Back in Bangkok

We wanted to get the important stuff out of the way so we would have time to go somewhere else, or relax properly in Bangkok, so right after we checked in we headed off to the Indian Embassy to hand in our passports to get our newly approved visas stuck in place. The traffic was so bad getting there that we nearly missed the passport hand-in time and since we were so late we just decided to hang around that part of town until we could pick them up again, rather than sit in traffic all the way to Khaosan and back. Unfortunately there wasn't much to do in that part of town. The embassy is just round from Soi Cowboy, so we took a walk down there: closed “girly bars”, not very exciting. In fact all round that area was the same. After a few boring hours we collected our passports with Indian visas and returned to the Khaosan Road area. It was nice to be back in Bangkok with Bangkok prices: 10 Baht for a chicken kebab instead of 20 or 30; 20 for a coffee instead of 50; 20 Baht per hour internet; the Thai people seem much friendlier in Bangkok than the islands as well. I was happy to be back there.

Thai Telly Tubbies (Telly Skinnies?) near Indian Embassy

We had intended taking a boat trip up the river, or a canal trip; we had thought about going to Patpong to see one of the infamous ping pong shows; we had thought about going on a couple of day trips, or going to another island like big Ko Chang, but my feet weren't really ready for beaches, so the island was out, and we just didn't get around to the rest. We shouldn't have been in Bangkok for so long at the end of our trip, but the Thai islands had been a big disappointment and we wanted to leave Thailand early, however BA told us we could not reschedule our flight as the earlier ones were full. I quite like just hanging around Bangkok though, and I had a lot of blogging to catch up on, so that's what I did. And a bit too much drinking, One night when Joanne was in bed with stomach problems again, I got chatting to a Swedish guy and two Swiss girls, which turned into another night of flavoured tobacco in a shisha. The next night Joanne and I had a few drinks with a Japanese guy, an English guy, a Lithuanian, and a Polish guy, The first three faded in that order, but we ended up staying up most of the night with the Pole. The following night we were just coming right when we were passing the same bar, and there was Bart the Pole. So we very stupidly stayed up even later drinking with him again. If he is a typical example then Polish people can certainly drink!

A Swede and two Swiss girls

The next day we tried to make ourselves feel better by going for a Mexican meal which wasn't too bad, but all the things I consider central to Mexican food like salsa and guacamole were listed as “extras” you had to pay more for. So it turned out very dear. Just as we were leaving the restaurant we bumped into Ben, the French guy who'd been staying in our guesthouse on Ko Chang. It never ceases to amaze me how many people we see again and again. That day we also got an email from the Dutch girls, Sia and Willemijn, saying that they had been to Ko Tao and Phuket, and that they had found Ko Tao very expensive and Phuket cheap, which was a relief because Ko Tao was one of out first choices for moving on from Ko Phangan, but someone had warned us that it was dear too. We took a few days with no alcohol and I caught up with lots of blogging, but we didn't do anything properly touristy like we'd planned. It rained heavily every single day we were back there.

Frozen margarita with our mexican meal

Finally the day of our flight to India arrived. We went round the book vendors trying to off-load our travel guides. We got a (quite stingy) discount on a Hindi, Urdu, and Bengali phrase book in exchange for our Thailand Lonely Planet, but nobody would offer us anything at all for our Rough Guide to South East Asia. I just can't understand it at all. Nobody would offer us a Baht. Some people laughed and said “Only want Lonely Planet”. This is all the more infuriating when these are the same vendors we had searched carefully for a Rough Guide to India, but had to make do with the Lonely Planet, which I really did not want to do. In the end we had to donate it to our hotel library. One of our last tasks in Thailand was to post home some more stuff. This time it went much more smoothly than in Laos. Unfortunately I had been blogging so much that I hadn't had time to buy many people presents, but there are plenty more countries for that!

Quail eggs

Joanne had booked the shuttle bus to the airport “to make things easier”. It was absolutely crammed full. More proof, I thought, that the more you pay, the worse things usually are. This was 150 Baht, but the nice local bus would only have cost 20 Baht, and we would have been travelling with Thais and it wouldn't have left 20 minutes late because of picking up all of the other tourists after us. They played Dire Straits the whole way to the airport to remind us that we were all white.

At the airport I was ready with my VAT refund form from the purchase of the mini-laptop. I had the “Credit card Refund” box ticked, as well as all my credit card details filled it, the stamp from the shop, and the stamp from the office before you go trough customs. When we finally made it to the VAT refund desk on the other side, the woman just handed me over the cash, completely ignoring all I had done to avoid this. Thai Baht, just as we are about to leave Thailand. What was I supposed to do with it? So I was forced to spend all my VAT refund and the rest of our remaining money on a litre of Glen Livet from the duty free. I had been missing real whisky so this was the perfect excuse!

On the plane, the guy next to me was sniffing constantly throughout the flight. He looked really unwell. Then they handed out swine flu declarations for us to sign, stating that we had not been in Mexico, USA, UK, or Spain in the last seven days, and that you are not feeling unwell; otherwise you would be required to submit to a full medical examination on arrival in India. I wonder if the guy next to me admitted to feeling a bit under the weather. When we did land in India, we still needed to queue to have our declarations stamped by medical staff, who were checking what we'd written and presumably dragging people off for full check-ups where required.

written by  The Happy Couple on May 19, 2009 from Bangkok, Thailand
from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon
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