Saturday 6th December, 2008
At 10am the songthaew arrived to take eight remaining English teachers to either the airport or the city centre. Neng our driver, who had been driving us back and forth for the past four weeks, was his usual cheery self. Daniela, Sonny and I were all getting the Air Asia flight departing for Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport at 12:30. Daniela was to get an onward flight to Hong Kong while Sunny and I were going to Wendy House near the MBK shopping centre where we would join Dina and Nathan. That evening the four Wendy guests were joined by Alan, who had parked himself on the 28th floor of some snazzy hotel but in an out of the way location.
Now I was supposed to go to Pattaya but at the last minute decided to stay in Bangkok instead. I could of course just spend three nights here and then journey down to Pattaya for the other six nights before Krabi but as it turned out, I stayed the entire time here.
Digressing a little, I had planned to leave it until Krabi before deciding my future but made arrangements whilst still in Chiang Mai to return to Thailand and start ten weeks voluntary teaching in Nongkhai on the border with Laos. This was to be paid for this week together with booking a flight for the return journey here. Things don't always go to plan......
Sunday 7th December, I awoke at about 10am, put my dirty clothes in the laundry and poodled about for a while before going down to breakfast and joining Sunny. Afterwards, I went back to my room and checked my wallet before going out when I noticed that my UK Visa Debit card was missing. I searched the room, returned to the laundry where I'd been earlier but it was nowhere to be found. I called the bank in the UK, cancelled my card which at the same time caused me to lose the internet banking. I was told it would all be sorted out with a new card and all the necessary pin/security numbers sent to my registered UK address in 5 – 7 days. At the same time, I activated a Visa Electron card that I had kept and carried as a spare for this kind of emergency. I was told to try later in the day (after 9am U.K. time) to ask the banking department if I could transfer between accounts by telephone as these were exceptional circumstances. I did this and got put on hold somewhere in the Indian subcontinent for five minutes while they gave me a different number to call – the number they gave was the one I had just called them on! I tried again later only to be told I should use the internet banking services to make the transfer, I told them I could not – explaining yet again the reason why but the same message just came back "You have to use your internet banking sir"! I terminated the call, with my blood on the boil; I vowed to create merry hell with the bank when I got back to the U.K.
With all this happening, I missed joining the others to go to the Grand Palace and instead I decided to go shopping for a new wallet, the card pockets having become dangerously loose in my existing one, I did not want to risk losing anything else from it. In the Tokyu department store all gentlemen's wallets were discounted 20% in the sale, Cardin, Givenchy, Lauren and many more were on offer. Eventually I chose myself a black Ralph Lauren wallet which had some of the card pockets protected by a flap, externally it had a similar design to the one I gave to Best as a present, inside though it was quite different.
That evening the others wanted to try a Japanese restaurant, during my stay in Chiang Mai, I had been quite bad from an allergic reaction to shellfish. I therefore decided to stay clear and went to Silom Soi 4 to eat at the Balcony.
The next day, I breakfasted with Dina and Nathan before going for a stroll around the shops accompanied also by Alan and Sunny. We had lunch in this Honk Kong style cafe/restaurant, then the girls went off to get a massage back near Wendy's, while the boys decided to follow Alan to find this area where there were supposed to be some good places for an oil massage. After about 45 minutes walking, we gave up and returned to Wendy's and found a good massage place nearby. Despite it being a Thai massage, getting my body elbowed, kneed etc. I still managed to doze off and had to be woken a couple of time by the masseuse to change my position. Feeling good from the massage, Alan and I had a couple of beers with Nathan and we were later joined by Dina before disappearing in a taxi for the airport and flight home to Bangalore. That evening I took Alan and Sunny to Silom Soi 4, where I had an Indian curry, fish and chips for Alan and a Thai soup for Sunny.
Tuesday, I had firmly decided to remain in Bangkok until my week in Krabi and that morning I transferred to the Om Yim Lodge, where I had stayed before and much preferred to Wendy's and besides, it's in Silom where I liked to be at night. That evening however, I went to Nana in Sukhamvit, meeting up with Alan who by now was the last one of my teacher peers from the course who was still in Bangkok. We went for a pizza which tasted wonderful, a few days earlier in Chiang Mai; I had a mouth watering conversation about eating pizza with Despi so I sent her an SMS to tell her about it.
Over the next few days I explored the Bangkok streets, went to the Immigration Bureau to extend my visa for a third month and called in at a large English language school to find out if any jobs were likely to be available come April. Then I went to Plantip, which is a giant IT shopping centre, resembling an exhibition hall with all its shops and stalls. Here I bought a sim-card modem which allows me internet access through the cell phone network – great for when there's no Wi-Fi around.
It was Saturday morning, after a late night out at DJ Station and G.O.D.; I got up surprisingly early just after 11am and checked my emails only to find dreadful news. The bank was sending my card to their Brixham, Devon branch for me to collect on or around the 18th December. I called them to enquire what was going on, they were supposed to send my card to my registered address, someone by the name of Liz was being extremely apologetic at the other end of the phone and checked with her superior to see what could be done. It transpired that they would have to destroy the card being processed and issue yet another which this tome would absolutely definitely go to my registered address. This was getting nerve wracking especially with it being close to Christmas and the usual UK shutdown for a week, fortunately my friends who were looking after things for me realised the problem I was facing and kindly transferred five-hundred pounds to my current account. This still meant I could not pay my volunteer fees nor book a flight back to Bangkok late January until my card arrive and I could access internet banking to transfer money from my savings account. As I write this today, I don't know when I things will get sorted. All I know is that I am contacting the Chairman's office of the bank for an explanation and resolution so that this never happens again.
After I went to a Japanese style haircut booth, where for 100 baht, which I placed into a machine, I got a 10 minute haircut. At last I had a decent cut, the best not only in Thailand but for a long time previously as well.
Sunday 14th January was a good day. I took the Skytrain down to the river and boarded the ferry to visit the Grand Palace, which was built after King Rama 1's ascension to the throne in 1782. The complex houses the royal residence, a number of government offices and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Palace is exceptionally beautiful and was worthwhile visiting. Later I met up with Amanda, who I hadn't seen since Chiang Mai. She had come in from the suburbs of Bangkok where she had been volunteer teaching and I joined her in the bar/restaurant at the Jim Thompson's then went shopping with her at Platip, the giant IT shopping centre.
I spent a couple of hours that evening in Silom Soi 4, dined on chicken and chips with onion rings and enjoyed a few beers before heading back to the Om Yim Lodge for my last night's sleep in Bangkok for 3 weeks.
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