There is an old Chinese proverb that says “He who walks through airport doors sideways goes to Bangkok”. Whilst that proverb is very insightful, it has nothing to do with what I am about to say…

We arrived at the Bangkok international airport early morning on Friday 13 July 2007. It was only an overnight stopover in Bangers on our way to Europe, but we had a jam packed day ahead of us.

Wat Arun Bangkok

After pushing our way through the congregation of hawkers at the airport exit gate we made our way to the taxi rank and negotiated a couple of taxis to take us to the Rembrandt Hotel on Soi 18 just off Sukhumvit Road. There was a bit of traffic on the roads, so door-to-door from airport to hotel was about 45 mins.

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Left Sydney on late Monday night after discovering that the plane was delayed for about 3 hours. Arrived in Bangkok airport around 6:30 am. Nut’s brother was supposed to pick us up, she was hopeful but I knew better. We called him as soon as we arrived to find that he was in bed and was surprised by our expectations.

Nut's brother on a rare occasion when he is not eating or sleeping

‘Sawat dee khrap’ – it means hello, goodbye, good morning, good night, welcome or any other greeting you can imagine…..(Greetings) from Bangkok, the City Of Angels as it’s known locally (Grung Tep). You thought that title deservedly belong to Los Angeles? Well, LA is for Hispanic angels and BKK is for the Oriental angels. Remember that there are good and bad angels though.

Bangkok is also known as The Big Mango (vs The Big Apple). I think an expat named it that and it stuck. Bangkok is the biggest city in Thailand, LOS, the Land Of Smiles (it’s also read Land Of Scams or the land of traffic, temples, sex drugs and rock’n roll), with an official population of 6 million but it is estimated at any given time there are twice as many people in the city and during peak hour (read between 5 am in the morning until 3 am in the night) it seems that there are 4 times as many people in the city, especially if it’s raining.

No reserve seating on this bus

Bangkok taxis are plentiful, on Silom or Sukumwit Road they line up like a train carriage one after another, however if it’s raining (like it does everyday in September and October) then don’t bother looking for a taxi as you wont find any. My theory is that when it rains the taxi drivers like to find a cozy place with their mates to indulge in one of their favorite activity, drinking and playing cards, no other explanation for it.

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