You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December, 2005.
Since these will be happening all over the place (newspapers, magazines, TV, etc), I thought I’d do one too.
Perhaps the most important thing that has happened to me this year is that I’ve rediscovered my Americanness
I’m not saying that I have consciously been trying to get rid of my inner American, but after a lot of contemplation, it now appears to me that it has been happening (which I assume is due to the fact that I’ve been living abroad for many years and have had very little contact with Americans until this year). I feel just as comfortable using British and slang as I do American (the latter of which I rarely do, but not purposely). I inadvertently write more in UK English than US English, perhaps due to the fact that I teach British spelling (but not pronunciation).
Thanks to Jen and Sparky, my Americanness has been revived. I’ve relearned the joy of a good cheeseburger. I’ve had leftovers packed in a Cool Whip container. I’ve eaten cupcakes with Betty Crocker frosting. I’ve had a box of Stove Top stuffing and a bottle of blue cheese salad dressing given to me (both of which are impossible to find in Germany). I’ve enjoyed Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups. I’ve eaten Hersheys’ Kisses. I’ve rediscovered how splendid a proper American Thanksgiving dinner is. I’ve learnt how different American hospitality is to European.
Most importantly, I’ve discovered that being American isn’t a crime – despite being told it is many times by non-Americans.
(For the other pedants out there, yes, I realise that ‘Americanness’ is not a word (which is why I’ve used it twice)).
2005 has not been the best year I’ve ever had. Actually, from August til I left for Thailand in December qualify at being the most unpleasant time I’ve in the memorable past. However, I won’t dwell on my adversity, I’ll remind you and me of the good things that happened by the month:
January – My good friend Hayley visited me from England, which was a pleasure. Coincidentally enough, I received an email from her yesterday saying that she’ll be moving back to Australia at the end of 2006, which means that I’ll be making a few trips to England in 2006 because I don’t know when I’ll see her after her move.
February – Carnival in Viareggio (again).
March – My Easter trip to Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
April – Watching Live8 live (on the internet) with my good friend in NYC and attending my first Bonn Capitals game.
May – Spending my birthday travelling in Spain.
June – The Tal Total!
July – Watching baseball in Bonn again
August – The Gaulkerfest, as well as singing Robbie Williams songs with M and Js the second night of it during the Gala (the band was playing them) at the top of our lungs while the surrounding people looking us horrified (perhaps because something like that is a very un-German thing to do in public, or because our singing was so bad). Also, my trip to Croatia. The rest of the month I hope to forget.
September – Cycling! Also, sunny weather and the Frankfurt Auto Show.
October – The first annual Whiney Expat Bloggers in Germany Meet-up!
November – Both of my visits to Darmstadt.
December – Thailand.
I was rudely awaken from a blissful slumber by both my travel alarm clock and the alarm clock on my mobile phone (I set two just to make sure I got up) at 4h. Unfortunately, I hadn’t packed the night before so I got up that early to pack and also so that I wasn’t rushed in my adventure for the day.
I left the hotel at 5h15 and made my way to the bus stop in the tropical rain. Yes, that’s right, it was raining in Bangkok at this time of the year (something quite unusual). On my way to the airport, I stopped at 7-11 to get a bottle of water. I’m constantly amazed at how ‘American’ Thailand is (or how ‘American’ Germany isn’t), and Korea from what I’ve read on Sandra’s blog. Convenience stores, restaurants, etc.
The Bangkok Airport has three airport bus lines that run to different parts of the city. It’s a good deal, as it only costs 100 THB and takes about the same amount of time as a taxi. Supposedly the airport busses beginning running at 5h30 and run every 15 minutes, so I walked to the nearest stop (that I had been told A3 stopped at). At 6h, I realized that I’d probably have a longer than expected wait, so I decided to find an alternative. A countless number of taxis had stalked me at the bus stop, but I knew that it’d probably cost a fortune to take one so I hoped I wouldn’t have to. I then remembered that my guide book had mentioned a couple of local busses that ply that route, got it out and found out that one of them was one of the routes that went right by where I was waiting. I hopped on the next 504 to the airport was off to the airport.
