.....and spent the first day trying to stay active and not nap so as to fight the effects of jet lag. It was a long, hard trip but once I left the airport in a taxi, I remembered what it is that I like so much about Thailand--this is truly an exotic part of the world.
I got about four hours sleep, got up and decided to spend the day staying active no matter how tired I was so I could get a good night's sleep Sunday night before working. After breakfast, I took their elevated monorail across town to the Chao Pryia River which is their large commercial waterway that runs through the city. Their monorail was built by Germany and is super-efficient. I went clear across Bangkok in about twenty minutes with two connections that cost less than $2.00. I just don't understand why Houston can't do the same thing.
This is my fifth job in Thailand and I'm getting pretty comfortable with the public transport here. I knew where to get off the elevated and walked down to the public pier for the water taxi. That ticket cost me less than 50 cents and I rode up the Chao Pryia River for several stops to the ancient Imperial Palace. I've been there a couple of times before, so I skipped the palace this time and walked five or six miles to an old fortress in the ancient part of the city. After looking around there, I headed back and managed to get lost in the maze of streets. Not to worry, I simply flagged down a tuk-tuk--one of those motorcycles that has been converted to take three passengers--and he took me back to the water taxi pier. That cost me about $3.00. By then, I was getting really tired, so I reversed the journey and headed back to the hotel.
I'm staying at the Imperial Queen's Park Hotel which is a really nice four-star located in a really good central location. There's a high-end shopping mall next door which doesn't appeal to me but they do have a really good food court with various Thai restaurants so I'll probably eat supper there most of this trip. I spent three weeks here on a previous trip so I know the area pretty well.
Overall, a good start to a long job, which starts tomorrow morning.
I'm having problems downloading photos to the blog. Devin suspects it may be my connection here at the hotel and, if so, it may be Hong Kong before I can download them. I'll keep trying in the meantime.
I got about four hours sleep, got up and decided to spend the day staying active no matter how tired I was so I could get a good night's sleep Sunday night before working. After breakfast, I took their elevated monorail across town to the Chao Pryia River which is their large commercial waterway that runs through the city. Their monorail was built by Germany and is super-efficient. I went clear across Bangkok in about twenty minutes with two connections that cost less than $2.00. I just don't understand why Houston can't do the same thing.
This is my fifth job in Thailand and I'm getting pretty comfortable with the public transport here. I knew where to get off the elevated and walked down to the public pier for the water taxi. That ticket cost me less than 50 cents and I rode up the Chao Pryia River for several stops to the ancient Imperial Palace. I've been there a couple of times before, so I skipped the palace this time and walked five or six miles to an old fortress in the ancient part of the city. After looking around there, I headed back and managed to get lost in the maze of streets. Not to worry, I simply flagged down a tuk-tuk--one of those motorcycles that has been converted to take three passengers--and he took me back to the water taxi pier. That cost me about $3.00. By then, I was getting really tired, so I reversed the journey and headed back to the hotel.
I'm staying at the Imperial Queen's Park Hotel which is a really nice four-star located in a really good central location. There's a high-end shopping mall next door which doesn't appeal to me but they do have a really good food court with various Thai restaurants so I'll probably eat supper there most of this trip. I spent three weeks here on a previous trip so I know the area pretty well.
Overall, a good start to a long job, which starts tomorrow morning.
I'm having problems downloading photos to the blog. Devin suspects it may be my connection here at the hotel and, if so, it may be Hong Kong before I can download them. I'll keep trying in the meantime.
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