DAY 2- BANGKOK,THAILAND

wall paintings of ramayana at grand palace,bangkok 

15 dec 2011, 0030 hours coffee day lounge, Bangalore International airport limited(BIAL): Get up its time for  check-in , please get up, pleaaaaaseeee…. The words left such an impression on my tympanic membrane that my eyes opened in a flash and it took me not less than 25 seconds though to get oriented to time, place and person but the  moment I did I behaved like a bull on  rampage ; come fast, fast, damn, give  the passport, where is the ticket, shit .. what the hell..slept off.. I did not even realize it was time I  said ..I was going on when vathika said chill !!!  its ok ..we ve not  missed the flight!! We are on time.. 

at the grand palace, bangkok

Regaining senses, we  crossed over  from the arrivals to the departure lounge. Kahaan ghumne jaa rahe ho saab??? asked the security  official at the gate. Aise hi ghumne  I said not willing to give any details of my plan. He wished us all the best… The check –in gates of  TG 425  Thai Airways flight from Bangalore to Bangkok had just opened and we  made our way to the big winding queue and waited for our chance all excited..Alongwith us on board were also a group of  school kids from Ooty. The students were Chinese, Thai, Indian but all of Thai origin from a residential international school in Ooty.. We got our  tickets processed, checked in  baggage, collected our boarding passes  and proceeded towards immigration.. The  scene at the airport was a familiar one with lots of people and the excitement of their first trip abroad was evident on a lot of faces and then there were people on job who had loads of pressure and were so  expressionless that you would feel like cancelling trip and going back  home.

@ grand palace, bangkok

 We found a currency exchange counter of Thomas cook and got some Thai Bahts. Immigration forms were filled and at the immigration counter it took hardly a minute to finish formalities and soon we were in the departure lounge waiting for our flight scheduled at 0145 hrs. sitting in front of the kids, we felt so technologically backward seeing everyone playing on their I-Pads having I-phones with earphones plugged. What a childhood we had and what are these having!!! I ve never felt so jealous in life (trust me) of a kid/kids. 
Row 41-60 boarding please… announced the official in a completely thai accent . we got up and walked like peole on a mission . We were greeted by the flight attendants in a thai manner. The host said sawadee.. and welcomed us with an orchid which Thailand is so famous for. We made ourselves comfortable in our seats. It was 3-4-3 style seating boeing 747 .  Flight took off  soon and we were served dinner . Thai chicken curry  and jasmine rice with bread and salad . Dessert was apple pie . Bar counter was flowing and people had their hearts full.. A flight to Bangkok shows a pattern .. Lots of boys unmarried travelling with one intention … intention is evident if u read the name of the city slowly ;)  Flight landed at the Swarnabhumi International Airport at Bangkok  at 0615  thai time . We did not have to collect our baggage as we had done a through check in to our destination . Bangkok was only a transit stopover for us . Our next flight was @ 1940 hrs and we had more than 12 hours with us and we used it to the fullest by getting a visitors visa. Visa on arrival in Bangkok is easy ..just fill a form attach 1000 baht and u get a 15 day visit visa . It is like a maze to exit the humungous airport and having finally made it out we went and struck a deal with a govt authorized taxi counter. The deal was 1500 baht for the whole day taxi. The first stop was the Grand Palace. The driver Anirut(most names there are similar to the ones we have here in India) left us at the palace and gave his contact number.

museum@ grand palace, bangkok

We were hungry and entered a restaurant and on the menu there was meat of all kinds from chicken, mutton, pork, beef  and some weird fishes. There was nothing on the menu which looked edible .Only thing we could settle for was French fries  and we had it  and not surprisingly even it smelled of  different meat due to the oil I guess!! We ate a little left the rest and moved out . a lady was selling Thailand souvenir, the magnet with Thailand  palace imprinted and Thailand written on it she said 100 baht for one. Vathika was bargaining with a lady for a dress..Guys suck at bargaining including me but I thought I could try my hand at it and bargained and bought a magnet for 80 baht and it felt like a wonderful bargain. When I told Vathika about my achievement (I thought), she laughed and I wondered why.. A couple of shops later one man was selling 3 such things for 50 baht only .. Ground slipped beneath my feet.. I had been day robbed and I willingly got robbed.. Moral of the story… Never  buy anything at the first shop.. look around and get an idea of the price first or else u will be cheated..and finally listen to your wife!! We then went into the grand palace, purchased the tickets and entered. The palace was majestic and the walls had whole depiction of Ramayana on it and that too on gold. An amazing experience also to see the beautiful jade Buddha in the palace temple. Museums were big and a nice experience too.

