Be careful what you wish for

Did we say we hoped to warm up a little in Bangkok? Oh, how we already miss wearing our gloves and pyjamas...

We have been really curious about flying with Singapore Airlines as they are supposed to be one of the world's best airlines. And we were not disappointed! Hopefully on some of our next flights with them we'll manage to take a snapshot of their (female) attendants' uniforms as they are so beautiful! Ryanair employees would probably die of shame if they ever had to stand face to face to SA hostesses. And the food, the food is just unbelievable. One never expects too much from the inflight meals, but oh my god this was great! 

We had a short stopover in Singapore and spent it just hanging around the free internet booths and recharging our tablets and phones. And thank god we did not buy lunch while waiting. We only had a two-hour flight ahead, again with Singapore Airlines, and didn't think they would give us anything more than perhaps a little snack which would be normal in Europe with the bigger carriers. But we were served a complete late lunch, and again super delicious. Can't wait to fly with them again!

Killing time at Singapore Airlines

And so we arrived to Bangkok! What a shock it was... We were almost freezing on Tuesday in Mount Koya and here there are 33 degrees and humidity of over 70 %. And going from the clean and orderly Japan to the mess of Thailand, we can just say wow! It is our first time to Southeast Asia so we are really curious how we are going to cope with it. We had to repeat to ourselves to turn our cautiousness on since in Japan we would never hesitate to walk with our tablets out in the open or letting strangers show us the way and we would never think they might want to scam us. Well, even if we would have forgotten about being much more careful here, we were reminded of it very very soon. We decided to take the taxi from the airport to our hostel, well aware of that the taxis, as anywhere on the planet, will try to cheat you and that you should always take the official taxis standing outside the arrivals terminal. We got one but when we started moving the driver did not put the meter on and tried to convinced us to pay him a flat fare of 500 baht. Even D's menacing that we would leave the taxi did not work (well, the taxi was already driving out of the airport so we would probably have to jump out stuntman style), only after more and more insisting and me saying that we would simply not pay him anything at all, he put the meter on and the rest of the ride was more or less normal. In the end we paid around 350 baht though the driver made one last attempt to get his 500 but we just ignored him by then. 1 euro is about 40 baht so the difference we were arguing about is less than 4 euros but we didn't want to get ripped off on our first night in here! 

Arriving to the hostel we understood immediately the difference between the rooms with AC and those with just a fan, so we made a mental note for next time - book the AC! At least in Bangkok, where the heat and humidity is just deadly. And we are not even in hot season! So anyway, time to start getting used to sweating all the time.

After we checked in, we did what all the other tourists around here do - eat a pad thai on Khao San Road. Khao San Rd is the Rambla of Bangkok, with countless food stalls, shops selling clothes for 3 or 4 euros a piece, and above all hundreds of tourists wandering around, sweating, drinking, eating and trying not to get killed by the passing motorcycles or tuk tuks.

50 baht for a serving?

Why not

After the sleepless night at the airport we were so tired that we managed to doze off early despite all the noise coming from outside. We woke up to noise again... Another thing to get used to here. 

We don't have many plans for Bangkok since we might visit it properly in February with Ari, D's sister. So far we only want to find a way to get to Chiang Mai and hang around without melting.