Bangkok is legendary for its traffic, and I’m here to tell you that it’s true. Tons of vehicles are on the road at all hours of the day. Cars, tuk tuks, trucks, scooters, mopeds, motorcycles, etc. You name it, it’s out there. Traffic has to be factored into all trips that one takes by road during the day (unfortunately, the metro and Skytrain don’t run to the airport), which was main reason I had decided to leave so early.
I got on the bus and waited for the fare collector to come to me (which is how it’s usually done), but she didn’t so I went to her. I told her that I wanted to go to the airport and she said something to me in Thai and then said airport (it was clear that she didn’t speak English at all other than perhaps the word ‘airport’). I think she had told me the price, but I didn’t understand her so I gave her a 100 THB note and waited for my change. The fare was 18 THB. 18 THB! What a bargain! Being that it was dark and raining, I wasn’t sure if I’d know where to get off for the airport so by using hand signals and the word airport, she agreed to tell me where to get off the bus. When we arrived at the airport an hour later, she came over to me and pointed at me, said ‘airport’ and motioned for me to get off the bus. I thanked her and smiled at her, she smiled back and I got off the bus. Coincidentally enough, the bus stop for the international terminal is also the train station. However, I was taking a domestic flight.
I went up the ramp and followed the bridge across the many lanes of traffic and entered the terminal. I found the information desk and then found out that there was a separate terminal 1km away for domestic flights. I said to her, ‘1 km?’ and I think she knew by the surprise in my voice that I new nothing about it. She then told me that there was a free shuttle bus in the arrivals area, so I went down to find it. It was very easy to find and I was packed onto it with the other passengers that were in the same predicament. Three minutes later we arrived at the domestic terminal. Honestly, with as long as I had to wait it might have been quicker to walk there.
The domestic airport is similar to other airports, other than the fact that bags to be checked in are scanned before you get to the check in counter (hand luggage is not). I quite agree with that system. The young man that checked me in barely spoke English, but I got checked in and went through what they call ‘security’. I beeped going through the metal detector (probably due to the fact that I had forgotten to take my keys out of my pocked) and waited to be directed back through it or over to the side to be scanned with a metal detector, but was told to get my bags and move along. Granted, I waxed on in an earlier post about the security at Zurich, but I’d rather have that than this (and my only real complaint about Zurich was the fact that they only had one lane open).
Bangkok Airport 27 December 2005
After going through security, the first thing I saw was fast food eateries. Burger King and Dairy Queen. There was a coffee shop and an internet café a bit further down the terminal.
My plane was delayed by forty-five minutes, I assume due to weather. I had bought my ticket on the internet and flew Nok Air, a relatively new low cost air carrier that is a subsidiary of Thai Airways. I had the choice of either a 12 hour bus ride or a one hour flight, and gladly chose the latter for the price of 1450.00 THB (€30.21). Well worth it to me. The plane was a 737-300 and I was amazed at the amount of space and legroom it had to offer. Ryan Air uses the same kind of planes, but crams customers in like sardines. I definitely recommend Nok Air!
Upon arrival in Chiang Mai, bags were produced quickly and I went off to find out how to get to the town. I had read in my guidebook that there was no public transport and to watch out for people trying to scam you by charging you exorbitant amounts of money to take you to the city, so I was on guard a bit. The airport information lady told me that I should take a taxi and directed me to the exit where I could find one. I got there and saw that the standard charge is 120 THB and gave them my hotel info, and off we went.
My taxi driver was in his early twenties, and he took me to my hotel in a nearly new Toyota. His English wasn’t good but we still managed to have a brief chat along the way. I asked him if it had rained in Chiang Mai and he told me that had the day before, and he was quite surprised to learn that it had been raining in Bangkok when I left.
My hotel is very acceptable. I booked it on the internet, which tends to make me apprehensive, however this hotel had its own website (which makes me less apprehensive). The rate on the website was 600 THB per night for the type of room I wanted, but I was offered 550 THB for booking in advance on the internet. When I checked in, he offered me a 10% discount if I paid for my entire stay at that time, but I didn’t have enough Baht on me so I told him that that would only be possible if I paid in Euros, to which he agreed. So, I’m paying 495 THB (€10.31), per night for a room with air conditioning, a mountain view, a balcony and a TV with both BBC and HBO in English (to satisfy both the news and movie junkie that dwells within me), a channel in Dutch (not that that’s any good to me (the owner is Dutch)) and several channels in Thai. Not a bad deal at all.
