Thursday, November 13, 2008

Begin Day Two


Well needless to say I am exhausted. I was up at 6:30am this morning after about 5 hours of sleep. Today will envolve doing very little, I just got breakfast out of the way so lunch and dinner are left along with napping.
So more on the trip over, as I mentioned the only snag was the possible medical emergency. The flight from ATL to Seoul was about 14 hours, which was not that bad. I watched a bunch of movies to pass the time, "Indiana Jones 4, Baby Mama," and something with Sarah in the title, I cannot remember. I also watched Frank Caliendo, listened to a handful of CD's and took cat naps.
I think for my next adventure, it may be Seoul. I could not believe how clean it was, well at least the airport. It kind of reminded me of landing in California with the mountains surrounding the horizon. I had about a two hour layover there and spent the time walking around and taking a couple of pictures. From what I saw it was very beautiful, especially the flight out of the city with the view of all the islands surrounding Korea.
From Seoul it was another 6 hour flight to Bangkok on Korean Air. I cannot say I remember much of it because I slept the majority of the flight. I did tempt fate on the plane, they brought some ice cream and decided to eat it, the whole container was in Korean so I could not figure out were it was distributed from, hopefully not in China after the recent scare with the melamine in the dairy.
After we landed I made my way through immigration and converted some currency. So here is where I fall for a scam. I got roped in by the airport taxi service. They offered me a limo to my hotel for $70, luckily she showed it to me on a calculator. I borrowed her calculator and did the divison to find out how much it actually was, this 35:1 thing is kind of a pain in the ass. Needless to say I declined the limo but found out they had a car as well. Long story short was I paid about $35 for the ride. I know I could have got a better deal but I just wanted to get to the hotel without worrying about cab driver screwing me.
The ride to the hotel was interesting. I was not aware that they are training Thai's to take over NASCAR. We drafted several car on the way to the hotel and at one point I thought the driver was going to utilize bump-drafting. Our speeds ranged in excess of a 140km/h range which is 85mph.
When I got to the hotel I tipped the driver......also the guy who carried my bag to the taxi. One thing about the drivers is that they will ask you for a tip. I gave them 40THB which is just over a $1. I am not sure what the tipping procedure in Thailand is but I guess something is better than nothing.
When I got to the hotel I went to the front desk to check in and the lady had me follow her to the elevator. Because I am on the executive level I had my check in on the 23rd floor, sweet.
After getting settled and taking a shower I went downstairs to find a watering hole. As luck would have it, there is an Irish Pub attached to the hotel. The biggest attraction of the night was listening to a Thai Band perform "Islands in the Stream," originally performed by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. The band was actually very good and they played a variety of music. After several Kilkenny's I made it up to my room at 1am and went to sleep.
One thing I found out was there will be a big to do in Thailand for the next 3 days. The princess has died so there will be a big ceremony. I may try to figure out where that will take place.
I see why it is called the land of smiles, everyone does smile at you and the people I have met so far are excellent. They seem not to have a care in the world, this is a very beautiful place.
One final note: Koh Coon Crap means thank you in Thai. However, the spelling is probably wrong but that is how it is pronounced.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well koh coon crap for the story! Sounds like you had a relaxing first day and may be able to get in the middle of a huge procession with this princess thing.

Anonymous said...

why dont you drink thia beer!! idiot!! not irish beer you are in thialand!!!
maybe you can get in the procession for the princess!
sweet!