INDIA	THAILAND	MALAYSIA	SINGAPORE	VIETNAM	CAMBODIA

 

KRUNG THEP (Bangkok)

WE HAVE ARRIVED

 

Well, we made it to Krung Thep (formally known as Bangkok). The Land Based Portion in India, the Cruise itself, and the Overland trip to Siem Reap have been survived and are all behind us now. The effects of the Cruise are more "behind" us than I would like to admit, but I just can't refuse food when it is pushed at you!!! But, when I get home ... it is diet time????

Anyway, to fill you in on what happened, we caught up with the Ship in Sihanoukville Cambodia. This is a new port being constructed on the Gulf of Thailand to give Cambodia a really modern Sea Port to the world. Cambodia sure seems to be on the move!!! This whole area gives the traveler a positive feeling for the economic future for Asia. I wish we had the momentum they have developed!!!

We boarded The Pacific Princess at 5:00 pm on the 15th of October. We had one more day at sea, before we arrive in Bangkok This was fortunate as we did need some recovery time after Angkor Wat "dash and view". Besides, Elsie had to try to fit everything into the suitcases so we can get them onto the homeward bound flight. That was no easy task, and it took almost all afternoon to complete what at first blush seemed to be impossible. I thought that Elsie would never get out of the stateroom, but finally, with a last push, a deep groan, the last suitcase submitted ... me sitting on it was probably the deciding factor.

It was a good thing that we had the sailing day before we arrived at Bangkok. Every piece of clothing we took with us was damp and mildew covered. There was a special laundry "deal" offered by the ship for the last day ... all the clothes you could fit into a pretty substantial paper bag would cost $10.00 and be back to us in time for final packing. I sure pity the poor guy in the laundry who got to open our little offering!!! For us it was a good deal as we landed in Bangkok with most of our clothes clean.

Another good thing happened the evening we returned. We had missed three evening meals on board and one of them was the lobster dinner. Quelle disaster!!! But, never fear, I had a solution. I asked the Maitre De before we left if anything could be done about this tragic loss and he winked and said, "leave it to me." The upshot was that on our return, dinner that night was a complete crab feast and on the second plate ... a complete lobster dinner .... burp!!!! All you can eat with two dinners!!!! sigh !!!!

On a questioning note, I have often thought that these Cruise Lines advertise cheap fares only to nail the unsuspecting when they get on board. I don't know what their profit picture looks like but with the costs of alcohol on board pegged at about the cost you would find in a nice hotel in most big cities of the world, you start to question them that seeing they buy the bottles at duty free costs. Just an example of the high unexpected costs, you can purchase a soft drink card that would allow you to drink as many Cokes etc. as you can stand for over $65.00 US. for the cruise. How much can Coke cost as you get the glass and they refill it? Add to that the ubiquitous art auctions from which they also get a percentage of the profits. Also, the tour prices bought on board seem a little high. An example of this is the transfer costs from the harbour for Bangkok to the city was $125.00 per person. Granted the harbour is quite far out of town, but that is a lot of money. We had not purchased a transfer, and we received several notes at our stateroom warning us that without transfers, we could be in difficulty. Their comment was that the cabs in Bangkok were very small and very expensive with few of the drivers speaking much English. The hotel costs were in the high $100.00 US per night and we were told that this is what you can expect. Fortunately, we had been there before and we just ignored all this "sage" advice.

We left the Ship at 10:30 with our luggage in hand and staggered away from the ship towards the dock gates. We had not gone 50 feet when we were stopped by a nice young lady who offered us a Cab to Bangkok for $50.00 US. for the two of us. Rather than turn out to be very small, the cab was a mini van and we were the only ones in it. We were dropped at our favourite hotel, Hotel Federal, and registered for $37.00 Cdn a night. Granted this was not 5 star accomodation, and it had no elevator, but our room was on the second floor and easy to get to. The swimming pool was as lovely as before and the same owners were still there. It is very much a family run business and the little restaurant attached puts out very good food. What more does a person want? Well, the cliental was mostly single, middle aged men all of whom seemed to have met a new Thai lady friend on their visit, but what the heck eh? Live and let live!!!!

