My return ticket from Heathrow to Bangkok International via Mumbai, booked hot on the heels of the May protests, cost me about £420. I flew with Kingfisher Airline, as in the beer, and had a turbulent night’s rest having taken good advantage of their hospitality via two large air-cabin cups of whiskey on the rocks. The beautiful Indian stewardess, who the airline’s chief assured us earlier in a video welcome message was personally handpicked, made me mince my words as she leaned over me to take my order. Mumbai airport, India’s busiest air hub, is an island of flat tarmac carved out in the middle of a shanty town. Where the runways end the slums begin.
At Bangkok International, they gave me a free 30-day tourist visa. My 9.5kg rucksack was already on the conveyor belt by the time the sharpest, least sleep-deprived out of us worked out which one of the 30 carousels related to our flight. Nobody tried to sell me anything or take me by the wrist as I stepped out of the main airport building onto the bus terminal. Where were those entrepreneurial taxi drivers? Lub D’s website recommended the 150 baht AE1 shuttle to Silom. All the people I met during the course of my flights paraded merrily onto the 150 baht AE2 to the Banglamphu district, which the only other passenger on the AE1 explained contained Khao San Road where Westerners go mental late into the night.
At Lub D, lads from England hung around a projector screen that displayed ‘Sorry, no signal!’ until the very end of the monsoony evening when South Africa tied 1-1 with Mexico. The same bunch has gone around the corner with a bucket of booze to look for somewhere with coverage of the 1.30am France-Uruguay match.
I like the look and feel of Bangkok. My preliminary instinct was to touch base and then shoot off on the earliest bus heading north the next morning, but it reminds me of Tokyo in the 90s and the muggy, slightly sewage-like smell that the English lads don’t like are reminding me of my childhood. Tomorrow I’d like to take a 5 baht boat trip up the river to the reclining Buddha and Thai massage homeland, then head to Khao San Road in the evening for England-USA’s 1.30am kick-off.
Tags: asia, bangkok, kingfisher, lub d, mumbai, thailand, travelling, world cup
June 14, 2010 at 12:52 am |
yes, you’re right, bangkok, tokyo, lots of commonalities. i love both, anyway! phnom penh will be a bit of a change…