Thailand in April

[william3rd]

I leave for Thailand on Tuesday for a week. This will be my 40th trip to the Land of Smiles. As always, I will fly Cathay Pacific out of LAX.

There are several reasons for this. #1- Service #2 midnight flights arriving in BKK in the morning. #3 afternoon flights arriving in LAX in the early afternoon. #4- got a heck of a deal on a ticket on a special- under 800.

I will be arriving at the new airport-Suvanabhumi- however, then I have to transfer to Don Muang because they moved the domestic back there a couple of weeks ago. And vice versa on the return. The real incongruity is that I can no longer step off the plane in the international and then walk over to domestic to get my next flight 90 minutes later. There will be a 6 hour delay between flights

The Songkran (Water) Festival is next weekend where my gf and I will spend the weekend throwing water at every body in sight and trying to keep from getting drenched.

We are building a house in Udon and it is already framed and they are finishing the roof. The rainy season starts in a couple more weeks so the workmen need to have it roofed and walled before then. After that, they can work on the inside. The structure is all steel and concrete.

[Jeff S]

Sounds like a blast. Have fun and please post pictures after you return.

[william3rd]

If I can figure out how, I will. Maybe you can walk me through. I have tried to post before but my photos seem to be too large.

[Jeff S]

If you e-mail them to me, I'll size and post them for you.

- Jeff

[william3rd]

OK- I can do that!!

[Ray]

Hey William,

Have a safe trip and enjoy the water fights. Try to check in while you're over there, if your girl will leave you alone long enough... 

Are they having a vasectomy festival this year?   

[william3rd]

Naaaah- not a vasectomy festival. We are both fixed anyway. Our baby days are over.

Hopefully we will have some pictures to share

[william3rd]

Well, my flight to Bangkok went as scheduled. My Cathya flight left on schedule at midnight for Hong Kong. I took a couple of Benadryl to make sure I slept. Excellent service and inflight meals and snacks including a hot spicy chicken noodle bowl mid flight. I had slept to about 830AM so the flight was over half over. On arrival in HongKong I had a three hour layover. SInce I have lounge privileges,  I went to the Cathay Pacific lounge (there is a very nice pay lounge for $25 there with the same amenities). After a shower and massage, I ordered up breakfast from the chef and watched BBC news. I saw a couple of business folks loading up on the bar. THE smiling bartender will pour as long as they want to drink. I am a coffee/tea/juice person when I fly so I was entertained by the coffee attendent.

THere is a lot of rumor that the new Suwannabhumi airport in BKK will close soon and the old airport at Don Muang will reopen. One thing for sure, Bangkok is a disaster if you have to travel domestic after an international flight. The domestic air has moved back to the old airport already. If you are staying in BKK no problem although you need to avoid the hawkers at the gate and follow the signs to the registered taxi and bus area.

So we land at the new airport. In the days of combined operations, that just meant claiming your bags and walking ot the domestic terminal to check in.

Now- it means fighting your way through the hawkers, getting on a shuttle bus and then taking the shuttle to the Southern Bus Station. THen you locate shuttle 555 (this is sort of a thai joke because the number 5 is pronounced "ha", so go find shuttle ha, ha, ha. . . ). You pay 80 baht- about 2.25. And that gets you to the old airport about an hour later. This means that you just miss the next flight to where you want to go. I have a 5 hour wait to the next flight and there are not many amenities since they tore everything out at the old airport and are haphazardly reinstalling things so I find a luggage cart and use that as a sofa.

Talking to the employees, I find that they are happy to be back at the old airport=everybody except the deposed prime minister thought that the new airport was a waste and now, with the runways sagging, it looks like a couple years of work will be needed for it to really work.

So I reach Udon at about 6PM and am greeted by my GF Or, who had already set up our hotel rom at the Napalai Hotel- an older hotel, five star accommodations for the astronomical sum of about 17 USD a night including an excellent breakfast. 

We visited our house as well. COnstruction has stopped for the Songkran Festival already. The walls are almost in and the structure is over halfway roofed. They have 2 more weeks to get that work done because the rainy season is rapidly approaching us.

The next report will be about the "carnage" of the water festival. We have already been trhough Day one but it is three days long and it is time to load up our gear to participate in Day 2.