Bangkok

Location: Singapore
Local Time: Monday, May 1, 2006 - 6:15pm

Well, I had a bit of a whirlwind weekend. On Friday I heard from Val, and she asked me to meet her in Thailand. So, I arranged a flight out on Saturday, flew to Bangkok Saturday afternoon, spent Sunday with her, flew out of Bangkok Monday to Singapore, where I am now.

I had a bit of an adventure in the airport in Malaysia. I went to KLIA, and went to the same terminal I had gone to the last two times I flew out of that airport. (Can you believe that, I've flown out of KLIA 3 times. About the same number of times I've flown out of Vancouver aiport.)

My flight was listed on the screen, but no checkin counter, so I sat down to wait. I waited for about an hour, and then it popped up.

DI LCCT

Which changed after a few moments to:

AT LCCT

and then changed back a few moments later.

I didn't know what that meant, but I thought vaguely, maybe DI was actually Dl (always tricky to know I from l), which might mean delayed.

So, I went to the bathroom, then came back. Still the same.

So, I went to the counter and asked. The woman looked at me, "Oh. Well, maybe you still have time. That flight leaves from the new terminal. You can get a taxi downstairs."

Holy Man. So, I rushed downstairs. A guy comes up to me. Taxi, he asks. I need to go to the new terminal, LCCT. 40 ringgit.

I pull all my remaining Malay currency out of my pocket and say, 26 ringgit.

Okay.

He takes me downstairs to his little red car (NOT a taxi) and we jump in and shoot off.

It is a 15 minute drive, and I check in 5 mintues before the counter is about to close.

I go to the gate where the flight should leave from, and it is right about the time when we should be lining up. So, with my recent experience fresh in my mind, I ask someone if the flight has boarded yet. No, not yet.

No problem. Minutes later they announce, the flight is delayed 35 minutes.

Ahhhh.

Back in Bangkok the heat hits me like a hammer when I leave the aiport buildings. I hear a woman mention Kosan Rd, and ask her if she wants to share a taxi.

In the taxi we chat. Alejandra (Ali for short) is from Montreal, Quebec. Canadians, they are everywhere. She's headed home in a couple days after 4 months in South East Asia (SEA).

Hotel rooms are in short supply on Kosan Rd, so we end up sharing a two bedroom room for the night too. Next morning, I said goodbye and went to find Val's hotel.

Thai street food is amazing. Near the hotel where I stayed Sunday night there was a major street with dozens of different vendors with all sorts of food. Piles of rice, noodles, chicken, pork on a stick and oodles of stuff I didn't even know what it was.

We bought pork on a stick, it was delicious, and some kind of egg pancake with bread or something mixed into the egg. It was wrapped around shredded cocanut. It was amazing.

An attack of the munchies had us out wandering the streets at 11pm, and guess what? The food vendors are still selling. I had phad thai.

Now, I'm in Singapore. The guide says the food here is quite good too. I'm going to go check it out.