Back in Bangkok

I really need to learn from my mistakes. Is this a facet of growing older? Am I destined for a life of confusion about dates and times as I age?

I sure hope not.

I hope there are other factors at play here, like the heat, travel fatigue, planetary alignments, ....

Ok, so what happened is this. When I left Bangkok for Denpasar, I thought my flight was at 3 something in the afternoon and it turned out it was at 8:50 a.m. I only realized this after I had a leisurely sleep in and at 6 a.m. decided I'd slept enough and I should check my actual flight time so I knew what time to leave for the airport. Well, good thing I checked because if I hadn't, I would have missed my flight.

And so this morning, I woke up at 6-ish (maybe 7), had a leisurely breakfast and then hung out in my room after packing. I would have hung out longer, but Made was sitting outside of my room waiting for me to leave so he could clean. It was really kind of annoying. He has this distinctive cough and every now and then he'd cough, and I'd catch him peeking in at me to see me lying on the bed (I pretended I didn't see or hear him). Finally, I got up and asked him if he wanted to clean my room.

"No, take your time", he said, as he sat there waiting.

Either he was just using this as an excuse to take a break, which is very unlike him, because the guy works like a horse, or he really wanted to clean my room. Finally I moved my bags out onto my porch and told him to clean.

I went and paid, and at 10:30 my driver came. I was at the airport by 11:30.

I thought my flight was at 14:10.

When I got to the airport, Thai Airways was nowhere to be found. I went to China Air, thinking they were Thai (I just saw the cardboard cutout of Asian women in pretty uniforms) and they told me the Thai counter opened at 1.

I had time to kill.

I thought I would check in and then have a little time to get something to eat. But I thought it was strange that they opened so late if there was a flight at 2:10. So, I checked my itinerary.

It turned out my flight was at 16:10 - 4:10! I had a lot of time to kill.

At least I was early and not rushing. And given the circumstances of my checkout, with Made sitting there coughing occasionally to let me know he was there, what else could I have done? I could have had one more massage this morning, but really....

And so after I checked in, I went and had the worst Indonesian food of my whole trip. Really horrible, salty, nasi campur that I wouldn't have finished except I was really hungry. Then I walked around, looking for something else to snack on.

I could not believe how much I was hassled, still, by people calling out to me. "Hello sir, please have a look", "foot massage?" "where you from?" I was so tired of it. I mean, this was the airport!

Maybe it's just me, but I am more likely to go into a shop if I know I won't be followed and pressured to buy. And I am more likely to buy something if I enter a shop. But when I walked past places and people said, "hello sir, please come have a look", I just kept walking.

And so, it felt good to leave Bali. I'd had a nice time and loved the spa treatments, but the constant haranguing was really just too much. I mean, it happens to some degree in Bangkok, but not as much, and definitely not in the airport!

The flight was not totally full and I was able to get an entire row to myself. The four hours went fast.

Soon I was back in Bangkok in the very impressive new airport and after quickly clearing customs and immigration (I am still amazed at how easy it is in other countries compared to my own), I was in a taxi with a driver who had smoked a little too many cigarettes and buzzing on the freeway at incredibly high speeds to my hotel.

The taxi drivers from the airport all seem to speak some English. This guy's English was not as good as the driver I had when I first arrived, but he could speak some. He told me he had been driving a cab for 33 years and knew his way all around Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Pattaya. But he didn't know where my hotel was.

Fortunately I did.

But I relied a little too much on his self-professed reputation as the "number 1 taxi driver". As we pulled into Soi 3 from Silom Road, he got a call on his cell phone. While he was talking, I steered him to Soi Phipat, where there were signs with arrows pointing to the Furama Hotel, where I am staying.

I thought he saw the signs, but when it came time to turn, he missed the turn. Fortunately, I caught him in time and he was able to stop, back up and turn into the little street where the hotel entrance is.

As he was driving along this little street, which I think is Phiphat 2, he said, "Oh, yes, FX, I know", but as he passed the entrance to the hotel parking lot, it turned out he didn't know. Again, I had to say, "wait, right there".

He gave me some lame excuse about usually coming from the other direction. If he was as good as he said he was, it wouldn't matter what direction he came from.

And so, within one hour after landing, I was checked into my room. Amazing. It used to be unthinkable to get from the airport to central Bangkok in anything less than 2 hours and that involved mostly sitting in traffic. Now, the airport seems to have more immigration officers and the freeways make a huge difference in travel times.

I just finished a nice bowl of Tom Kha Gai (chicken soup with coconut milk) and am ready to shower and crawl into bed.

I have a little over a week to spend here and am not sure what I will do for that time. I may hunt out a few more cooking classes at other schools, but I think otherwise, I will just relax by the pool, eat, and get massages. I mean, I went a full day without a massage, I will certainly be ready for one tomorrow!