My next step was to explore. I love the first few hours in a new place. Sure, I had a map, but becoming oriented in a new town is not the same as reading a map, especially in Thailand (the same goes for Spain).
I hadn’t considered visiting Chiang Mai until several people told me that I should. I didn’t have anything against it, but the biggest drawback was that it’s inland. Being the beach lover that I am, I prefer to spend time at beach areas and this is not one of them. However, two factors helped me in choosing this location: the prices (about three times cheaper than the beach areas for accommodation and much cheaper for other things) and
I wandered off to wherever, crossed one of the moats and turned left and attempted to make sense out of the layout of the own. Instead of doing that, I found a burger joint! A real live American type burger joint! It even had a counter and stools to sit on, so I did the only logical thing and ordered a bacon cheeseburger and a chili cheese fries (165 THB). I can honestly say that bacon cheeseburgers at Mike’s Burgers eclipse any cheeseburger (bacon or not) that I’ve had in Europe. The chili cheese fries were spectacular too.
The rest of my day was spent wandering around aimlessly, taking photos of different temples and orienting myself with the city. The day ended with me finding an open air pub/restaurant that showed movies every evening. Coincidentally enough this particular evening they were showing two of the movies I had watched on the airplane to Bangkok. That didn’t matter to me, as they were both great.
‘New’ digital camera died on the 28th. I’m at a shopping mall right now looking for a new one.
Rented something that somewhat resembles a bike for two days.
I’m currently in Chaing Mai and will be through turn of the year. It’s quite different from Bangkok and I’m still getting oriented.
I got up at 3h on Thursday so that I could have a bit of time to myself, as well as finish packing. I left my flat at 4h55 and caught the 5h16 train to Cologne (€11) so that I could catch my connecting train. I could have caught a train close to an hour later, but figured that with Deutsche Bahn’s track record, I would have gotten there late and missed the next train. I was right, we arrived 17 minutes late in Cologne. Had I taken the later train and arrived that late, I would have missed it.
My next train was the 7h14 Thalys to Brussels. The Thalys is a high speed train that links Cologne, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and a few points inbetween. It’s normally quite expensive, but I booked my ticket more than a month in advance and was able to get a return fare of €29 including tax. What a bargain! As far as the train itself goes, it’s essentially similar to the ICE trains in Germany, but not as nice. The train I was on was, I assume, the equivalent of the third generation ICE trains based on the shape of the locomotive. The inside, however was quite a bit different. It had wall to wall grey carpeting and the seats were tacky read. Not only were they an odd colour, but they also were quite cushy and had no lumbar support – just like the seats in French cars (the Thalys is French owned). Regardless, it got me where I needed to go on time and for a good price, so it was worth it.
Something funny happened on the train that confused me. The Thalys Magazine (an in-flight magazine, so to speak) was in four different languages, so I decided to see how much of the French I could understand (my French is more than rusty). When I couldn’t understand something, I went to the Dutch in the next column to see how much I could read based off my knowledge of German. When that became difficult, I then went to the next column, German, to see what I could understand in it (a lot). When I finally go to the English column, I said to myself, ‘That’s too easy’ and started the process all over again,
Upon arrival at the Brussels Midi train station, I went into the terminal to find out about trains to the airport. I saw a few ticket machines, but couldn’t figure out how to buy a ticket to the airport on them, so I went to the customer service centre. The man gladly sold me a return ticket to the airport (€2.60 each way) and told me about the next train (that I only had to wait ten minutes for). Thirty minutes later, I was at the airport.
My first order of business was to find the Swiss customer service centre to see if they could book a seat for me. I had been meaning to do so before I left, but never got around to it. I wanted to see if I could book an emergency row exit for the extra legroom, but there weren’t any available so I had them book me a window seat instead. I put my bags in a luggage locker (€7.,50(!) for 24 hours) and headed back to the airport’s train station to get aback to the city.
