Day 203 - Bangkok to New Dehli - 25th February, 2005

(continued; if you have not already read the start of this day, go to the the blog below)

Julian, Sammy and I are on the long boat going down the Chao Phraya River (translated as the "River of Kings") and Julie is back at the Baiyoke Sky Hotel furiously packing up all our stuff. We have just organised to leave Bangkok today as our hotel are throwing us out (they have no availability for tonight - we did not book it) and we don't want the hassle of finding another hotel. We have to be at the airport in 3 hours. Meanwhile .....

I am conscious that we don't have to much time to play with. We get in the boat at around midday and we tell the driver (or at least my taxi driver did) that we only have an hour to do this trip. We need to get back to the hotel (at least 30 minutes in the traffic) and load all our gear into the taxi driver's mates van and get to the aiport for a latest check in of around 2:30 pm.

The boat trip is lots of fun and the driver has been instructed to take us to the Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn - a goddess). It seems like we have been going for about 30 minutes up river and there is no sign of a temple on the horizon. Finally we see the pinnacle on the large hand bell shaped temple. As we approach, the boat driver sums up the situation. He sees 2 young boys and a Dad. "Would sir and boys like to go to snake farm?" It's down a canal at the side of the temple about 10 minutes away. We take one look at the temple (all we have been doing for the last 10 days in look at temples/shines) and altogether shout "Snake farm please!". I did manage to get one photo of the temple just as we went around the corner, just to say we had "been there".

So we head into the "back streets" of the river, a series of canals and inlets off the main river. This is more like I was expecting to see. Many of the buildings (more like shacks) are built on wooden posts actually on the canal or river. Some of these posts are rotted to the point of not actually being there and I am driven crazy by the idea of how such "structurally challenged" buildings remain aloft. Somehow they do and with people living in them.

The snake farm was pretty interesting. You will see from the pictures that we were able to handle the large python. They also had a couple of tigers, some animals we had never seen or heard of before and loads of snakes. The trouble was I was starting to get very anxious about the time. I suppose we spent no more than 15 minutes in the farm which really didn't do it justice. An hour would have done the trick.

We raced back to the boat. Even the lady who was selling the ceramic plates with your photo on, didn't have enough time to complete her job. She came running after us trying to get us to slow down. There was no time. If we had purchased a souvenir photo from everyone who had taken one since our trip started, we would have a whole suitcase of the things. Every boat ride, roller coaster, famous building, landmark. The instant photographers are there. "No obligation sir". We now have a policy of putting our hands in front of our faces and mumbling something about our religion and "No photos!"

We recognised our boat from the many others parked at the farm by the fact that my half drunk can of Heineken was still on the floor. But where was the driver? He too had assumed that a visit to the snake farm with 2 young boys would take at least an hour. However, after it became clear to other boat drivers who had not left their boats that I was anxious to find my driver quickly, several went off and found our man in the tea shop. When he was back in the driving seat I re-iterated the point that we needed to be back at the Shangri-La dock as soon as possible.

He got the message and we took off at high speed. There appears to be no speed limits down any of these canals or rivers and I dread to think how many precariously perched shacks were flooded, or even worse, washed away completely, by our desire to get to the airport on time. During this part of the trip we saw a large python swimming in the river perhaps only a 100 yards from where a group of 4 boys were swimming. Even if they felt invincible, I felt sure that we would all die from the pollution we were absorbing as the water splashed up and into the boat on the homeward (and into the wind) bound journey.

We got back to the dock in record time. The driver was still smiling but we were pretty damp with brown Bangkok river juice. Our taxi driver was right there with the taxi turned and primed to take us back to the Baiyoke Sky. He got us back there about 2:00 pm having confirmed on the way that his mate would be there with the van to take us and the luggage to the airport.

Julie was waiting for us in the 18th floor lobby of the hotel with all the cases in a pile around her. She had managed to get them all downstairs on her own (she would never have dared ask for help) after several trips. I paid the final hotel bill and made a quick calculation of the remaining time available. We could manage a 5 minute swim (really an excuse to wash off the river water) to freshen up before our 2 flights to New Dehli. I really didn't want to sit on planes with the thought of river water still on my body.

The boys and I rushed up to the 20th floor pool and after a quick shower, dived in. It was the most refreshing swim ever. We didn't want to get out but we did and we made it back downstairs to Julie in less than 15 minutes. We got all the baggage together and found a bellhop to take it downstairs where we found our taxi driver still waiting. Although he was no longer "employed" by me as a driver, he had taken it upon himself to be our, as he called it, "body guard". He wanted to make sure his mate had turned up and that we were safely on our way to the airport. I had after all paid him a days taxi drivers earnings (2,000 bhat) for what had amounted to 4 hours work so far (and of that only 45 minutes driving). So I think he felt obliged (or perhaps he wanted something more - which he didn't get) to ensure his cargo was safely delivered. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this occassion. Either way we were glad for his presence in case his mate didn't turn up or anything else had gone wrong.

We loaded up and took off for the airport, arriving there at about 2:45 pm. The line ups at security were already several 100 people long and we wished we had arrived earlier. There is nothing quite as tedious as shuffling 10 items on luggage, 2 boys and a wife along roped off sections of walkway at 10 cms a time. Several of the airports we have been to now have a different way dealing with checking in. The first line up is to check your big bags through a security scanner, a process you always used to do when you checked in. Then you line up to check yourself onto the plane. Then you line up (in the case of Bangkok) to buy your airport tax coupon. Then you line up to go through passport control and finally you join the never ending line up to go though personal security and into the departure lounges. What a palava. At this airport we had the added delay of one of our main bags being x-rayed and then they wanted to see inside it.

We have got the personal security checkpoint routine down to quite a fine art. I now know that my belt won't make it so I walk through with my trousers hanging down. We get all our coats off and into trays. The computer and guitar (which always travels in the cabin with us) go through the scanner and then the boys roll on bags. I foolishly put Julians handiwork bag into his roll on bag on the Japan flight and they immediately confiscated his little 4 inch scissors. All our loose change goes into another little tray. We all know what to do.

I left the family in the line and went up to the front of the queue to see what seemed to be holding up the proceedings. Nothing was moving and my calculation was that it would take 3 hours to get to us in the line which would be an hour and half after the plane left. I caught the attention of official looking person and called out "Honk Kong". Miraculously this seemed to elicit the response "Now, come now".

I went back to the family in the line and Julie too had found someone who was calling the Hong Kong flight and urging us to follow them to the front of the line. So we did one of those "we feel much more important than you lot" maneuvers and went straight to the front. There is some consolation to arriving late at the airport!

After all the processes described above and having changed into some long sleeved shirts and long trousers, which Julie amazingly had had the sense to pack a set for each of us at the top of our cases, we climbed aboard our 11th flight of the trip to Hong Kong and onwards to New Delhi our 12th flight. Bangkok was done.