Thailand Day 1

Mally kindly took me to the Llandudno Junction at 6:15 a.m. in return for borrowing my car for the week. I met Tim, and together we took the train to Manchester Airport. By noon, we were on our flight to Mumbai.

The flight was long, though I managed to sleep quite a bit, albeit intermittently. I couldn’t help feeling self-conscious about my smelly trainers tucked underneath the seat in front of me, but I decided they deserved one last hurrah—they’ve served me well, and besides, it was a long flight.

Our plane landed about an hour late, leaving us roughly ninety minutes to make our transfer. Unfortunately, the Indian immigration process was a nightmare. The officials seemed to have absolutely no clue how to do their jobs, and had we not pushed and cajoled our way to the front of the queue, I fear we’d still be standing there today.

We just managed to catch our onward flight to Bangkok, and thankfully immigration there was far more efficient—automated and straightforward. After clearing it, we negotiated our way onto the train and randomly picked an area to explore.

That decision dropped us in a more residential part of town. We wandered through people’s backyards and along narrow alleyways, edging past an open sewer. Not the most picturesque welcome. At that point, I’d had enough. We flagged down a taxi, haggled with the driver, and ended up dropped right in the middle of Bangkok’s city centre, not quite where we intended when we used the description 'nightlife' to him.

Welcome to Bangkok! This was the swankier part of town, a world away from the alleys we had just trudged through. We finally walked into a proper hotel, booked ourselves a room for about £25, and, in need of a beer, headed out into the night. The area is considered very high-end and is sometimes described as Bangkok's "Ginza." It features luxury condos, high-end hotels, and sophisticated shopping precincts, so 'a pub' was gonna be pretty hard to find. 

Thankfully, I had downloaded the Saily eSim, which is an absolute must for travellers. Google told us The Beer Republic was a short walk away. By Thai standards, a pint of Leffe wasn't cheap - £3 - Ha ha, look at me, almost complaining about paying a mere £3 for a delicious pint of Leffe Blond!! It was so nice that Tim and I ordered it a further five times along with some incredible local cuisine. All the while The Chocolate Cosmos played their indie covers to aid digestion (particularly enjoyed The Cure's Boys Don't Cry). Drunk, we headed back to the hotel having not slept properly for 36 hours.

The Chocolate Cosmos