I have never taken a long haul flight from a German airport due to the fact that it’s usually much cheaper (€300 – €400) to fly from Brussels or Luxembourg. Plus, I have friends in both cities, so I usually see them before I fly to wherever. I arrived at the Brussels Centraal train station at 11h25 and set off to explore.
Being that it was a work day, I had arranged to meet my friends at 14h. I don’t expect anybody’s life to stop just because I’m in town, so I was perfectly happy with that arrangement. I wandered around European Bureaucracy Central (aka Brussels) for about an hour and a half and then made my way to Waterstones, an English bookshop chain to browse for a while and get out of the misty 2บC weather. I got off easy this time, only buying four books for a total of €47.77, and then headed back to the train station to meet my friends.
I have known Z and A for many years now, and it was good to see them again (I hadn’t seen them since just before my flight to Athens in August 2004 when I used their airport the last time). We wandered around Brussels to nowhere – talking, drinking hot rum, laughing and enjoying each other’s company. It was a lot of fun and great to see them again. We decided to meet up again on my layover between my return flight and train back to Germany, and they also agreed to look after my winter jacket, hat and gloves so that I didn’t have to lug them around Thailand. I caught the 17h38 train back to the airport, arriving just after 18h.
My first order of business was to get my bags out of the luggage locker. Easier said than done, due to the fact that the lockers are automated and only accept exact change – which I didn’t have. I went back to the train station in the airport and explained the situation to the lady, who gladly broke down my money into what was needed and then retried by bags. Next stop? The toilet.
When I make long haul flights, I like to be comfortable so I needed to change. I have a very comfy shirt I like to wear and also wear sandals instead of shoes due to the fact that they’re easier to take off. I returned to the departures area, checked in and cleared passport control in about seven minutes and then security in an additional five minutes. That’s another thing I like about both Brussels and Luxembourg airports – they are both small and you don’t have to wait a long time like in Frankfurt.
My flight from Brussels lasted fifty minutes and was uneventful. The man sitting next to me was Greek, but lived in Brussels and was on his way to Johannesburg for a holiday. However, his flight from Zurich to Brussels had been cancelled (but his Brussels – Zurich flight hadn’t so he still had to take it) and he went off to the customer service centre to see if Swiss was going to put him up in a hotel for the evening since they couldn’t honor his flight reservation til the next day.
Normally when I have ‘feeder flights’ like this to Zurich, the planes are Embraer RH 145s, wonderful 48-seat jets. However, this one was a 98-seat Avro RJ 100 and felt a bit rickety. I’m not complaining, as it did the job and got me to the Zurich airport on time.
It’s a good thing that my first flight was punctual, because we arrived at terminal A and I had an hour to get to terminal E. That involved going down several escalators, taking a monorail type train (but underground) ride and then going up several more escalators. Then the fun part came – security.
The Zurich airport has several security checkpoints within the secure area past the normal security area. Terminal E is the intercontinental terminal departures area of the Zurich airport, and one would think that with the number of flights that were leaving that evening, they’d be well staffed. Wrong. Only one of the four security check areas was staffed. To add insult to injury, they had a video display saying that it was all for the security of the passengers, that the average wait was only six minutes and to have a Merry Christmas. I waited twenty minutes and then continued on to my gate (which felt like it was the other end of the word), arriving with only five minutes to wait before boarding.
My seat was 25A, just a few rows behind the first class area and I was one of the first to board after the preboarders. I settled into my seat and watched the other board, waiting to see who’d be sitting next to me. It turned out to be a guy about my age from Geneva who, as I found out towards the end of the flight, was also was a big fan of Thailand. We didn’t speak much, just exchanged cordialities and a bit of small talk.
The plane we were on was an Airbus 340 and it was the first time I had been on one. When I flew to Florida last year, I flew on an Airbus 330 and a 747 whisked me away to Thailand two years ago. The seats were quite supportive and it had a video screens in the headrests, so it seemed like it’d be a nice place to spend 10 ฝ hours, if one had to do so. As we taxied towards the runway, I noticed that the plane had a camera on the nose and we were watching take off live! Cool!
