Jan. 2/3 Off to Thailand
This was a long travel day, there is a 12 hour time difference between Buffalo and Bangkok so I guess that means it’s half way around the world. I took Jet Blue to JFK then Emirates Air the rest of the way with a short stop in Dubai to change planes. Total travel time was over 24 hours. The Emirates flight was nice, the legroom is comparable to Jet Blue and the cocktails are free even in economy class, nothing like Glenlivet on the rocks to help the time go by. They are also partner airlines so I will end up with 20000+ miles on my JB frequent flier account, enough for a trip to St. Lucia.
Entry into Thailand was a breeze, immigration stamps your passport and after picking up your luggage out you go through the “no goods to declare” door; reminded me of St. Maarten it was that fast and easy. The half hour taxi ride to the hotel was less than $14 with toll and tip, having done some research on TA I knew to bypass the touts in the airport and head right for the queue just outside the terminal.
Since this is my first time in Asia I booked an upscale hotel for the first few days to ease the culture shock. I’m staying at the Hotel Solo Sukhumvit 2; it gets good reviews and at $65 a night I figured it was worth it to splurge, especially since the room pictures showed they had toilet paper in the bathrooms (more on that at a later time).
After a refreshing shower and a beer at the rooftop poolside bar I headed to Nana Square one of the popular nighttime entertainment areas in Bangkok. The area was really jumping the streets crowed with people, both Thai and tourist; bars, restaurants, food stands and vendors selling all types of merchandise everywhere. I checked out a few places, many of them had live music including one with a Thai band playing American rap music and doing a good job at it. People are very helpful if you have a question; they also have these young girls that must be employed by the Chamber of Commerce as goodwill ambassadors, you can’t miss them, they wear these short tight red tube dresses and they are very very friendly. A few of them even offered to escort me back to my hotel, probably to make sure I got back without any problems, but the area seemed safe so I passed on their assistance.
I stayed out till about 1:00 am, I wanted to get my body clock set to local time. Tomorrow I will start to explore the city.
