One Night in Bangkok

After 30+ hours of travel door-to-door, Ashley and I met at 12:30am after the customs rigamarole in Bangkok's glitzy Suvarnabhumi (pronounced Suh-wan-a-poon .. which still boggles my mind) Airport. Since Ash and I used other peoples' frequent flier miles to pay for the trip to Bangkok, we wound up flying on different airlines all the way.. and as chance would have it, our itineraries were exactly the same; we even got to enjoy an overpriced lunch together at San Francisco International! Ashley definitely won out on airplane service with Japan Air though.. with multiple seats to herself, tetris, and frequent ice cream sandwiches throughout! I was a bit jealous of the ice cream......

As I write this fifteen hours later, we're back in the airport about to fly out to Krabi. We'll be back to explore Bangkok with our friend Rob after some much-needed beach-time, but this layover of sorts gave us a great preview of the city, largely defined by cab rides to and fro.

Cab Ride #1 - The Driver/Pimp:

Freshly reunited, Ash and I waited in the longest line of our trip for a cab to take us the 30km from the airport to our hotel. Our driver was pretty quiet, but introduced us to the flock-mentality of driving in Bangkok. Lines on the road? Merely a suggestion. Rear-view mirrors? Only for the meek. Blinkers and horns? A language unto its own.

As soon as we got off the new airport expressway, our driver took us down a dingy industrial street with the largest population of hookers and 18-year old pimps we'd ever seen. He slowed waaaay down a few times and we both silently worried that he was going to pick up one for us ;)

Cab Ride #2 - The Narcoleptic:

After a better-than-expected continental breakfast at our hotel, we hopped into a cab for what we thought would be a quick ride across town to Khao San Road, a street-market and cheap-hotel mecca for low-budget backpackers. Luckily for us, there was bumper-to-bumper traffic nearly all the way there (except for a short stint on a toll-highway), and our driver fell asleep nearly every time we came to a stop. In what turned into a fun game of two-man driving, I had to make a noise to wake him up every time traffic started moving again.

Cab Ride #3 - The Geography Ace:

We quickly accomplished our missions on chaotic, crowded, and fun Khao San Road: talking to a travel agent about flying to Krabi, finding a scarf for Ashley, and buying a new battery for my watch (which I've never really worn before, but am definitely appreciating now).

It was easy to flag our third cab down, and our driver somehow took us back to our hotel in less than half the time it had taken to get out to Khao San Road. Bangkok's geography? Continues to be very confusing.

Cab Ride #4 - Gobama:

We picked up our Thailand-oriented bags from the hotel around 1:30 pm and headed back to the airport. Our driver was the youngest and most talkative of the four, and used his limited English to ensure that we were Obama Supporters, decry McCain as "just like George Bush (boom boom)," and teach us how to say hello, thank you, and good-bye. Awesomeness.