Monday 16 April
We’re at Melbourne Airport waiting for our 11:30 pm flight to Bangkok. We weren’t supposed to be leaving for our European trip until Wednesday but last Thursday afternoon I had a look at the SAS website to see if they had reintroduced a direct flight from Copenhagen to Prague and perhaps we could alter our flight. No such luck but I noticed the departure for our Thai Airlines code share flight on Wednesday had been brought forward.
After some phone calls, in which I expressed my displeasure at Flight Centre not notifying us of the early departure on Wednesday, they sent us new eTickets. That is when the stress levels started to soar, Flight Centre had change our booking on the Melbourne - Bangkok leg of our trip from Business Class to Economy and after several hours and faxing and emailing them many documents, they accepted that they had made a mistake.
Next problem, there weren’t any Business Class seat available but if we agreed to leave on Monday, we could obtain Business Class seats and Flight Centre would pay for three night’s accommodation in Bangkok, until we could leave on our scheduled flight to Copenhagen.
This we agreed to but that meant all the jobs around the house planned for Monday and Tuesday had to be lumped together with the Friday, Saturday and Sunday jobs, plus I had a Sun Youth Travel 60th Anniversary Reunion on Sunday and we had a Tennis Ladies Lunch on Monday. I finished packing about 45 minutes before leaving for the airport.
Sitting in the Business Class lounge waiting to be called on-board I was called to the telephone to be advised that one of our seats had malfunctioned and could we pick up new boarding passes for our re-allocated seats. At least we had seats that reclined and one of us didn’t have to sit up all the way to Bangkok.
We pushed out from the terminal five minutes early and decided we didn’t need to eat, so as soon as we could, we dropped our seats and settled down to sleep and although it wasn’t an uninterrupted sleep we were woken at 4:00 am Bangkok time for light breakfast and landed half an hour before our scheduled arrival time.
Tuesday 17 April
After collecting our luggage we found a limousine waiting to take us to our hotel and after checking in went to the dining room for some juice and cereal and then headed to the swimming pool.
Later in the morning we walked, avoiding the taxi and tuk-tuk touts, to the Baiyoke Sky hotel, the tallest building in Thailand, first calling in to Maccas for an icecream, less than half the price we pay in Melbourne and a bigger serve.Arriving at the building we first went to the 77th floor, the observation floor and later to the 84th floor which has a rotating deck providing 360 degree views of Bangkok.
Returning to the hotel we watched some American Major League Baseball on the TV before returning to the swimming pool, this followed by a light dinner now finds us struggling to stay awake as we are still attuned to Melbourne time, three hours ahead of Bangkok. Just like going to Perth during daylight saving.
Wednesday 18 April
After a good night’s sleep and leisurely breakfast, we walked around the lanes near the hotel past dozens of tiny street side stalls selling all manner of items, including fresh fruit and vegetable and also cooked food from little wheeled stalls, we wondered how so many stalls selling similar items could make a living.After walking past so much apparent poverty we came upon the Phatam Wat and were taken back by the beauty and splendour amongst so many poor and run down properties. Though from previous trips to Thailand it is obvious the Thai people go without so they can support their local temple.
In the afternoon we travelled about an hour out of Bangkok to the Rose Garden and attended the Thai Cultural Display, featuring traditional Thai dancing, demonstrations of martial arts and Thai village life, a highlight of this display was the demonstration of bamboo dancing. Following the cultural display we watched a short show of working elephants.
The drive to and from the Rose Garden passed the Royal Palace and the roads around the palace were decorated with many arches and display featuring the King in many of his official uniforms and recreation pursuits.The phone just rang, it was reception to advise that our driver has arrived to take us to the airport to catch our Copenhagen/Prague flight, he is two hours early, so I suppose I must finish up and think about packing!
When we arrived at the airport the Copenhagen check in counter wasn't open so we had an hour to wait which we spent looking at the various orchid displays in the airport.
Thursday 19 April
SAS has the reputation as being one of the most "On Time" airlines in the world and last night was no exception, leaving the terminal five minutes before the scheduled departure time and arriving in Copenhagen half an hour early. This of course wasn't any benefit to us as it added another thirty minutes to our four and a half hour waiting time before our connecting flight to Gothenburg and then we had another hour and a half wait until our flight to Prague.
Landing at Prague, we were delighted to retrieve our luggage which we checked in at Bangkok and it was still with us after three flights. In the reception lobby the driver of our Mercedes, which we had booked with our accommodation, was waiting to drive us to our apartment in Wenceslas Square, about 200 metres from the statue of King Wenceslas. Our trip time from our Bangkok hotel to the apartment was 26 hours of which nearly 12 hours was spent sitting at airports, what a waste of a day!
When we arrived at the airport the Copenhagen check in counter wasn't open so we had an hour to wait which we spent looking at the various orchid displays in the airport.
Thursday 19 April
SAS has the reputation as being one of the most "On Time" airlines in the world and last night was no exception, leaving the terminal five minutes before the scheduled departure time and arriving in Copenhagen half an hour early. This of course wasn't any benefit to us as it added another thirty minutes to our four and a half hour waiting time before our connecting flight to Gothenburg and then we had another hour and a half wait until our flight to Prague.
Landing at Prague, we were delighted to retrieve our luggage which we checked in at Bangkok and it was still with us after three flights. In the reception lobby the driver of our Mercedes, which we had booked with our accommodation, was waiting to drive us to our apartment in Wenceslas Square, about 200 metres from the statue of King Wenceslas. Our trip time from our Bangkok hotel to the apartment was 26 hours of which nearly 12 hours was spent sitting at airports, what a waste of a day!
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