Wandergliding: By Chance in Bangkok

October 15^th-17^th, 2024

I decided that this year’s Wandergliding adventure would be Southeast Asia, specifically Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos…all new countries for me.

I flew from Kelowna to Vancouver, Vancouver to Hong Kong and then finally on to Bangkok. The flight out of Vancouver was the long leg, thirteen hours and forty minutes. I opted to fly with Cathay Pacific as they are an above average airline, and I also paid $80 more to pick a window bulkhead seat. This meant that I should have extra legroom and there would only be one person beside me, whom I should be able to get up to go to the bathroom or stretch my legs without disturbing them. Well, wouldn’t you know it…there happened to be a woman in her 30s with her four-month baby girl named Roda. Damn. This may suck. For most of the flight Roda was in a bassinette on a fold down table right in front of us. So much for being able to get up easily. Amazingly Roda was really well behaved for such a long flight as there was only about half an hour that she was fussy. Her mom Danielle was taking her to see her sister who lives in Australia. They had a 9-hour layover in Hong Kong before another 7-hour flight to the land Down Under…yikes, good luck Danielle.

I’d been briefly to Hong Kong before on a 24-hour layover but that was back in 2007 when I was escorting my then girlfriend Jodi back from Nepal with a broken ankle. There has been a lot of expansion work done to the Chek Lap Kok airport since then and the work seems to be ongoing as it is the world’s busiest cargo gateways and one of the busiest passenger airports.

Hong Kong's airport:

My connecting flight was at a satellite terminal and I had to go over this "Sky Bridge". It's high enough that even the biggest commercial airliner, an A380, can fit underneath.

Maybe another terminal under construction.

A whole bunch of similar looking apartment skyscrapers...typical for Hong Kong.

Hard to make out...but that's the Vietnam coastline.

An interesting looking lake in Vietnam...I'll be in that country in November

Arriving in Bangkok after a 3-hour flight, it was 10 am and the start of a common hot and humid day in the country’s capital. By chance, a few days before leaving Canada, I saw Facebook posting of a friend of mine, Pam, showing pictures of her visiting Thailand. I hadn’t seen her since we briefly met up in India around 2011 or 2012, when I was stuck there (don’t know what I’m talking about…check out this post). She was just finishing up a 3-week vacation and this was her 3^rd or 4^th time in the country. I reached out to her and it turned out that our trips would overlap by one day. Pam gave me some pointers on how to get into the capital of 11 million plus people on the metro. By chance, our accommodations were less than a kilometre apart…sweet!

Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok:

On our downwind leg:

This was cool...we were landing while a plane was taking off on a parallel runway to us.

Looking out from the terminal:

Love their electrical work in this city! My former co-workers at Schneider Electric would be shuddering.

What a cool looking "Jenga" building.

Pam met me at the exit of the metro station and escorted me to my accommodation which she had already sussed out. After I took a quick and very much needed shower after 30+ hours in transit, we headed out for lunch and spent a couple of hours catching up on each other’s lives. I ordered my first of probably many Phad Thais and a Leo beer. The waitress returned shortly with a big coffee travel mug and stated that the beer would have to be poured into it for consumption. Pam recalled, and then explained to me, that it was a Buddhist holiday, and alcohol should not be consumed…but I guess this was a workaround for tourists. Fine by me. The beer was also served with ice cubes in it, which is a definite no-no back home, but in this heat and humidity, I didn’t mind.

After lunch, on Pam’s suggestion, we took the metro down to the river Chao Phraya, which winds its way through the city and is a major river in the country. She purchased tickets to get on a hop on/hop off tourist boat even though it was only going to be running for a few more hours. It would be a fantastic way for me to get a lay of the land.

Standing on the dock, it was crazy how fast some of these big boats would come charging in and then the captain would throw the engine into reverse as a guy jumped off, threw a mooring line onto a big cleat followed by tourists hopping off and others on. Our boat arrived and we took the stairs to the upper deck to get the best view.

A dinner boat...not the one we got on.

Cruising under some bridges...without a ton of clearance:

We were able to see a number of temples, a few of which I planned to see the following day, along with a variety of skyscrapers, old decrepit houses on the banks of the river, a super fancy shopping centre with only expensive brands (Gucci, Louis Vutton, Bottega Veneta and even Apple!) and a ferris wheel that reminded Pam of the London Eye.

The King of Thailand's portrait:

The last stop to the south, before we headed back.

Nice to see you again Pam!

It's not obvious in this photo, but those are hundreds of round shaped balconies.

A little boat pulling a big load:

One of many colourful long-tailed boats plying the waters with their massive, loud engines:

The boat then ventured back in the other direction, past where we boarded the ship, and we decided to disembark at the last stop, which is where the infamous Khaosan Road. Khaosan translates to “milled rice” as it was once a major rice market but it has since evolved to be a backpacker’s ghetto with cheap accommodations, loud bars with competing music and cheap drinks and a slightly veiled red light district.

Wat Arun, the tallest temple in Bangkok, which I plan to visit tomorrow.

Khaosan Road:

It was still light out so most of those sinful activities had not kicked into gear yet, but it still seemed quieter than normal for Pam. Then she clued in. “It’s the Buddhist holiday, they can’t serve booze!” She was pleasantly surprised how nice the area seemed without the competing thumping of music and drunk and disorderly tourists stumbling about, some of whom looking for sexual favours from young, scantily clad local women. I had watched a YouTube video in the past year of a guy walking around and filming the shenanigans and I have to admit that I was happy to not experience that mayhem. Most places were fairly empty, but as we stepped onto a side street, there was one lounge-like bar that was almost completely full. I scanned the tables and saw that the tourists all had beer bottles and other alcoholic drinks that were not being discretely served in coffee mugs. Hmm…someone most have paid the authorities off, or they were just gambling that they wouldn’t get caught.

Pretty quiet considering on regular nights 40-50,000 people wander around the area.

Quiet Khaosan Road:

A shockingly empty bar:

But there was still some interesting "people watching" to do...

We caught the last boat back at 6:30 and it was getting quite dark which was a bit of a treat as the temples looked fantastic being all lit up.

Nice fancy bridge:

The Grand Palace:

Wat Arun lit up:

Pam had been travelling with a former roommate Nicky, who had gone off to Ko Phi Phi for a few days while Pam had returned to Bangkok. They were both staying in a 5-star hotel just 900 meters from my place, so I wandered over for dinner on a 7^th floor patio (the hotel was probably 22 storeys high). Maybe my body still didn’t really know where and when it was as I didn’t quite finish my green curry meal and I didn’t find it that tasty, but it was nice to hang out with Pam for a few more hours as they were flying out the next day.

These buildings are just being completed...opening in the next week. It's a combination of retail, commercial and residential space called "One World".