laughed because his favorite masseuse was an older, rough-on-the-eyes lady (apparently the young one, while easy-on-the-eyes, didn’t have the same manly strength for his knotted muscles).
After the extravagance of the Millennium we came back to reality with a standard hotel on backpackers row (Khao San) aka Bangkok’s Fisherman’s Wharf and visited the tourist sights (Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha, and Reclining Buddha) as all the fanfare for the King’s birthday (Dec 5) celebration swirled around us. We shipped a load of winter clothes back to the U.S. and stocked up on tank tops, dresses, shorts and flip flops (Sheila, we cross our fingers you get a package from us in about three months).
Dining on spicy food (sometimes too spicy with peppers burning our lips and making our noses run), we sipped cold Singha beer for relief and outlined our next week’s itinerary. We settled on beach bumming - so Ken tracked down cheap flights to the southern seaside village of Krabi. We took a one night layover at a budget hotel (with a deranged rooster relentlessly crowing outside our window all night) before ferrying two hours over to the island of heaven of Koh Lanta.
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