Arrived at airport at 2pm. It had been an extremely long day with a 6 hour wait at Bangkok airport after our flight from Melbourne.
We were asked as we departed if we wanted a taxi by a nice man called Somboon. He explained that he had a 10 seater bus that he could take us and all of our luggage. We were travelling with our friends Jude and Al and had quite a bit of luggage between us.
He gave me his lanyard with his name on it and disappeared. We waited outside and after 10 minutes he arrived with a nice new mini bus. His English was good and he told us that we could have a day tour for 1000bt. Day tour being 8am to 5pm.
We drove through the street with us all being swivel necks taking in our new surroundings.
Our check in to Centara Duangtawan was easy with a lovely receptionist who gave us prices of different tours that were very reasonable. Jude and Al were excited to hear that they could have a smoking room and were upgraded. We had a requested room overlooking the mountain and they told us that that wasn’t a problem and that we had a nice room.
It was after we got to the room that I was able to look in my luggage for the folder that I had for months been preparing with all of our notes about the places that we were going. It also had all of our bookings made over the internet. It wasn’t there. I was nearly in tears. I did have a back up of notes on my netbook and Jude and Al had a copy of all of the bookings of rooms but we were the only ones that had a copy of Elephant Nature Parks booking.
We were just so tired that I couldn’t even be sure what day we had booked it. It also had our Nancy Chandler map and maps of the other places and hand drawn maps from friends of different restaurants and massage places in Bangkok that they recommended.
After a quick shower we met in the lobby to explore. We needed to book Flight of the Gibbon so we walked across the road and started to barter with the tour operators that were there. They all wanted 1700bt and we ended up paying 1610. The boys had a beer and Jude and I had a Mango smoothie at Café de Siam just down from the hotel. We then decided that we would walk to Pantip Plaza but hadn’t gone very far when we saw Gekkos so we had to stop for another beer and a Daquiri and a few spring rolls to keep us going. This place sure has atmosphere. On to Pantip to see same same but different. Then back to hotel before we ventured out for dinner. We walked along the markets on the way to Kalare food court and kept hearing all of this cheering when we got across the road we realised that nearly every vendor had some sort of tv and were watching the World cup.
The Kalare food court was nearly empty but we had a decent meal we were getting so tired after our long day that we decided to make it a night and get a good nights sleep.
When walking back we looked at the artists drawings and I fell in love with one of a hilltribe girl we really wished that we had a photo that they could copy as their drawings were fantastic.
We were asked as we departed if we wanted a taxi by a nice man called Somboon. He explained that he had a 10 seater bus that he could take us and all of our luggage. We were travelling with our friends Jude and Al and had quite a bit of luggage between us.
He gave me his lanyard with his name on it and disappeared. We waited outside and after 10 minutes he arrived with a nice new mini bus. His English was good and he told us that we could have a day tour for 1000bt. Day tour being 8am to 5pm.
We drove through the street with us all being swivel necks taking in our new surroundings.
Our check in to Centara Duangtawan was easy with a lovely receptionist who gave us prices of different tours that were very reasonable. Jude and Al were excited to hear that they could have a smoking room and were upgraded. We had a requested room overlooking the mountain and they told us that that wasn’t a problem and that we had a nice room.
It was after we got to the room that I was able to look in my luggage for the folder that I had for months been preparing with all of our notes about the places that we were going. It also had all of our bookings made over the internet. It wasn’t there. I was nearly in tears. I did have a back up of notes on my netbook and Jude and Al had a copy of all of the bookings of rooms but we were the only ones that had a copy of Elephant Nature Parks booking.
We were just so tired that I couldn’t even be sure what day we had booked it. It also had our Nancy Chandler map and maps of the other places and hand drawn maps from friends of different restaurants and massage places in Bangkok that they recommended.
After a quick shower we met in the lobby to explore. We needed to book Flight of the Gibbon so we walked across the road and started to barter with the tour operators that were there. They all wanted 1700bt and we ended up paying 1610. The boys had a beer and Jude and I had a Mango smoothie at Café de Siam just down from the hotel. We then decided that we would walk to Pantip Plaza but hadn’t gone very far when we saw Gekkos so we had to stop for another beer and a Daquiri and a few spring rolls to keep us going. This place sure has atmosphere. On to Pantip to see same same but different. Then back to hotel before we ventured out for dinner. We walked along the markets on the way to Kalare food court and kept hearing all of this cheering when we got across the road we realised that nearly every vendor had some sort of tv and were watching the World cup.
The Kalare food court was nearly empty but we had a decent meal we were getting so tired after our long day that we decided to make it a night and get a good nights sleep.
When walking back we looked at the artists drawings and I fell in love with one of a hilltribe girl we really wished that we had a photo that they could copy as their drawings were fantastic.
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