Saturday, June 19, 2010

Sawasdee krup...Part 2






On arrival we were greeted with pictures of Thais doing the wai gesture. The children knew that they were already in Thailand, when signboards with Thai characters adorned the walkways. Next, the Immigration Bureau counter for foreign passport. Bihah went with Paka, followed by Yah and Wani with me. There was this sign asking us to stand on a spot whereby a camera took our pictures. Each of us was given a one-month-visa on arrival. No problem was encountered with our luggage. We went through the next Immigration check up without a hassle, thus leaving the arrival hall.

Next, we need to find a van to take the 5 of us to Khlong Nueng, Pathum Thani, a place north of Bangkok. A Great Bangkok Travel Co staff approached us and Paka agreed to their rate. (And at the same time, the staff managed to offer us their Bangkok canal tour package to be taken on any morning provided we informed them 1 day earlier.) Paka asked the driver to use the Eastern Outer Ring Road (No 9) to reach our destination. The motorway has 3 lanes all the way. A glaring difference from the highway in Malaysia that I observed is that the office area at the side of the plaza here does not occupy much land! And they use cabin too! No R&R was observed along the way.
Housing areas and paddy fields dotted here and there. There were two toll plazas before we made an exit. After about 1 hr or so, we reached Khlong Nueng. The landmark is Tamasat University. And yes, I have not seen any elevated land area so far during the travel. No hill or mountain in sight. Maybe, in other area in Thailand, huh?

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sawasdee krup...



It was an impromptu decision and hence that very night Paka made reservations for the 4 of us to fly into Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok using Air Asia.


The deal that we got was not on our side though bookings were made about 3 weeks before flight. Talking about those who got the RM88 fare and some got even cheaper!! Online booking is the norm now, with the itinerary sent to our e-mail inbox. You just need to print them, and present to the check-in counter on the day of the flight. Pakar had reserved seats for us with the Pick A Seat facility and also pre-booked our meals of fried rice and nasi briyani.






International travelling will be the first for our 3 daughters (another daughter couldn’t make it since she has lectures). As for me, it has been about 3 years since I last set foot on a foreign land. (This will be my second visit to the Kingdom of Thailand, if I’m to count in my visit to Sg Golok, many years ago!) In preparing for the visit, we found Thai phrases in the Sawatdee, Thai Airways in-flight magazine, and memorise them. Sawasdee krup/kaa (Hello), Phoot Thai mai-dai (I can’t speak Thai) and La gon (good bye). Oh yes, we had fun trying to memorise those phrases.


Flight AK 742 on June 6, 2010 was on schedule. Departing LCCT at 1340hrs and arriving Bangkok at 1445hrs (Thailand is GMT+7) after a flight of 2hrs and 5min. Alhamdulillah, the departure and arrival were smooth. Bihah seemed to enjoy the flight. She got a window seat and took the opportunity to snap pictures of the plane wing, clouds and also the land. She didn’t even sleep when her 2 elder sisters took their naps after lunch was eaten.