Shortly after we were in the air, I started reading Swiss Magazine and learnt that the plane’s video screens were interactive, meaning that you can watch the movies ‘on demand’ instead of every 90 minutes. You could also pause, stop, rewind and fast forward them as you wanted. Frankly, all I can say it that it’s about time that something like this is being offered. It’s terrible to have to miss part of your movie due to having to use the toilet or snoozing for a bit. The movies I watched will be detailed in a different post.
About an hour into the flight, we were given dinner. It consisted of two chicken patties, green beans and mashed potatoes with gravy, a roll with butter, cheese, and chocolate pudding. It wasn’t the best meal that I have ever had on an airplane, but was still decent.
I can’t sleep well on planes, but being that I had gotten about 3 ฝ hours of sleep the night before and had been up for about 21 hours, I was exhausted. However, I still couldn’t sleep, so I watched a movie. After the movie, I attempted to watch another one, but kept dozing off, so I stopped it and thought I’d get some sleep. Keep dreaming, so to speak. I didn’t really get any sleep, just slipped in and out of consciousness for a while. From time to time, I attempted to continue watching the movie, but the same thing happened. When I turned it off, I couldn’t sleep so this went on for a while. I finally decided to watch the film, and am glad that I did. It was great.
There was one complication in my flight…the above-mentioned seatmate fell asleep just after dinner and slept until just before breakfast was served (two hours before we landed). Being that I had a window seat, that made having to use the toilet creative.
Being the considerate person I am, I didn’t want to wake him up but really had to go. I thought about rousing him, but then realised that that I might not need to. I put my feet on the cushion of my seat and butt on the arm rest. I then put my right foot on the right arm rest (his arm wasn’t on it), launched myself over him with my left foot on his right arm rest (his arm wasn’t on it) and then landed with my right foot on the floor of the aisle. Catching my balance after that was no problem. I went about my business and then returned to attempt to get back into my seat. I wasn’t in a hurry, as my butt had been sore before leaving my seat, so I stood by my row for a while. Eventually, I decided to get back into my seat, but that was easier said than done.
I attempted to wake my seatmate, but it didn’t work – he was still sound asleep and I couldn’t wake him up by shaking his right arm (while speaking his language (French) to him when I did it). It didn’t work. They guy to my right saw what I had tried doing and smiled in a friendly ‘I can’t wait to see what happens next’, as did the lady in the seat behind my seatmate, who looked at me and said, ‘Jump over again,’ to which that seemed like my only option left. I took it.
I put my left foot on his right arm rest and launched myself over him again, with my right foot landing on my seat. I quickly threw my left foot across onto my cushion and then settled back into my seat, with out disturbing my seatmate. Not bad, if I do say so myself.
Breakfast happened at 12h50 Thai time (6h50 in Germany). We were given a croissant, butter, two types of cheese (after all, the airline is Swiss), a roll and strawberry yoghurt. It was decent, but not all that filling.
After breakfast, my seatmate and I got to chatting a bit. He told me that he owned a restaurant in Geneva and closes down every year just before Christmas til just after New Year’s every year (22 December – 4 January this year) due to the fact that business is slow during that period and takes off for someplace warm and sunny for that time. See? I’m not the only one who does this! We spent the time until we landed talking about travelling and things like that. A great time.
We landed twenty-five minutes late. Luckily, my seat was in the fourth row of the economy session, so I was able to get off the plane relatively quickly and made the mad dash for the immigration area. It’s quite a way from the plane, so I walked as quickly as possible in order not to have to wait the line behind the other 200+ passengers on the plane.
I was one of the first ones from my plane in line, but still had to wait twenty minutes. Thai immigration was no problem. I handed them my passport, landing card (given to me on the plane) and boarding card, and the lady typed away on her computer. There are cameras at all the immigration desks, so my photo was taken also (they take your photo without mentioning it (but it is mentioned on a sign)). The good thing about having to wait for immigration was that when I got to baggage claim, my bag was already on the carosole, so all I had to do was grab it and head towards the arrivals hall.
