In under an hour I walked from my hotel, to Hong Kong station, caught the airport express and completed check-in...and best of all, the plane wasn't delayed (actually it was by about 20 minutes but that's nothing by comparison). The airport 7-Eleven even had a slurpee machine! (but it was broken). As of April 2013 they no longer stamp passports when departing Hong Kong, which I found a little sad. Airports are one of the most depressing places in the world, so a little stamp is about the only reward for the hours of your life you lose there. I powered on my computer and connected to the free wifi while waiting at the gate...only for Windows Update to kick in. My computer was then stuck in the "installing updates, do not power off" right before boarding was about to begin. Who knows what bad stuff happens if you do power off, but I didn't have to find out today.
A small problem with flying Air Asia, which I didn't know at the time I made the bookings, is they often land in the old airports as part of their cost cutting exercise (maybe). This was a bit of a problem in Bangkok, because the old international airport doesn't have an express rail link. A funny story about the airport, they stopped using it for international travel when they opened the flash new airport in another part of the city (complete with rail link). Only the new airport became so congested with traffic they had to send some airlines back to the old airport and get it back in shape for international travel. I accidentally wandered into the wrong part of the terminal and it looks like an old abandoned warehouse, all dusty and broken down furniture and stuff. So anyway, I had three options to travel from the airport:
I hate taxis even more than being stuck in airports, and the train only runs once an hour and is apparently slow and has an unreliable schedule, so my last option was the bus. The bus was a bit run down but otherwise uneventful, which was the best case scenario. It only goes as far as the train station at the end of the line, but the sooner I can get off a bus and onto a train the better. I reached the hotel without getting lost, which I discovered had an awesome electric blue color scheme in the hallways, and more free breakfasts!
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| Electric Blue. |
I quickly unpacked and then got straight back onto the train, and right back to where I got on from the airport bus. On my way to the train station I just happened to come across a Nike store, which I figured would be super cheap in Thailand - wrong, the prices were the highest of any country I visited. The next stop was Chatuchak, which has a popular and well known weekend market. It was like QV market, only much, much bigger and with a lot more people - apparently Sunday afternoon is the worst time to go but I had no other choice. I couldn't really figure out where anything was in the place, so I just did a lap around the outside. Much of the stuff was quite repetitive, and similar to the type of things I had already seen in Hong Kong, although there were a few highlights:
- Crushed strawberry yoghurt stand
- Fake Nikes - probably STILL not available in my size
- Frozen banana stand! - with various toppings
- Magnets - not many, and not very good
But one big disappointment was that I did not find anywhere selling a bag of Fanta.
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| Too many people. |
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| There's always money in the banana stand. |
Across the street is Chatuchak Park which I walked through from one end to the other. It was quite large, with a few lakes with paddle boats for hire and a popular running track around the outside. At the end of the park I had to figure out how to cross the street, there were roads at street level going in several directions, as well as overpass bridges, but no pedestrian crossings at all. This would be a common theme in Bangkok, you have to hunt down the closest pedestrian bridge, which sometimes only serves one, two or three corners of the intersection. I continued along until I reached the Elephant Building! I think it's just a normal office building, only it's shaped like an elephant, brilliant!
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| Paddle boats at Chatuchak Park. |
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| Not much of anything at Chatuchak Park. |
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| Elephant Building in the distance. |
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| Also Elephant Building. |
I spotted a Tesco Lotus across the street (several UK franchises like Boots and Tesco in Bangkok for some reason). I went in with the faint hope of finding some English yum yums, but was unsuccessful. They were selling bags of five donuts for the low, low price of 320 baht (about $1.20). As I was making my way back through the park some music started playing at exactly 6pm, and everyone who was walking or running through the park stopped what they were doing and stood still for the duration. No idea what that was all about, but I figured it was the national anthem and just went with it.
Back in Siam, where I was staying, I went to the MBK Centre to search for some dinner, after having to pass a metal detector and bag check to get inside! There was STILL no vegetarian options at any of the regular fast food places like Burger King, KFC, McDonalds etc, but I found a nice international food hall on an upper level. I stupidly ordered a plate of nachos from the Mexican stand as it was the first thing I came across, before discovering a vegetarian stand that had a lot of great options - every stand has sample plates of all of their meals out in front, like they do in Japan, and like they should do everywhere.
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| Other elephants... |
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| National Stadium. |
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| Donut shopping. |
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| Night at National Stadium. |
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| Nachos! |
Some additional thoughts on the hotel:
- Finally there is a small fitness room on the top floor
- (They have the machines lined up right next to the glass floor-to-ceiling windows, which is a little bit frightening)
- The top floor also has a nice garden balcony
- (But there's not much to see besides the national stadium, which is under construction, or reconstruction)
- The TV actually seems to have a few good channels for the first time
STEP-O-METER: 36170 steps (30 minutes at the fitness centre)
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