We planned to have three days here before facing the return flight. We relaxed, wandered around and had a great time. One of the things about this hotel, is that they have several private cabs assigned just this place. Las time we were here, Jimmy one of the cabbies, took us under his wing and acted as a combination driver and tourist guide.

The first thing we did at the desk was ask if Jimmy was still around. Suddenly, everyone's faces dropped .... Jimmy had passed on three years ago. It is so much like a large family in this hotel that his passing was still being mourned. But, one of Jimmy's co driver's son, Mr. Sitta, was now working and he would take care of us as well as Jimmy did. Boy were they right!!! A neat personal touch!

One of the things we wanted to do is a river cruise on the Chao Phraya River that flows through Bangkok. We had done this in 1988 and were curious to see what changes had been made to this very different life style. The monsoon weather was being very consistent at this point... nice in the morning, clouding over by 3:00 and pouring rain by 5:00 and most of the night. The temperatures were still very hot but believe it or not, we were sort of getting used to this by now! The room's A/C worked very well so we could survive!!! But, our flight to Seattle was not far off ...

We did the tour on Sunday morning so there were not many people out and about, but it was clear that the river itself has been cleaned up greatly. Many people still used it as a road with the local merchants in small dugouts coming along side to sell you anything from cooked fast food to souvenirs so that part had not much changed. After seeing the Singapore river frontage and now Bangkok, it is easy to see what we could do here in Vancouver with our water front ... if we had the vision and the guts!!! Have a look at the pictures at the link below.

Because we used Princess Cruise air reservations, (see first page in this trip) our flight was leaving Bangkok at 6:00 AM which meant that we would have to be there around 3:30 AM. No use staying in town and having to leave at 12:00 to get to the airport so we booked a cheap hotel near the airport. Mr, Sitta drove us out to the hotel in the late afternoon and made sure that we would return to the Federal Hotel and his care as soon as possible. As it turned out, it was a good thing we did this as that night, a coup took place and the elected government was overthrown by the army. Paradoxically, the first we had heard of it was when we turned on the news the next day after we had crossed the Canadian Border. It was a complete surprise to us!!!

MY HATE RANT!!!

On the way east, we flew Alaska Air and American Air, both of which were OK for room --even lf the AA flight to New Delhi was absolutely full of babies. But NORTHWEST air is in a class of its own!!! Their philosophy is to get as many people into the steerage section of the plane as possible. We were to fly to Marital Japan, change planes and then to SeaTac. Both planes were identical in every way. The flight to Narita took 6 1/2 ours and the flight to SeaTac was 9 hours. All 14 or so hours in EXTREME PAIN. Without a word of a lie, I could place my thumb on my chest, extend my fingers parallel to the floor and touch the back of the seat in front of me. There was absolutely no place to put my legs, and I even had an aisle seat. My back was destroyed completely by the time we touched down in SeaTac. Put this with whatever they tried to feed us was at best disgusting, you have to reach the same conclusion we have...

*** NEVER FLY NORTHWEST AIR!!!! ***

 

But, we did make it home. We had booked a room on our return in the motel in SeaTac where we had left our car on the way out. It was there and safe when we arrived at about 9:00 AM. It was a very long day with us both being up for over 30 hours again. This traveling is hard work.

 

Distance Synopsis of the trip

LOCATIONS	MILES	KILOMETERS
SeaTac to Chicago to New Dehli	9180	14774
Cruise Portion on Pacific Princes (3829 Nautical Miles)	4404	7089
Bangkok to Marital to SeaTac	7630	12280
SUMMARY	21,214	34,143

 

Would we do it again??? ... in a heart beat ...

As long as

 

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