Finally in Thailand

As we were alerted, our flight is two hours late leaving Hong Kong so we eventually arrive in Bangkok in late afternoon. We intend to take the airport express train into town but this service is not running (seems to have been the case for a while) so we take the stopping service instead, mingling with locals who have to navigate around all of the luggage carried by us and other travellers.

The last station is Phaya Thai where we hop off and head for the taxi rank for the short (?) journey to the hotel. But it is rush hour, the traffic is crazy and taxis are in short supply and it takes nearly half hour before the queue is dealt with (mostly by people wandering off to find their own way) and we jump into a taxi. Even from an official rank the driver tries to barter a fixed price starting at 500 baht but being form and politely pointing to the meter he finally relents and turns it on. After fighting the traffic for another half an hour or so we finally reach our hotel - the Sheraton. The fare is less than 100 baht.

All of the rooms here overlook the river. It is already dark so we can see some of the other buildings lit up but there are also plenty of patches of inky darkness.

Friends of ours have stayed here before and there’s a recommendation for dinner a few yards away overlooking the river. Viva Aviv, strictly speaking big not Thai, but a lovely spot and an impressive drinks list. Many of the evening dinner cruises leave from an adjacent pier so the area is frantically busy until about 8pm when all the boats are on their way. The restaurant calms down, food is served and drinks are drunk - and refilled.

Time for sleep, preceded by a little bit of planning for tomorrow.Read more