Back to Bangkok

A couple of weeks ago, I made the decision to walk away from Canada and my ever-increasing debts, and return to Bangkok, where I can live on my small Canadian pension. I have enough frequent flyer miles with Air Canada's Aeroplan FF program that I could get to Bangkok for free. But then the People's Alliance for Democracy (P.A.D.), which as far as I can see, wants to destroy democracy and impose military rule along with a few elected people, closed the airports.

I spent the first night in Montreal, and that was a hassle… it took 90 minutes to check into the airport Holiday Inn because there was a huge crowd of people, mostly Muslims, ahead of me. Apparently a parking garage had collapsed in the city, and a man was killed. The Red Cross evacuated everyone to two hotels after they had stood around for 8 or 10 hours. They did not notify the hotels, just packed people into buses, drove them to the hotels and unloaded all these people with a certificate saying the Red Cross would pay. The Holiday Inn could not cope… they only had 3 people at the reception desk, but could have used 5 more. Eventually they found 2 more, and after 90 minutes, I got to register.

The plane left at 8 AM next morning, (I had to get up at 5, of course), made it to Vancouver OK. Watched 2 movies during the flight. Air Canada charged me $2 for using their earphones; cheap bastards. Sandwiches also cost money, but the soft drinks were free. Air Canada is definitely the worst airline for service and most expensive I have ever used, bar none, and I have flown all over the world for more than 40 years.

Walked a couple of miles inside the Vancouver airport terminal to change planes, then flew to Tokyo, which I think was an 11 hour flight, I forget. Watched 3 movies. Food and drinks free, earphones free. Flight was ANA, a Japanese airline.

When I arrived at Tokyo Narita airport, a smiling hostess handed out flyers to the 5 or 6 of us going to Bangkok saying the Bangkok airport was closed, and ANA recommended returning to my home country. I didn’t think much of that idea.

Checked into the Holiday Inn with no problems. There was free Internet access, so I used my computer and Skype to make phone calls and try and re-route my Tokyo to Bangkok flight. Could not get through to ANA’s call centre, so the next morning I took Holiday Inn’s free shuttle back to the airport and went to the ANA counter and basically got nowhere. Flight was cancelled and they would not pay compensation for the night at the Holiday Inn. Went up 3 levels of management, smiles all the way, but no satisfaction.

Back to the hotel, and using Skype, called Aeroplan because these flights were free, using my frequent flyer points. Spent half an hour waiting on hold, but eventually got through to the Aeroplan call centre. Friendly lady was able to change my flight from Tokyo to Bangkok to Tokyo to Singapore at no charge (money or points). Spent half an hour researching hotels in Singapore using the web, then booked into a cheap 2 star hotel in the historic Geylang area of Singapore, which I had never visited in my 8 or 10 visits to Singapore.

Next day flew to Singapore, watching another 3 movies, and arrived at the hotel around 9 PM or so. Was surprised to see at least 50 or 60 beautiful young women lined up along the sidewalks around the hotel. Checked in, and discovered the first 5 floors were short-time rentals, and top 3 floors were regular hotel. Being a 2 star hotel, the room was basic but adequate. Wandered out onto the street, got propositioned at least 20 times, and found my way to a Thai restaurant where I had Thai food and a Pepsi for less than $5.

Singapore is very near the equator, so it’s hot and humid, 24 hours a day. The incessant cough that had plagued me for 18 months in Canada vanished. Sinuses working fine. Seems I am now allergic to cold climates.

Next day I bought an Internet access card for $5 and spent a long time figuring out how to get from Singapore to Bangkok, the main airport in BKK still being closed. Best I could do was book a flight to Phuket, which is 800 km from Bangkok. There is boat and bus service from Phuket, but no train; nearest train station is a 4 or 5 hour bus ride away. Bus takes 14 hours, which I did not really want to do.

Next day, I got to the airport with several hours to kill, so I went to Singapore Airlines and asked if I could fly into U-Tapao military airport as I had read that Thailand had opened that airport, and it turns out they had just scheduled some flights. So I booked a flight from Singapore to U-Tapao; they said there was a free bus service from U-Tapao to Bangkok. Then I tried cancelling my Singapore to Phuket flight, which was with Silk Air, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. They don’t have a counter at the airport. I could not get through to their call centre and there was no hold queue. However, Singapore Airport provides free wireless Internet access throughout the terminal, so I checked in for my flight, had lunch and set up my laptop with Skype and kept re-dialing until finally I got through. Yes, they could cancel the flight but it would take 6 weeks to get the refund. Funny how these airlines are always quick to take your money but have a great big problem with refunds.

The flight to U-Tapao was mostly empty, maybe 50 people in a plane that could hold 400. Short flight, too, less than an hour. No facilities at U-Tapao, which looks like something from the late 50s or early 60s. There were at least 35 or 40 planes parked on the tarmac. Bus ride to Bangkok took 2.5 hours, a lot longer than I expected, and they dropped us at a 5 star hotel, the Sofitel, which is not far from the area I was staying. A 20 minute taxi ride later, and I was checking into my hotel, the Woraburi on Sukhumvit Soi 4.

Next day, Pad (the lady that owns and runs Thai Culture Publishing) and Kik (former assistant) showed up and we looked at several apartments; settled on one a half kilometre behind the Woraburi for 6000 baht a month, which is Cdn$218, using today’s exchange rate. Wireless Internet is an extra 500 baht ($18) a month. The room comes with a bed and a wardrobe, and a bathroom, which is pretty basic, and a small balcony. There is air conditioning, but no hot water, and no bathtub; as usual with cheap Thai places, the shower head is on the wall and the bathroom itself is the shower stall.

Next day, Kik arranged for a van and 2 guys and they moved some of the office stuff from Pad’s place and the office (which is now closed) to my room, so I now have a desk and chairs, etc. There is no fridge or hot plate.

Yesterday I went with Pad to HomePro, and we picked up a flash water heater and some expanding shower curtain rods and a shower curtain. Installing the heater was not a big deal; I had to use the expanding rods because the apartment management won’t allow holes to be drilled in the tiling. It works fine, but the hoses are too short; today I will go back and get longer hoses.

Living here is great. Food is cheap and there are many restaurants. Everyone is friendly. I can breathe properly with no hacking.

However, it’s obvious that tourism is way down. Sukhumvit Soi 4 is a tourist area, but tourists are few and far between. This is high season now, but there is nobody here; like Bali after the bombings, the place is devoid of people spending money.

My Thai visa is 3 months long. The goal is to switch to marketing mode and promote the 27 web sites I now have, with emphasis on the Thai sites. Hopefully, this will bring in enough income to pay Pad and re-establish the office. I have discussed with Pad what I want her to do, which is basically research each subject and write articles (in Thai) about various aspects of Thai culture; we made a list of 20 broad subject areas. We will post those to her Thai blog; then I will translate them into English and post them to my sites as well as submit them to ezines for wide distribution. In this way, we should get a lot of visitors to our sites and thereby increase the revenue.

I’m starting from scratch (again) but feel excited about it; my depression is completely gone. This is where I belong. Sphere: Related Content