Home » Thailand » Southeast Asia 2000 - Travel Diary, Part 2: First impressions of Bangkok

Bangkok never became one of my favourite cities, but the visit there was certainly interesting. The main problem is getting used to all the different impressions that are coming at you all the time. The streets are crowded with all kinds of people, food is being prepared and sold everywhere, stray dogs are all over the place, the volume of traffic is enormous and there are all kinds of different sounds and smells. It is very hard to find peace and tranquility in Bangkok, except in some of the temples. We spent the first three days wandering around the city, getting used to the pace and learning how to deal with "new friends" that had all kinds of "fantastic offers" for us.

Southeast Asia 2000 - Travel Diary, Part 2: First impressions of Bangkok

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 18:18:27

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Day 3 - June 29

Our first impressions of Thailand were mixed. It started out pretty badly with the immigration procedures. There were lots of counters with immigration officials at the airport, but unfortunately we ended up in the slowest line of them all. After the long and boring flight, it was extremely frustrating to wait for nearly two hours, watching the guy behind the counter work as slow as humanly possible. In addition, we were further delayed by a group of Chinese who hadn't managed to fill in their immigration papers properly.

As we stood in line, I thought I heard my name being called up over the loudspeakers. I wasn't entirely sure, but it sounded like I was requested to contact the information desk. I guessed it probably had something to do with the guy from Asia Travel who was supposed to pick us up and bring us to our hotel. However, being stuck waiting for Mr. Slow to let us into the country, there was nothing we could do.

After finally coming through immigration, we ran to the baggage reclaim and easily located our backpacks lying on the floor next to the conveyor belt. At least they hadn't gone missing, which was more than could be said about the pick-up guy from Asia Travel who was nowhere to be found. There appears to be some sort of curse which makes sure we're always abandoned at the airport :-) Though, unlike last year when Lufthansa nearly ruined our holiday, this time the consequences were not so serious. If the transport hadn't already been paid for, we could probably easily have found our way to the hotel by ourselves.

At the information desk we learned that they really had requested my to contact them. Obviously it was the guy from Asia Travel who had asked for us. The information staff were very helpful, and after explaining our situation, a woman followed us to another airport official. Using his own money to phone Asia Travel from a pay phone for us, he told ...