We left the Samui Sense Beach Resort on Koh Samui somewhat sadly. It's a beautiful place and we enjoyed our week at the beach.
Anyway, the Koh Samui Airport is a very cool place. It's all outside with roofs over the walkways and sitting areas amid beautiful gardens. Nice what can be done with no winter.
Our flight was almost on time and was only an hour and 10 minutes to Bangkok. They actually serve a nice lunch in that time. Air Canada could learn a few things from any southeast Asia airline that we've experienced so far.
We got a taxi at the terminal and were taken to our hotel near downtown in about 45 minutes for 590 baht (about $18) including highway tolls and an airport surcharge. The highways here are good with big expressways, not unlike Toronto, but there is very heavy traffic.
Our hotel, the Sawasdee Hotel @ Sukhumvit Soi 8 is basic but decent. Sukhumvit is the main road about 300 metres from here and Soi 8 is one of its sidestreets. A different way of describing locations.
Last night we were tired so we just walked up the street to a little restaurant for a bowl of soup. Prices in restaurants in Bangkok so far are higher than what we experienced in either Vietnam or Cambodia.
This morning we both had headaches and body aches probably from some virus we picked up somewhere so we decided to take care of all outstanding business regarding travel. We had a flight from here to Vientiane Laos next Tuesday ($119 each) but we booked a hotel there too for 4 nights. Then we booked a flight from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, Laos ($90 each) and a hotel for 5 nights there. Finally, we booked a flight on February 21st from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai, Thailand ($150 each). Our overland Thai visas expire on Feb 15th so we're going to northern Thailand by way of Laos, which we want to visit anyway, then get a new visa when we come back into Thailand. We also sent in our Vietnam visa on arrival applications so we'll be ready to re-enter Vietnam at the beginning of March. It's much cheaper and easier to do all of this online rather than go to a travel agent. For the paper copies we needed, we emailed our documents to the front desk of the hotel and they printed them for 20 baht (60 cents) per page.
After all that we started to feel a bit better so we decided to go down to Bangkok's huge Chinatown to see the beginning of the Chinese New Year celebrations. There was quite a crowd just after noon with some costumed dancers and lots of decorations, offerings at little shrines to Buddha, and general festive atmosphere. Lottery ticket sales appeared to be going through the roof on this auspicious day. There are also many stores selling gold jewelry.
After lunch in a restaurant with AC but not very good food, we walked up to Wat Traimit Wittayaram (Traimit Royal Temple) where they have a 5 ton golden Buddha built over 700 years ago. Very impressive. It's important when visiting temples to take off your shoes outside, dress modestly and behave with respect.
After the Golden Buddha, we flagged down a cab to return to our hotel. When we got in and told him our destination, the driver said "200 baht" so we said "meter". He said no so we got out. In Bangkok, you should always use a metered taxi or risk getting ripped off. Another taxi pulled up, we gave him the destination and said "meter please" and it was no problem. Total cost 89 baht plus we evened it off at 100 baht to include a tip. Good guy. Taxis are cheap here but you've got to watch some of the drivers.
Tonight we'll eat somewhere in the neighbourhood. Tomorrow we'll probably go to visit the Royal Temple and some of the sights by the river.
No comments:
Post a Comment