Arrival and first day

It started on January 10, 2024. Departure from Vienna-Schwechat with the ETIHAT to Bangkok. In the meantime, a pretty good vegan menu (children and vegans are served first!) and entertainment with the latest films. After a good 5 hour stopover in Abu Dhabi.

We passed the time in the cafe and paid 90 UAE Dirham (AED), i.e. € 22.50 (!) for 1 beer and a cocoa, with 2/3 of the price going to the beer. So you are not allowed to be an alcoholic there - with a beer price of over €15 for a side beer.

We almost completely overslept the onward flight to Thailand at night. We arrived in Bangkok at around 7:20 a.m. local time. About 30 minutes of waiting time at the immigration counter passed quite quickly and after we picked up our suitcases we went for a morning coffee (we didn't have that on the plane - or we overslept it).

Since there were problems with the WiFi at the airport, I got a new Thai SIM card (this makes ordering taxis with the app easier) and changed cash at the SUPER RICH counter in the airport basement (the best one is there). Exchange rate). After the driver finally found us, we took a GRAB taxi (similar to our UBER system) to our accommodation.

After checking in at Villa de Khaosan, we began our first exploration of Khaosan Road, which is 5 minutes away from our hotel. Khaosan Road is a 450 meter long street in Bangkok in the Banglamphu district. It has now gone from being a backpackers' playground to a top stop in Bangkok. In addition to numerous shops where you can buy tourist items such as shirts, bags, etc., there are one restaurant next to the other. Of course we had our first Thai food there for lunch. Afterwards we had to take a short break to keep the jet lag as low as possible.

In the evening we went back to Khaosan Road, which turned out to be a real party mile after dark. While boars try to persuade you to go on tuk-tuk tours during the day, in the evening there are countless entertainers who want to lure you with all sorts of things into the various bars - which are plentiful there. In terms of noise, it is of course a lot louder in the evening, as music is blaring from almost every bar.

After dinner in a nice open-air restaurant, where the guests were entertained by a very good solo artist with vocals and guitar, we called it a day for the first day and went back to the hotel, as we had an early start the next day Wanted to start sightseeing to escape the midday heat.