When I visited Thailand in 2003, I had been told to exit the arrivals hall and go to the taxi rank for a taxi with a set price to get to my hotel. It worked. There was an airport bus, but as with this year it didn’t go right to my hotel, so I would have ended up paying about 200 bht (100 for the airport bus and 100 for the taxi) as opposed to paying 350 for a taxi directly from the airport to the hotel so I took a taxi right from the airport to the hotel.
Arriving at the hotel, I walked into a reception area that was similar to the photo on the internet. I had wondered what it would really be like due to the fact that it usually doesn’t happen that way.
I was checked in and escorted to my room, on the fourth floor (with no lift – just like home). The room is clean and decent, albeit a bit dumpy, but it’s fine for me. It even has a TV and ensuite bathroom, something that I rarely get when travelling in Europe for the price I pay. Have I mentioned that I’m paying about €10/night for it, including breakfast (which is €1.05 according to the menu)? Not a bad deal, if I do say so myself (I found it on Cheaprooms.com).
After checking in, I changed into shorts and a short sleeve shirt and had one thing on my mind…a good dinner. I knew exactly what I wanted and where to find it, so off I went to the nearest Skytrain station.
The Bangkok Skytrain is a monorail that runs above ground (hence the name). It’s a good system that seems a bit overpriced for the salary that Thais earn, and it cost me 25bht to get to the Siam station. Where was I going? The Hard Rock Caf้, of course!
As previously mentioned, whenever I visit a city that has a Hard Rock Caf้, I visit it and have chicken nachos. A beer too. Actually, this leads me to my next point: American indulgence. Three are many American eateries that I love in Bangkok has that aren’t easily available to me in Germany, the Hard Rock Caf้, the Outback Steakhouse (this one doesn’t have any locations in Germany) and KFC, and I plan on patrionsing all of them once while I’m here. After I get my fill of Americana, I’ll move on to the delicious Thai food that this country is famous for.
Dinner was scrumptious, as Hard Rock Caf้ chicken nachos always are, and from there I headed over the elevated walkway to the ‘beer garden’ between the Siam Discovery Centre and Siam Fun Centre for a beer and to listen to the band.
I took the Skytrain back to my hotel and arrived at 21. I was totally exhausted, so I went straight to bed after a long trip and a good evening.
I’m flying north tomorrow, so my interneting (new word in the spirit of Captain Echo) will be sporadic. I’ve already written a post about my journey here, but can’t use my memory stick at Free Internet Place so I’ll have to find a proper internet cafe at some point in time.
I’ve put many kilometres on my tennis shoes in the past few days and am looking forward to getting on a bike soon.
12:48 Thailand time.
No need to dream about a 31C Christmas either, because it’s what I have.
Found free internet access also.
Merry Christmas to everyone that celebrates it. If you don’t, then Happpy WhateverYouMayBeCelebrating, and if you’re not celebrating anything then Have a Nice Day.
What’s Bangkok like? Hard to describe. If you combined NYC and Los Angeles then put the result on steriods, you’d be close.
Posted at 14:52 Thailand time.
A quick post to let you know that I arrived safely yesterday.
More soon.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I am almost ready. I went out to Walmart today to get a few gifts for my kids and a few groceries and the store was so busy. I knew it was going to be bad when I had to wait in line in my car to get into the large parking lot. I don’t really care for large crowds and I wanted to avoid shopping on Christmas Eve, but the day before was just as busy. I think I was able to get most of what I need. If there are any other grocery items I need I will go to the regular grocery store which usually isn’t as busy. The Walmart near our house is a Super Walmart that has a large grocery department as well as all the other things Walmart usually sells.
Hi, this is K. again. J. asked me to do some guest blogging while he is away for 3 weeks. I am hoping he will have a wonderful time where it is warm and beachy. It is his favorite place to be at a beach. J. suggested I share some more interesting facts about living in Florida. I have lived here all my life so it is all interesting to me. If you have any questions that you would like me to answer about Florida leave a comment here. I will try to answer them. To get you started thinking about Florida here is a picture I took of a sunset over the Atlantic Ocean in November. I was surprised that this sunset was a pretty as a sunrise.
