Bangkok, day 1
Hey, whaddaya know, I actually got some time this evening to blog! My host (not through CouchSurfing, but a Thai friend from the BUP conference I attended in Rogow) has been so extremely kind and caring that I’m nigh stunned, and at a complete loss as to how I can ever repay this service. She has offered me her room to sleep in for three nights while she herself will sleep at a friend’s next-door, which not only gives me some time to wind down on my own, but to also write this.
So, beginning briefly (psh, me? Brief? Yeah, right) with the flight, issues started before we even left the runway, as apparently the airplane’s auxiliary power supply unit had stopped working (this did not strike me as confidence-inspiring), so they had to manually start each engine one by one (four of them in total), and then fix some more “minor” technical problems before we were off half an hour or so delayed (they did however still manage to land right on time, so kudos for that).
In-flight food was as aweful and tasteless as ever (if not worse), and I have to say that I really prefer Swiss (which I used to fly to and from Shanghai in 2007) to SAS when it comes to long-haul flights. I may have deliberately forgotten how bad the food was (and thus now consider it better than SAS’), but the entertainment system was miles better as you could actually start and stop music/series/movies whenever you felt like, something which was not possible on SAS where they simply played movies over and over on a dedicated channel, resulting in that you had no idea when a movie actually ended or started, and thus simply gave up on it rather quickly. Despite this, I still managed to fight quite a lot with the user interface trying to get it to do what I wanted (miserably failing a lot of the time), and I can report that it would definitely have a lot to gain from a remake by an interaction designer.
Apart from the technically troubled start, the entertainment system battles, and accidentally smacking the glasses off my Danish sleeping seat neighbour while acrobatically trying to climb (and obviously failing – needless to say, I didn’t try it again on the way back) over him (me sitting by the window and him being between me and the toilet and the freedom of stretching my legs), the flight was pleasantly uneventful and even rather smooth, with only the occasional turbulence.
Heck, even immigration and baggage reclaim was very uneventful and smooth, and my Thai friend even managed to find me at the airport after a short call! So, first impressions of Bangkok, in order of magnitude: extremely kind people (at least my host, but she’s left me so postitively inspired that I’m more than willing to generalize the entire Thai population according to this), humid, warm, chaotic traffic. Actually, that last one is a bit of an understatement, because if it hadn’t been for Nuch (the name of my friend here), then I most likely would’ve gotten hit by a car/motorcycle/moped/bus/truck/whatever-strange-contraption-rolling-on-two-or-more-wheels-they’ve-managed-to-come-up-with the first thing that happened upon getting out of the taxi.
I’m serious though, only during this short afternoon of going (on the awesomest bus-like-thing I’ve ever ridden) for dinner (a taste sensation beyond this world, and that’s not saying everything was awesomely good (though some definitely was, while other things were edible at the very least), but simply that it’s so much different to what you get at home (including “Thai food”)) and walking back I managed to almost get run over more times than I can remember, saved every time at the last second by Nuch. Crossing a street here really makes you feel alive! Just too bad the pollution makes you feel even deader, but I’m still loving it though, even if I’m wishing for just a breath of fresh air while walking these streets, full of life in a way that can possibly be likened to Malmo during the festival week, if you just replace most of the people with vehicles instead.
Oh, and on the way back we walked past Nuch’s old university and the building where the student activities were organised, and found a group of Thai girls practicing Thai dance! I’m sure it has a very specific name in Thai, but however much I wish I could speak this language (or even try to memorize a phrase, much less pronounce it), it remains a sequence of incomprehensible sounds that flow into my ears like background music. Anyhow, the girls thought I should join them instead of just taking pictures, and far be it from me to back down on a challenge, so danced I did (photographic proof exists)! It was really fun (no comment on how well and/or ridiculously I performed) and we were invited to the performance they were rehearsing for, due Wednesday! Random encounters, how you have to love them!
Seriously though, I’m not quite sure how I would’ve survived without Nuch’s help, both language- and traffic-wise. Probably a lot more adventurously (if at all), but I think I prefer this slightly smoother start of my backpacking trip – I will no doubt have to deal with plenty of traffic and language barriers on my own later as well.
Last remark: buying flight tickets for next destination when arriving on the airport turned out to be a bad idea, as it is both considerably more expensive and more bothersome than doing it online ahead of time. So much for being impulsive. I’ve got my flight ticket for Singapore and Jakarta now though, and almost managed to get one for Padang (Sumatra) when Lion Air (banned in European Airspace due to safety concerns – I hope they don’t crash with me in it) decided to spit on my visa card and refused to cooperate. So I’ll just wait with that and will try again tomorrow.
Toodles!
