Bhutan Here I Come

Caught a Thai airways flight up to Bangkok and enjoyed their service. It was back to how airlines used to be years ago. I got a hot towel, packet of peanuts and a drink within half an hour of being on the plane. Shortly after that they served dinner. It came on a full sized tray and I had an entree, a very satisfying and tasty main course, dessert and a roll with biscuits and cheese all served with wine, drinks and coffee. It put Qantas to shame. Their meals have deteriorated so much in recent years both in quality and quantity. Their last offering on my last flight was a take-it-or-leave-it spag bol which took precisely 4 mouthfuls to consume. No entree, no dessert only a chocolate. Later Qantas serves an ice cream but Thai did that as well. Qantas really needs to improve the quality of its flying experience.

I landed at the new airport in Bangkok, which I haven’t visited before. It was chaotic with long queues for immigration. I suppose I’m spoilt in Perth where, at most, there may be 20 people ahead of you in the queue with 3 or 4 booths open. In Bangkok there were 20+ booths each with 50+ people lined up. Getting out of the terminal was a case of running the gauntlet of the hotel and taxi touts and trying to look for your name or hotel amongst the many signs being held up. Predictably I couldn’t find my name at the designated meeting spot so walked back against the flow of human traffic asking various touts where my hotel meet-and-greet person was. Fortunately found her near a different door and had to wait while she summoned the transport from the hotel.

I only had a few hours lay over in Bangkok but didn’t want to sleep at the airport or any of the airport hotels at $250 a night or more. I found another hotel only 10 mins from the airport that gave me free transfers, breakfast and a room with private facilities all for $35. As I lay down to sleep for a few hours I realised why it was so cheap, as the first aircraft rumbled overhead. The hotel was directly on the flight path without any sound proofing! After the first couple of planes I was oblivious to the noise so it wasn’t as bad as I feared at first.