Our trip to Bangkok (part 1)

With a year of waiting for my/our Bangkok trip the day finally arrives and we hop onto our Thai Airlines Flight TG984 at 3.20pm to Bangkok from Brisbane, Australia. We have travelled Thai Airlines before and new that this Aircraft did not have the in-flight entertainment system due to the duration of the trip and the age of the plane. Knowing this I reserved 2 seats close to the overhead monitors so this was not an issue. However I was not prepared this time for the rather hot temperature in the plane. The travel socks never came out and neither did my light but long sleeve jacket (reserved solely for the flight). It was really unpleasant. My partner was perspiring and so were the other passengers in my immediate vicinity. The food was OK, the Cabin crew were also very accommodating and happy.

We arrived at Bangkok at approx. 9.30pm Bangkok time and immediately were in awe of how big the new airport was. We had arranged to be met by our Hotel and we were whisked through immigration and customs within about 5 minutes but had to wait for our luggage (as you do) wether you have a service or not. However I did notice that we would not have had to have waited for long to go through the normal procedures that you do upon arrival.

We arrived at our Hotel the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit which was everything that I had imagined it to be. The staff were delightful and were just what you read about, the lovely genuine smiling Thai people. Our room was exceptional and was a terrific size about 48 sq mtrs. The appointments were very good with a Plasma TV. I had organised some Canapes for our arrival and so far everything was off to a great start 鈥︹€︹€︹€︹€︹€︹€︹€?my year of research and sitting in front of the Comp. had paid off鈥?.or had it.

The next morning we had breakfast in the Sheraton鈥檚 Orchid Caf茅, now I don鈥檛 know what I was actually expecting but I had read reviews about the breakfast being just fantastic. Personally I was disappointed, the array of different foods was not there in my opinion, even so much as having eggs Benedict. They had the omelette station etc and the centre buffet but it was not as good as I had been lead to believe. Or what I had experienced at other Sheratons or 5 star hotels.

We then hit the streets of Bangkok. We walked out the front door of our hotel and were immediately enveloped in the high humidity of the city. I loved it, this was my holiday I had been waiting, and with the heat came that odour鈥︹€︹€? that is Bangkok.

Now for some reason my partner was against using the Skytrain so for the six days that we were there we used Taxis (yes you read correctly) with rounding off every trip to the nearest hundred and having difficulty in being understood (even though we spoke really slowly and are cheerful people who do know how to communicate) the drivers still had a problem understanding where we wanted to go except places like MBK or Pantip Plaza, even when we showed them our hotel card with the name and address in Thai they sometimes were still in doubt. My partner would now use the Skytrain because we did spend.... a lot of time .....in a Taxi. You cant count the money because it is nothing compared to being back home. Coming back from Chinatown (the 5th taxi that I flagged down) I paid him 400baht (I also would have given him my sole) just to takes us back. We had been waiting for 陆 hour and had been turned down numerous times already鈥?.I just wanted to go back. We were both still suffering from the effects of food poisoning鈥︹€?

(if this is too much of a personal storey let me know and I will skip the inbetween pieces)

Our trip to Bangkok (part 1)

chezepops

Not too much detail.

Give it as you saw it and share the good and the bad with other travellers.

Thanks for taking the time to write the report.

Sorry you had food poisoning and bad experience with the Taxis

Our trip to Bangkok (part 1)

Hey Cheezepops,

Loving your work, keep it coming. How was Chinatown?

Sarah

xx

Is there more coming? What a great read. I can%26#39;t believe you guys didn%26#39;t use the Sky train, it was so convenient. I just wish it covered more areas. We also ventured into Chinatown, following a walk in the LP book. I thought it was great, Alan was a bit more overwhelmed by the crowds down the alley way that seemed to have Hello Kitty everything on offer. Then we got to the end of the walk and had to find our way home. It took an hour to get to the river, and the traffic was so bad we thought it quicker to walk. I don%26#39;t even want to think about the fumes we inhaled!

Yes Im working on it as we speak, just want to make sure that it is not too personal.

HI

I am also interested in China town, i am staying in the Grand china princess in january for 3 nights , heard some bad reports about this hotel ?

any good places to visit in china town and nice places too eat ?

thanks

rob

Hi robiceman1

Did you check out Tripadvisor commnts on your Hotel. Here is a link for you. I also just wrote a little extract on Chinatown in (part 4)

tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g293916-d301340鈥?/a> - 87k -

Hi

thanks for the reviews on china town, i did see the reviews on here for china princess not too good ;-(

well only there for 4 nights then of to kanchaburi and chiang mai.

i suppose the hotel is only a base for visiting so it should be ok,

looks like china town will be very interesting come night time.

thanks for the good reviews keep them comming

rob

Robiceman

Well now that you know, just go with the flow and there wont be any little unexpected surprises, you might just get that good room a couple of people have spoken about.

You will still have a great holiday.

Cheryl