Day 2 – Dubai to Bangkok

December 26th 2008

Of course one of the things about travelling distance from West to East is that the day you're travelling becomes shortened so, while special as it was my first taste of Thailand and Sarah's first taste of Asia, this was predominantly a day of getting from A to B

Another full flight on Emirates – no credit crunch problems there I don't think – and a bit annoyingly placed in the middle 2 of the centre 4 seats. Stayed awake for 99% of this one, watched Ghost Town, a documentary on the battle between Netscape and Microsoft (yes yes, incredibly sad I know) and another film called The Happening with Mark Wahlberg, a bit like 'Survivors'...

On time into Bangkok airport, bit of a concrete jungle but pleasant enough, and mild panic as firstly I saw someone with a British passport that contained a Thai Visa, then we walked into the airport to pass the “Visa on Arrival” stand. Hang on a minute, we don't need one do we – that's what the guide books, internet, and travel agent all said? Well as it turned out, yes, correct, but when you've been travelling for 18 hours things do take on a slightly different perspective.

First transfer worked like clockwork, very friendly Thai gentleman (this is the land of smiles don't forget) to meet us and after some fellow travellers appeared we were ushered into a small minibus to take us to the Amari Atrium – which is very nice indeed thank you very much, no backpacking here! We even get our own “rep” in the morning, Miss Jenny will meet us at 9am to no doubt try and sell us as many excursions as possible during our whole 2 days here.

A good shower on getting to our room livened us up sufficiently to venture out of the hotel for something to eat rather than take the easy option here. With no real knowledge of the area just yet though we didn't venture far stopping at a Thai seafood restaurant where, as you'd probably imagine and it's all true, the fish is all laid out and you literally point to the ones you want. As we both had sea fish we didn't have to suffer the heartache of actually pointing to live fish in a tank – not after 2 hours in the country anyway, perhaps tomorrow :-) Beautifully fresh Sea Bass for Sarah and Red Snapper for me. First Asian cliché of the holiday on the first night too, the lack of “courses” when it comes to bringing the food – not that we ordered in courses, there wasn't even a menu, but soup (that really hot and spicy Thai fish soup that you keep your fingers away from your eyes or else), fish with rice and side vegetables seems straightforward. What came was rice, side vegetables, then soup and finally the fish – when it's ready it comes, this stuff's fresh!

Back in room, blog written, 11:15pm local time and I'm shattered. No immediate wifi in the room so this one will have to keep till I can upload it. Good night's sleep now I hope to clear the jetlag...