Here We Come!

At last!  A holiday!  This one had been a while coming, so it seemed more than a little surreal to be making my way to the airport.

I took it as a good omen that Paul was coincidentally aboard the same train.  This was surely a better start than the last time we set off anywhere.  And so it transpired for getting away.  A good flight saw us landing in Bangkok just after 4.00 pm local time.  That was clearly the point of the omen's expiration, however, as it was almost another 3 hours before we arrived in our hotel.  Caught in one of Bangkok's infamous traffic jams.

Still, receiving the welcoming smiles, a step out into the warm night air and a drink at Cheap Charlie's and all was well with the world once again!

Morning Rush-hour

The next couple of days saw a lot of walking, mainly between shops, as I went in search of the items I'd forgotten to pack.  There's also a lot of walking back and forth within the shop because, even though it is a department store, there is only one counter that actually takes the money.  It's an impressively inefficient set-up.

Now Bangkok has never been one of the great walking cities.  Pavements are a luxury item on its car-lined streets and the driver of the car whose wing mirror clipped my elbow while I was walking down the narrow Soi clearly thought they were a luxury I wasn't entitled to.  Luckily, he wasn't going particularly fast.  And then, amidst the traffic jams, multitudes of motor bike riders decide that the pavement, pedestrians notwithstanding, is a better option and duly pour onto it.

Traffic.  On many levels

Have a nice sit down and a cup of tea...

Still, there are places one can get away from it all.  A quiet cup of tea in a very smart tea house was just the ticket.  Well it would have been had it not been for the New Zealander at the next table who really, really wanted to expound his theories on race and massage parlours to someone.  Anyone.  At least my caramel Napoleon macaroon was nice.  Actually, once he'd been ushered out by the concerned staff, it was a very relaxing, tasty cup of tea.

After that, it was a stroll around some of the less salubrious quarters.  A couple of beers and a G&T saw us well hydrated for the onward flight to London.