Welcome to Bangkok

06 March, 2024

After a long journey of 25 hours and 4 transfers, which fortunately all went very smoothly and without delays and during which we were looked after like royalty [pictures 2 and 3 ] , we finally landed in what was probably the most beautiful airport we have ever seen, Survanabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Beautiful murals greeted us on arrival and gave us a little taste of the aesthetics of Thailand. Upon closer inspection, we could see that every line, every stroke was drawn by hand, which really impressed us, as the level of detail in these paintings was truly extraordinary. It's hard to imagine the effort that went into creating these masterpieces. [pictures 1, 4, 5, 6]

As we later found out, this airport seemed to have a lot more to offer, but we were probably on the wrong side. Huge statues of gods decorate the halls and are more than worth a visit. During our stay in Thailand, we decided to go to this airport one more time just for the art.

The airport lay before us, large and somewhat confusing. Its different levels did not make it any easier to find your way around, as there was a level for trains, one for taxis, one for buses and many more.

In many places in Thailand it is common to use alternative means of transport instead of a taxi, called "Grab" or "Bolt" and available as an app. They only cost a fraction of the price (around 190 Thai Baht for a 30-minute car ride is equivalent to €4.78) and are quick and easy to navigate using your mobile phone. And that's how we got around. The great thing about an app like "Grab" is that you can not only order transport, but also have groceries and restaurant orders delivered straight to your home. That saves a lot of your own energy in a hot country like this.

So after we ordered a grave, we were faced with the challenge of finding the right level. And even though we could track our driver's location live on our phone, we were always on different levels of the airport. And every time we thought we had finally found the right level, our driver moved to the level we had been on before and so we missed each other every time. But after a good while of going back and forth, we finally found each other and had a good laugh about it.

After a 40-minute drive, we reached our first destination. We had booked a nice, large room in the Nonthaburi district, centrally located in Bangkok, directly opposite a temple and yet nice and quiet and peaceful. Our host was Mitch, a young American our age who settled in Bangkok seven years ago and founded a language school there, where he trained future language teachers, who he then sent to teach in schools. In addition to this, his main job, he opened his home (a beautiful, large townhouse) to his trainees, as well as visitors and guests, and thus ran a small hostel on the side, the "Destination TEFL".
Since we arrived at night, the gate to the house was already closed and locked. And although the light was on and our host had assured us that he had left us a key in a key box (key boxes are a common method of enabling self-check-in. The key is left in a kind of small safe that is secured with a numerical code, which is then communicated to the guests so that they can open the box themselves), the key in question was nowhere to be found and we found ourselves standing in front of a locked door.
And even though we had already told our driver that he could go home, he made every effort to help us. He shook and knocked, tried to find alternative entrances and ended up speaking to neighbors in Thai to find out the host's phone number. What a kind soul.
After a quarter of an hour, Mitch suddenly appeared in the entrance. He hadn't heard us knocking, but happened to be on the ground floor and saw us. Thus ended our first hours in Thailand and we fell happily into bed. [Picture 7 our room]