On Arrival

We spend only one very short night in Bangkok on arrival as our plane is very late and we almost don't make it. We stay at the White Palace Hotel and call Dave the next morning to say we have arrived and then take a taxi to the Mor Chit Bus station to catch the bus to Phitsanulok, where Dave and Jhap will meet us.

Passing Through

We pass through Bangkok on our way from Chiangrai to Huahin. We arrive at the Bangkok airport and take a bus into town and then a taxi the rest of the way to the train station. At the train station we're disappointed not to get an air-con train but in the end it matters little as we have an economist to bury ourselves in as well as the Henry James novel "The Ambassadors".

On Departure

On our last day in Huahin, we ate a very quick early breakfast then took a ‘Took-took’ to the bus station. We were surprised at first when he took us to a different bus station from the one we had found the previous evening in our expedition. However, when we protested that this wasn’t right, he did take us over to the other one. In retrospect it seems that there are two bus stations that probably cater to a different class of people, i.e. foreigners and locals. However, in spite of our worries, we managed to buy a ticket for the 8:30 bus and the bus showed up on time and got us to Bangkok 3.5 hours later as advertized.

Everybody but us got off before the bus station. When we got off the bus, we hung around a couple of minutes and sure enough someone showed up wanting to drive us to our hotel. We asked how much he wanted and he said B300. Gerry negotiated a bit and he quickly came down to B200 but walked off when we offered B100. By that time we had located the street and carried our bags over there to look for a metered taxi. We found one parked, but no driver, then another also parked and being cleaned. This driver also asked for B200, but just then a cab driving by saw us and stopped so we jumped in, he turned on the meter and off we went. We had trouble getting him to understand the name of our hotel and its address. We had it written down but only in English. Gerry told him to head for the station, which was in the right direction and when we got close, the driver found himself a phone box and called the hotel for directions. The entire ride cost us just under B100, which just goes to prove that you should never take these negotiated rides unless you are desperate.

We checked in at the Mandarin with no trouble. We had found the hotel advertised in the Bangkok Post for $30 a night. It was a rather nice hotel, but 30% more expensive than the White Palace and not really worth it, especially as we didn’t have time to take advantage of the swimming pool. After leaving our bags we set off to find some lunch, a post office (so Jan could mail the prints to Phayao), and to visit Wat Pho, a big temple near the Royal Palace. We took a taxi to the river and there found a restaurant on the river that gave us a very nice seafood soup and some fried rice and even a Margarita for Jan.

After lunch we found the post office. Jan was pleased to learn that sending the photos would cost only B9. In Hua Hin, the clerk had told her B200 but Jan thinks she could not read the destination and so didn’t know it was in Thailand. From the post office, we walked to the temple. A couple of times we were stopped by people and told that it was closed. We think they wanted to take us somewhere else, but we ignored them and eventually found the door and went inside. We had actually found many doors, but they all said they were closed and directed visitors to the next door. In the end we did find the gate that was open and paid our B20 entrance fee and walked in. Neither of us coud remember having been there before but until we see our pictures from 1978 I don’t think we will know for sure. It is certain that the huge reclining Buddha that is the main attraction of the place is rather unforgettable, but if we saw it we did forget.

We spent a pleasant hour wandering around and then left the temple and the river to walk over to the democracy monument that Gerry had seen on the map. First, we checked out the river boats as we wanted to take a boat back down to the Oriental Hotel, which is not too far from our hotel. While doing this, we came across an open air food court near one pier that looked quite appealing. As we walked night started to fall, and the heat of the day lessened. On the way to the monument we wandered into a big hotel so that Jan could use their bathroom. It looked about the same quality as the Mandarin hotel, but apparently was asking only B1000 a night.

We took a slightly different route back from the monument and headed for the pier near the open air food court only to find that this pier didn’t have boats going where we wanted to go. So we stopped and ate an omelette and seafood concoction that neither of us really liked followed by a purchase of donuts. We walked to the other pier that we had checked out earlier only to find that it was completely closed. The ferry pier had become a restaurant! With no other choice, we found another cab and drove back to the hotel where we turned on CNN and found the latest news on Gore and Bush. The Florida Supreme Court has ordered another hand recount, this time in all 64 counties. Bush has appealed to the US Supreme Court. And on and on the saga goes.