jade buddha, grand palace,bangkok

After that we proceeded to have food at Kurry culture an Indian restaurant opposite the Indra Regent hotel .. chicken biryani , butter chicken and pepsi and lots of hindi songs later we had a walk in the Indra market .. bought some t shirts at throw away prices .. A familiar sight in streets of Bangkok is every third shop being a massage parlour…Some of them look so horrible because you will see lot of ladyboys. For those who don’t know who ladyboys are; they are men who have undergone a sex change operation to become ladies so that they can earn their bread by doing various jobs open only for fairer sex. After some shopping, we thought of pampering ourselves with a Thai massage.. We found a small massage parlour which looked pretty decent and economical and so we entered.. A thai woman welcomed us with a smile.. gave us details of the prices. When we were almost agreeing, she showed us our masseur.. and to our shock.. it was a ladyboy.. I just couldn’t stand the sight of her and jumped out of the massage center and pulled Vathika along.. We decided that henceforth we would see our masseur first and then decide on the massage.. We then found another massage point.. found it good enough..the masseurs were only men and women.. I was relieved. Vathika wanted a foot massage and I wanted a full body massage. Too much I thought at the beginning but the prices were tempting.. A big woman asked me to follow her upstairs.. and I could see Vathika sitting on a couch, worried, wondering why I agreed for a body massage. I was back in an hour and found that she was finishing hers.. Trust me, I just wanted to see her, take her and go away.. Why?? Because the big woman who gave me an excellent body massage told me at the end of it all that she was a man before… nothing could disgust me more than this.. the feeling was if I had been raped literally .. getting a massage from a  man is fine but a man turned into a woman  is not nice with due respect to the transgenders!!   It was around 4 in the evening when we reached the airport. 

samudramanthan monument at swarnabhumi international airport @ bangkok

We found our gate and navigated upto the Thai check in counter and validated our ticket. Flight TG221 Bangkok-Auckland  was scheduled to fly at  1940 hours . We completed our security check and started clicking photos of the famous churning of the seas monument (samudra manthana) at the lounge. Duty free shopping at Bangkok is as big as the city itself.. If one decides to see all products in every shop a year would be less to do so. We were tired after exploring a few and decided to wait at the departure gate for our flight. There were hardly 8 people when we reached there .We stretched our feet and fell on the chairs after a tiring day. By around 1915 hours the same place had atleast 150 of them.. it was a mixture of a variety of people some young and happening, some people dressed in formals as if they had to attend a meeting on board, some middle aged least interested in life and a few people on  honeymoon like us and a lot of oldies going back home or on a relaxing vacation. . In no time rows 20-40 was called on to board the flight and so we did .The flight was  awesome with wonderful facilities on board,. The entertainment on board had a  personalized interactive television which included 50 games, over 100 recent and classical movies in English and 50 odd movies of different international languages, 50 interesting documentaries, various language instructors, books to read . Hot face towels were very refreshing to use and soon the dinner was served .. chicken Thai curry, jasmine rice and caramel custard and bar was open for people wanting spirits.. 2320 hours Vathika fell asleep.. 2335 hours I remember seeing time on my watch ….. 

DAY 1-JOURNEY BEGINS

DEC 14,2011; 0845 hours  A brand new day has come...  the alarm tone on my phone was ringing and for the first time in a long while we got up without cribbing. It happens to everybody i guess that when something really exciting is on the cards for the day you wake up a minute earlier automatically even before the alarm rings!! so much of a testimonial to the entity called the biological clock.  After getting fresh and having a quick shower , a customary visit to the temple and last minute shopping of some essentials. afternoon lunch was a orthodox konkani snacks as it was sankashta chaturthi (a day of fast dedicated to lord ganesha). on this day its a vegetarian affair and that too veg minus onion/garlic. tough day for a thorough non vegetarians  like us but then some sort of spiritual living is required for a balanced life they say . our first leg of the journey was from mangalore to bangalore by the evening jet airways flight at 7 pm. We started to the bajpe airport  at 1730 hrs with all our luggage checked in the most paranoid way possible just to make sure we did not miss out on anything. the feeling on  the way to the airport was like the one which a person would experience when he is going to fight a war. We were accompanied by our parents and the concern and tension on their faces were beyond expressibility. Parents will be parents ; no matter you are 2,5,10,20,30 or 40 they will still be kids for you and will always feel like you cannot do a thing without them. and if you tell them that you are grown up and not to get tense the evergreen dialogue one will get to hear is U WILL KNOW IT ONLY WHEN U HAVE KIDS.. and u really cant say anything then! maybe true that, i really cant comment on it ! so we finally exchanged a milllion waves till last bit of them could be visible and then we were on our own. we completed the check in procedures fast and hunger made us go to the fast food outlet and ordered for french fries ,paneer chilly and fried rice all veg .. garlic and onion were unavoidable though. decent food we had and then flight boarding was in no time and in an hours time we landed at the garden city bangalore..we collected our baggage and made ourselves comfortable in the cafe coffee day lounge ... 2359 hours ...sleep got the better of us and we dozed....