Sydney to Bangkok

We staggered from our bed in early morning darkness to catch our flight to Bangkok. Both of us, particularly Alex, suffering from a food hangover caused by the quantity and richness of last night's food, which after months of backpacking our stomaches have grown unaccustomed to.

We had chosen to get the train to the airport due to Sydney traffic and the unreliability of airport shuttle buses to arrive on time. However as we walked out of the hotel entrance for the train station, we were met by a heavy set Russian, Sergei, (artistic licence on the basis of his accent) who offered to take us for a discounted rate with another customer who was also staying at our hotel. Caught between opportunity and scepticism we jumped into his mini-van and with surprising agility and speed we weaved through the morning traffic to arrive at the terminal in good time.

After our very enjoyable experience of flying with Emirates between Auckland and Sydney we were anticipating another good journey with this airline. However this flight was managed by Qantas for Emirates. We loathe to complain because we are very lucky to be doing what we are, however in honour of Australian forthrightness mentioned in the previous post, let's call a spade a spade. It was a tired aircraft with tired crew, poor food and leg room for 10 long hours. By hour 9 Alex felt like punching the man in front, who after take off had whacked his seat back within 6 inches of Alex's face for the full ten hours of the flight. We were very glad to arrive in Bangkok no later than we did to get back to enjoying our adventure.

The expressway into the city was thick with rush hour traffic, in places four lanes becoming five or six, as motorcycle police slipped between with sirens wailing, attempting to inch the behemoth of vehicles forward. Between giant roadside billboards the skyline was a mixture of building site grey and the rainbow colours of Buddhist temples.

Finally arriving at our guesthouse we sank into chairs at its small restaurant. We ordered a large quantity of water and proceeded to rehydrate ourselves back to life before eating simple but filling plates of Pad Thai. It was not long before exhaustion took us to bed for much needed sleep.Read more