Thailand - Departure

Back in Bangkok we plan to stay our last night in Sucheras flat. We go to the tailor to pick up our new clothes or the last fitting if needed. Sandy is there and evaluate if anything need to be changed. My suit and shirt is perfect so I pay the remaining part. Shehab have something he want changed, it will be ready for tomorrow.

It is getting late, we rush to McD to grab a bite and off to Hard Rock, it is 11PM by now and the café is boiling. we will really miss this place after we return home. We have bought the usual T-Shirts, for a large part of my remaining Baht I buy a denim-jacket with a large Hard Rock logo on the back. We return to the flat and tip-toe in, not to wake up the others. Tomorrow we fly home (or so we thought).

Thursday, June 30'th

We get up rather late, Shehab want to reconfirm our tickets with Egypt Air and dial the Bangkok office on the phone. After 10 seconds he return in a state of panic. He asked the telephone-lady if our plane was going like planned, at 0.50 this night. He got the reply "It have already left" before he hung up. Somehow we have misunderstood the ticket. How hard can it be to read the time-schedule on a ticket you might ask. Well, we looked at it once and in our minds it was ten minutes to one in the night. At a Later time we saw Thursday and somehow we got the idea that it was the night between Thursday and Friday we were to go, Wrong.. Shehab rush out the door to go for the Egypt Air office to get us on an other plane.

I eat some breakfast, there is nothing I can do until Shehab gets back. Somehow we will get home, but our money is running low. Do we need to buy new tickets? Perhaps I should prepare a fax to the folks at home, the wording "Doing fine, will stay a bit longer, send more money" seem to be appropriate.

Shehab return, at first he act to still be in a state of panic, but then he waive our tickets in front of me. A label is attached saying the they are due on the 11.50PM Saturday flight. I better get the fax finished, we wont be back as planned. People need to be informed, my sister that is going to pick us up at the airport, my employer that I will be a day late and so on. We formulate it in a humorous way, like our prolonged stay was planned.

Down at the bank I cash my last traveller's cheques, they will have to last for two more days. Shehabs Visa card is close to the credit-limit. We fax back home from a fax-service in the street, I hope the transmission goes well.

Shehab go and get his clothes from the tailor, and suddenly remember that he has some shirts at a laundry in KHAO SAN road, it has been there for 14 days. We have forgotten totally about it. While Shehab take a cab round the city, I have my films developed at a photo-lab, the quality is good and the price is a fraction of what is charged back home. It also have the advantage to get it done here that we can get copies from each other, that way I have twice as many pictures, and I am on some of them.

This unforseen prolonged stay mean that we have to book us into a guesthouse. Sucheras father is coming today and will stay for the weekend and there isn't room enough for all six of us in the flat. We inspect the guesthouses in the neighbourhood. At first we inspect DELHI DARBAR (Restaurent amd Guesthouse). It is expensive and not that desirable, but we check in anyway. The other guesthouses were even more expensive, and it is only for two nights, we can live with it (or so we thought).

At first we get the "Silver room", or so we label it. The wallpaper is like tinfoil, what are they thinking. I wonder what the real purpose of this guesthouse might be, I have misgivings about this place. We try the shower - no water, not even cold, just a strange

There is even a refrigerator, we open to inspect. And guess what is crawling in there, a cockroach - ydrk. We decide to stay as little in our room as possible. We go across the square to say hello to Sucheras father. Suchera have plans for us, now that we have some extra time here. She has cashed in on her goodwill from a colleague at the Tourist Agency. Tomorrow we have a minivan, all day and a lot of places to go. The night is here and we go to the Hard Rock Café, no desire to get home to our cockroach-room, but money is running low.

Friday, July 1'st

At 7AM we meet the van outside the Indra Hotel, the five of us. Today we go and see the sites around Bangkok. At first we go to a sugar mill, the raw material is coconut. An orchid-farms is here as well and a shop where they sell copy-products of well known trade mark products; clothes, watches etc. Shehab is interested in a Rolex,

We drive on to the longtail-boat-harbour, we are going on a sail into the renowned floating market. The boat is long and narrow and supplied with a lorry-engine. The shaft is extended and a propel is attached. The speed of of the boat is tremendious, you really get wind-swept and wet from the wake.

It is still late morning when we arrive at the market, the trading is still going at full speed. The big invasion of tourists is expected at noon, and then most of the traders have left. The market will be mostly deserted at that time. But we get the full experience of it, we buy some snacks, deepfried banana, you eat them whole, no pealing and they are tasty. You can hardly see the water in the canal, the waterways are packed with canoe-like boats. And the noise from the traders, it made my head swim.

After lunch we see a giant temple with a large gold-covered dome. People buy gold leaf which they attach to the statues at the temple as a Buddhist sacrifice. The god figures are completely unrecognisable because of all the gold attached. Nearby is the Rose Garden, a real tourist-trap in my

Back at the hotel we have dinner at a local restaurant. Afterwards the four of us take the turbo-lift to the top of the highest building in Bangkok, at that time ('94), It is located 500 yards from Sucheras flat. From the top there you can hardly see the house where she live, you almost have to look vertically downward to spot it. It is an expensive place, all we could afford was a beer each, it had to last for hours. It is a crisp black night and we are all lost in our own thoughts, almost like in trance. We glance at the flickering lights of the city, the flicker caused by the thermal disturbance from the daytime heat. The best way to end our Thailand trip.

We go home, Sune say the we ought to go and make a call home from the General Post Office, he volunteer to take us there (but he have other plans as well). Suchera go to bed. We get a cab and when the driver hear of our destination he turn on a small discodome on the dashboard, it is partytime! First we go to PATPONG, the Red Light district in Bangkok. There are two streets I and II. The district formed itself during the Vietnamese-war, it was the place for American soldiers to go on R&R, and the place has expanded ever since. It is explicit, nothing is left to the imagination.

But first we have to find a fake Rolex for Shehab. No problem, there are several stalls and we 'shop' around, checking prices. At one place we can

On the way to the taxi-stand we notice that the McD is open, probably the only spot in the world where you can get a Big Mac at 3AM, we are hungry and grab a bite, before we all go to the General Post Office and make a call to Shehabs parents. We will be in Cairo on Sunday morning, his sister need to know when to expect us. Then it is back to PHETCHBURI and our awful guesthouse.

Saturday, July 2'nd

Time for last minute shopping. Shehab spend the day looking for a HiFi exhibition. When he finally get to the place it turn out that it happened 14 days ago. I spend the day walking round the business district, looking at shops and photograph the city. I get some interesting traffic-shots and a tie to my shirt and suit. Shehab and I will look like a million bucks when we arive back at Copenhagen in our new tailormade clothes.

We have our last dinner in Bangkok, we have brought our luggage along and sit and talk untill it is time for us to drive to the airport. Sune and Suchera go with us and say good-bye, we are at the airport at 9PM, we will not risc missing our plane again. Before check-in, your luggage is sealed, this happens feet from the taxi-stand and is done to avoid strangers putting stuff (drugs) in your bags. Then check-in time and we sit and talk some more in the airport bar. Finally, off to the plane. At midnight we are flying to Egypt again and a hectic day at Cairo.