Somewhat to my surprise we have arrived on holiday in Thailand. The surprise is not that it is Thailand (I didn’t board a plane thinking we were heading to Lanazarote or Lagos) but that the holiday has come upon us so soon. Traveling on Boxing Day, so soon after Christmas and having spent most of the day clearing up after the Yuletide festivities, I haven’t really had time to think about the holiday at all. That having been said, I have managed to bring socks, underpants and even cold and flu tablets to stock a small branch of Boots. I have the remnants of a cold and expect to be coughing and spluttering through the next twelve days.
The flight, with Omani Airlines, is uneventful. I once vowed that I would never again fly with a Middle Eastern airline after flying with Kuwaiti Airlines. If we were about to crash, I wanted the announcement to be made in English first and not to wait until after the Arab speaking passengers had learnt the news. I have not communicated this to Kate, and so Omani Airlines it is. For what it’s worth, the vegetarian food option isn’t up to much and a couple of the computer games on the in seat entertainment console don’t load.
The flight to Bangkok is two legged, with a stopover in Muscat. As our flight from Manchester is delayed, we have time at Muscat only to hurry through the airport before boarding the flight to Bangkok. The second leg of our journey is aboard a Dreamliner. The main difference appears to be that there are more games to choose from on the games front. But the ones that didn’t load on the first flight don’t load on the second flight either. Let’s hope the pilot’s navigation software is a bit more up to date.
We arrive in Bangkok and collect our bags successfully, despite Kate being confident that my holdall won’t have made the trip. I was more confident, although not confident that the bag wouldn’t be surrounded by drug squad sniffer dogs interested in my assorted antihistamines and antibiotics.
Outside it is warm, humid and dark. Like most airports, the smell of exhaust fumes is the overriding one. We reach the taxi rank. Our taxi driver is doubtful about whether he can take us to our hotel. Kate begins to tell him where it is, despite her being a first time visitor and him being a native. After much umming and erring, he closes the boot on our suitcases and off we go.
He asks us where we’re from and we say ‘England.’ He asks where in England and we say ‘Manchester’, fully expecting a ‘Manchester United’ response. (The world will truly have turned on its axis when ‘Manchester City’ is trumpeted before United when in foreign parts, and if it’s going to happen anywhere it might be Thailand given that the club briefly had a Thai owner). But the taxi driver tells us that his daughter works at the University of Salford, shows us her address in his phone revealing her M22 postcode, and any concerns about explaining why we don’t like Manchester United or having to make conversation about David Beckham are forgotten.
The drive to our hotel takes two hours. We drive past many tower blocks as an early glimpse of how big a city Bangkok is (and a reminder of how small Manchester is by comparison) and arrive at our hotel in the rain. Kate wakes up the security guard and we are in. After less than five hours’ sleep, I am ready for my bed, but Kate wants to eat so we seek out a local cafe. It is possible to eat vegetarian in Thailand, according to our guide book, but the first cafe owner dismisses the idea of entertaining any such notion by saying ‘this is Thailand’ with an imperious wave of her hand.
At the second cafe, Kate orders fish and is served a large red snapper and I order an omelette and am served omelette.
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