Day 1
Saturday, Mar. 19
After 4 hours flight from Shanghai Pudong airport, we landed at Bangkok international airport at 7pm. Far less impressive than its international departure terminal as I later observed, the arrival lounge looked somehow dim and old lacking of proper maintenance. But I was too eager to start my adventure in Thailand to give it a thorough examination.
First thing in the airport was to exchange money to local currency, Baht, as back in China, Baht is not listed as an exchangable currency to Renminbi. I was told beforehand that rate at the airport was not good, which was proved true. I changed 20 dollars (U.S.) at 37.68 with an automatic exchange machine to cover the taxi to downtown Bangkok.
We got in a cab marked "meter-taxi" which, as the name suggested, would use a milemeter. But it did not. The driver asked for 350 Baht inclusive of highway toll (60) but the "three" in "three hundred fifty baht" was pronounced "tee", so we took it as 50 baht, exhilarate! But it sounds too good to be true so after confirming and reconfirming with the driver we soon found out the trick, and started negotiating with him. The final deal was 300.
The first night we stayed at Royal Hotel, which is within walking distance to the Grand Palace, No. 1 scenic spot in Bangkok. We booked the hotel through internet at a fair rate for only one night, though we planned to stay for 3 days. The orginal thought was to have some flexibility if the hotel is not good but it soon turned out to be a mistake not having booked for all nights of our stay. We need to pay $19 in extra for each night we extend. The hotel is well located, having a big room, clean, with air-conditioning and hotwater and a tub, which is acceptable for its price.
After checking in and changed our long sleeves to summer clothes, we were out of the hotel for food. The Khao San road, known as the paradise for backpackers, is only 2 blocks away. It was a noisy street packed with all kinds of people, mostly westerners dressed leisurely, or, in rags to be more exact. The streetside bars and restaurants extended their seats to the road, and stalls selling all kinds of stuff from clothes to fruit were side by side, there was not much space left.
Without much difficulty we pinned our choice at an open air restaurant for dinner, as most of them didn't differ much from each other. We ordered fried rice with curry chicken and a pineapple bowled pork, which are quite typical Thai food as we later found out, and a banana milk shake and watermelon juice, as our first dinner in Thailand. The banana milk shake is a must for first time travellers.
After dinner we visited some stalls and tried to get an idea of the prices in BKK. It's quite cheap, but room for negotiation isn't so big as Xiang Yang road back in Shanghai. We found an exchange agency and changed some money at 38.01, at least better than the airport.
It was almost midnight before we were done. In our way back to the hotel, we passed some buddha-like statues and took some pictures, and noticed there were big photos of the king and queen that are fixed in the green belt between the driving lanes. It's their 55th wedding anniversary when we visited, worth a celebration.
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