Day 1 (Bangkok) - Arrival and Travel to the Hotel

First impression from the airport of Bangkok

We arrived at Wednesday, the 25th of July, at 6:45a.m. in Bangkok. The first challenge of the day was to get to our hotel with public transportation. We didn't want to take a taxi because with five people, you need two taxis and we didn't want to take the risk of getting into a taxi of an dubious driver. We heard and read many stories about this, so because of this we were so cautious. And the price is also better by using public transportation :)

At the airport it was quite funny to check-in because there were so many people that they even had to take some persons, e.g. Carina and me, to the check-in terminals for the officials and diplomats. Even if this means nothing, it was a nice feeling to see this part of the airport and I felt a little bit more important ;)

Tickets / Chips for Makkasan-Express

After the check-in and security controls, we wanted to take the metro. From the airport, we could just take the "Makkasan-Express" to the same named station. The tickets for this express looked like poker chips, which was quite interesting. In Bangkok you use also your tickets to get in and to get out of the stations, like in many other big cities. For us, as citizens of Leipzig, we were a little bit confused at the first moment because in our city you validate your ticket inside the public vehicles. But the Thai people at the airport were very nice and showed us the way.

Advertisement is a lot more funnier
than in Germany ;)

Inside the "Makkasan-Express" we could take a little rest and we saw Bangkok for the first time, outside of the train. The first impression was that the city looks like many other cities in Asia. We saw some industrial buildings, many hotels, offices and also houses of poor people who live mostly at the border of the street. Most impressive was for me the traffic, because the roads were very modern and efficient with far more new freeways I've had ever seen in another country before.

First sightseeing through the
Makkasan-Express

After we arrived at Makkasan station, we searched for the next metro station. We found it very quick but to go there was very hard, because we had to move  with all our luggage and there were no built ways to go, just a trail. But after 10 minutes we arrived at the station and bought our 3-days tickets for 230 Baht per ticket (about 7 Euros). It was a good decision, because in the end we used it many times to get from point A to point B. Again, with our complete luggage it was quite a challenge to get into a full metro at 8am. Many people had to go to school or work, but we made it at the second try.

One thing was quite curious: For going inside every metro station, you had to pass a security control. So we had to open our luggage for an inspection. But the inspection from the guard was so facile that we could have smuggling kilos of drug under the first layer of clothes and the guard hadn't noticed them. So I think that the security check is just for keeping the feeling of security because everyone with a bag was checked but also very facile. My father just talked to the guard German in a little bit angry way, so the guard just did let him pass without checking his luggage :D

In the end, we arrived "Lumphini station", where our hotel was. When we left the station, it started to rain a little bit. Additionally we were all a little bit confused how to go to the hotel. We knew the way from Streetview, but when your in an unknown country, you don't know how long the way actually is and we were also stressed from the flight. So we discussed about taking a taxi, but in the end we took the walk. At this point I was very happy that Google Streetview exists, because I saw the first street from the metro station already virtually. So I could say exactly where we needed to walk and I recognized the following streets too. In the end, the way was a little bit more farther than expected but we found it without detours. (Hope the last sentence makes sense in English)

In the hotel, the employees received us very friendly and it was no problem to get another room, because they made a little mistake by the booking process. So we were finally in Bangkok! :)

Way to the Hotel at 8am - Is it already rush hour or normal traffic?

Next time, I will write about the events in Bangkok on the first day and why shopping in Bangkok is not easy.