in Bangkok again

I'm back in Bangkok, where I was in early December. It hasn't changed too much, and is actually a little bit cooler than it was at that time (like maybe mid-80s rather than around 90 if I remember), but I think only because it wasn't all that sunny today. But it's definitely the tropics, it's humid as heck and I can easily imagine once the sun comes out full force that the only good place to be will be on the beach.

Getting to my flight yesterday in Delhi, I ran into a slight wrinkle, although no big deal. Since I didn't have enough Indian rupees left to pay for a taxi, and besides I had tons of time as my flight left after midnight, I took the city bus out to the airport. I'd been told to take bus #780, which would go by on one of the main streets in New Delhi, the somewhat fancy area of town built by the British, with wide streets and even a nice little park. But then bus #781 came by and they were yelling "airport" out the window, so I got on and thought I'd confirmed it was still going to the international airport, so I figured it was just a slightly different route. But instead it took me to the domestic airport, didn't go to the international airport at all, so I got off there since it was more or less in the same part of the city, and this was around 5 or 6 in the evening, so I had about 8 hours to get it straightened out. But the problem was that it was a roundabout route to get from one airport to another, and apparently there was no direct (and cheap) bus, but instead you had to take a taxi or a rickshaw. The taxi drivers were asking 350 rupees, and probably would have lowered that price, but I only had 90 rupees left at that point, even though the bus had only cost me 10 rupees. So eventually a policeman ended up helping me out, by flagging down a rickshaw driver and making sure he charged me the metered rate, which they never want to do with tourists because they'll charge more with a fixed rate. But he got me to the right airport, it cost 57 rupees, the little ordeal used up some time and then I had just enough left over to buy a snack to munch on while waiting for my flight.

The flight was fun, even though I was pretty tired out from the long day, doing last minute business around Delhi. They served a meal and free drinks as well, so I took advantage of it and had a couple of glasses of wine, watched some TV and the flight flew by....well literally, obviously, but time-wise as well. After 30 hours straight on buses, 4 hours on a plane with distractions just felt like an extended snack break. And Jet Airways, which is an Indian airlines, was pretty high class, much better than the Indian Air or Air India flights that I'd taken on my last trip to India.

So I got into Bangkok early this morning, took the express bus to Khao San Road and managed to get a room at the Khao San Inn. I'd wanted to stay there the last time, but they didn't have any of their cheaper rooms available. Even that one is a little spendy by my standards, at 290 baht, or about 8 dollars. But it's a decent room and they have a rooftop pool, so I figured I'd splurge a little while here in Bangkok, although I definitely need to find cheaper accommodations once I get to one of the islands. Where I'm headed, Ko Chang and Ko Phayam (not to be confused with the other Ko Chang, near Cambodia and the other islands that I visited when I was here before) are both basically budget backpacker islands, so should have some fairly cheap huts on the beach.

Nothing too exciting has happened here in Bangkok, since I just slept all afternoon after not sleeping at all on the flight. I already got one more roll of film developed here, but the developing wasn't quite as good as back home so I think I'll wait to get the other 5 rolls of film developed. Other than that, I had a great fruit smoothie this evening, and am now headed out to find some real dinner as I'm starving.