Three Nights In Bangkok

The only direct flight from Macau to Bangkok was on Air Asia, a budget carrier. I had read some pretty horrendous things about them and so was not looking forward to the trip. There are no meals or drinks included, no in flight entertainment and checked luggage was an optional extra. Well the flight was only 2 hours and 40 minutes so we wouldn’t need a meal. We could keep myself entertained with a book for that long and we just had to suck it up and pay full freight to check the bags. In terms of value for money all they have done is strip out the added extras and then charge them for them if you should avail yourself of the product of service. I could see no real saving. In terms of the experience it was perfectly bland. The staff were fine, the flight pedestrian and everything ran like clockwork. Where there would be five crew serving you there were three, meals and drinks were available if you hadn’t preordered and were hungry and thirsty. You were harangued mercilessly to try and purchase a range of produce from duty free to SIM cards to merchandise. There was no issue with the luggage and we arrived safely and on time in Bangkok.

Getting to the hotel however was another story. Oui was on home territory and said beware of the cabs that will overcharge you. We went to metered taxi rank. You don’t just get in one. You take a number and you are assigned a driver and car. When we arrived they gave us number 510, they were just serving 431. We waited 10 minutes and three people got a taxi. I asked Oui to go out and find out the price for an unmetered taxi. 600 Baht was the answer, that’s about $30 Aus. The trip lasted over an hour. I think we got value for money.

Before we had even checked in Oui had spotted some street food she wanted. A papaya salad (blistering hot) and an assortment of other things that she grabbed for the farang (me). After getting settled we headed to Nana, one of the famous red light districts, where we caught this amazing band and I sat drinking gin and tonics all night. The place was like Kings Cross of the 80’s on steroids. Every vice you could think of, plus a few more for those of you who were brought up Methodist, unashamedly on display for all to see. We caught a tuk tuk home that I believe set a new land speed record and were safely tucked up in bed just after midnight. By lunch the next day I had a case of Bangkok belly, not sure if it was the street food, the questionable milk in my morning coffee or the ice in the drinks last night. So many things to blame, time to suck it up and not miss a damn thing.