Episode 1 : Strains on a Plane

Episode 1

Do you really want to drink this

I left you last time having literally just arrived in Bangkok at our airport hotel and posted my blatherings from the flight.

To keep you up to date, the second leg of the flight from Abu Dhabi was even better than the first, we managed four seats each to ourselves so we could almost pretend we re in business class wi our very own flat bed, if you ignore the lumpy bits under your arse in between the seats.

Not bad

Etihad as I have mentioned already provide a great service and I will definitely seek them out again for any future Asia trips. The only downside was the middle eastern take on cooked breakfast provided on the flight from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok. It was described on the menu thus:-

Egg muffin with lamb sausage, foul medames and sautéed spinach. Yes the lamb sausage should have been a warning but it is the foul medame that should have set the alarm bells ringing. Because never have I had a food so perfectly described. It was foul; it tasted like a bad vegetarian chilli con carne, perhaps it would be the perfect partner for Pocari Sweat thirst quenching drink?

I mentioned the slightly annoying adverts before the entertainment played on the in flight service, well there is one upside in that it advertised an unfortunately named drink. Perhaps Pocari Pus is their smoothies range?

Let’s Talk About Gas – (if you are sensitive about bodily functions please skip this section)

Anyone that knows me well enough, knows that I share the rare, medically baffling Hickson family intestinal gene which means that when you introduce it to any form of pulse, bean or pea a very unique and creative chemical reaction takes place. The outcome of this catalytic intrusion to my guts is the conversion of these healthy food types into to increased alimentary atmospheric pressure.

Now just such an event took place on the plane after I had and chomped my way through some green lentils which were hiding away underneath that bit of salmon at the top of the picture. It was late and about half the plane was asleep so at first I thought I could rebalance the pressure between my intestines and the outside world with a few quiet and controlled releases without getting rumbled. However, gas build up was such that no sensitive control was possible. So there was nothing left to do but to go to the toilet and try an emergency rebalance. It worked, but I think the passengers sat by the toilet felt a little additional turbulence during the flight, I smiled at them in an apologetic way as I scurried back to my seat…

Hotel Floral Shire

Comfortably old

This is the TripAdvisor bit now. This little airport hotel really is a cracker for the price. For the total cost of £15 for both of us, we got the following fantastic service

• pick and drop off at the airport, with a nice little lady holding up Johns name as we came out of the airport terminal
• a room with free fast wifi, air con, powerful shower, tv with more channels than you need (even one that scans through Bangkok traffic cams which somehow managed to keep me amused for about half an hour)
• bottled water, I say this because I have moaned in the past about how much the likes of Hilton charge for bloody water
• a super speedy check in, from a lovely happy lady and the collection of our tickets for our train journey booked through a Thai agency that had been delivered and were waiting for us on arrival
• breakfast this morning before the driver whisked us back to the airport

One Night in Bangkok

My favourite airline

We were flagging a little after we checked in at the hotel so had a quick shower and then decided we probably wouldn’t make it very far if we wandered out of the hotel. We therefore decided to try the food there, as we wandered into the bar the owner was there just finishing her own food. This gave John an idea, so he asked her to make us what she had just eaten, she smiled at this and merely asked us if we liked “spicy”? Off she toddled and returned 20 minutes later with some very tasty deep fried chillies and chicken and a bowl of Thai creamy curry which was fantastic. John and I had a little competition to see who could finish most of the little deep fried chillies off – he won.

Next day our driver awaited for us at 7am in a volvo boxy shape, of which i haven’t seen for some decades… and we were back in the uber efficient and marvellous Bangkok airport 10 minutes later.

So as I post this we have arrived in Phuket after yet another perfect flight by Air Asia, Craig’s favourite low cost airline (do you know they are now using that tagline in all their marketing across SE Asia). It was blisteringly hot and sunny when we arrived, but by the time we got to Patong and checked in to the hotel our first experience of the monsoon season has begun. So I feel a bit of consulting maps and planning for the rest of the afternoon while our bodies continue to adjust to Thai time.

Nice welcome

Finally I leave you with a pretty pic of the view as we came in to land, and with this thought. I have remembered now why we decided to return to Asia so soon after our last outing here. It’s the people, since we stepped of the plane yesterday without exception we have had nothing but help, friendliness and warmth from every Thai person we have interacted with here, even the man in the mobile phone shop insisted on making sure my micro sim for the iPad was in working and registered before I left.

If you are coming to Thailand and want a micro sim for your iPhone or IPad go and see the very nice man at the dtac kiosk and ask for a happy sim (yes that’s what they call this service- I told you they were nice) from dtac

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Nong Prue,Thailand

Tags: Air Asia, Airport, Hotel, Thai