Yesterday was a rough day.  After getting home at 3:30 in the morning, and staying up to wash laundry until 4:30 am, I was especially cranky when I had to get up a few hours later to get the apartment cleaned, packed and ready to go. 

Despite nursing hangovers the size of Texas, John and I got our butts in gear and we managed to pack, unpack, re-pack again, and deposit our luggage in the wardrobe room, whence we commenced to scour our apartment clean for Jo and Ranjit, who are moving in next week.  Whew!  We managed to get a lot packed for our move in July as well, so we won’t have to stress too much when we return.

Queenie and Jerry picked us up at 4:40 and we drove to the airport, where we discovered our bags were 12 kilos overweight.  Eh.  That’s a heck of a lot, but what else can you expect when you’re on the road for three months and packing for two trips?  My suitcase was full of gifts and clothes for Canada, including the gorgeous tea set that my students gave me to give to my mother.  John’s suitcase was full of all the DVD’s we bought while in China.  KLM is practically committing highway robbery by charging 15 Euros per kilo.  John wasn’t having any of it, so he tried to upgrade us to business with our airmiles.  Alas, they wouldn’t allow it. 

John’s a pro at manipulating the systems in airports.  Bless him.  He anticipated problems and left his 60L backpack with Queenie.  Then we pulled everything out and rearranged it all at the check-in.  My friend, Jerry, got a good look at my dainty unmentionables, along with everyone else in line.  Meanwhile, John transferred everything to a couple of extra bags we carry with us for exactly this purpose and Jerry argued with our check-in girl to at least allow us to check the tea set, as it is a gift for the family.  She relented, we checked everything in, and went to find Queenie.  John had a roll of scotch tape with him and he ripped the tag of my small backpack and attached it to his giant one.  Voila.  Success!  We had no problems thereafter.  We paid no extra surcharges and I’m sure Jerry and Queenie were absolutely floored that we were able to get on in the first place.  Told ‘ya we were pros.  Well, John is.  I wouldn’t have the balls.  

Anyho…the flight was quick and painless.  We arrived in Bangkok shortly after 11pm, mentally prepared ourselves to deal with the taxi mafia (as Range would put it) and jumped in the first one we found.  As luck would have it, our driver was the sweetest guy in the world.  He drove us directly to our hotel, no questions asked, no bargaining or haggling.   We paid 330Baht for our ride when we had been quoted 500B!   This is practically unheard of in Bangkok!

Our hotel is great.  We have David to thank for it.  He recommended we stay at the New Siam II 

50 Trok Rong Mhai, Phra A-Thit Road,
Chanasongkram, Phanakorn, Bangkok 10200
Thailand. 

We’re paying 820Baht a night.  The rooms are clean, the staff are great and the pool is lovely.  We’re a few minutes away from Khao San Road and spent a lovely afternoon wandering around the area and sitting in the shade of a banyan tree.