Ozbus11 in Thailand - Part 1

On Day 54, Ozbus11 left our Calcutta *cough* 'hotel' at 7am, with none of us wishing to hang around. We drove on our bus around the city until we arrived at what I can only describe as a colonial railway station. Surely this wasn't the right place to get off bus? thought I. Surprise surprise, this was India's idea of an international airport; a dirty, smelly, looking disused building with people inside.

We had arrived well before check-in, at 10am, and so most of us tried to find breakfast. Not before too long check-in arrived, tags were put on bags and we borded a plane for Bangkok. As soon as the wheels of the aircraft left the Indian tarmac, a sweet sense of Euphoria swept through the Ozbus group like an electric current. We spent the flight like excitable kids as, at last, (though the feeling wasn't 100% shared throughout the group) we had been rescued from the nightmare that was India.

At 4.30pm local time we touched down, dis-embarked and entered a space-age like airport. I walked around in dis-belief as I could smell something vaguely familiar but not immidately identifyable. There was a brightness to the airport and finally I identified what I was smelling as I walked into halogen lit toilets with a cheerie attendent. IT WAS CLEAN! I was smelling CLEAN! If cleanliness had a smell, Bangkok airport sure had it. I mingled through our group sharing my discovery as other shared their own delightful wonderments.

The wonders continued when we were met by not one guide but 3 Thai ladies. They waited with us for our bus and we hapened to witness a famous Thai personality sign autographs and be whisked away by a smart looking campervan. Our bus turned up and it was the most colourful bus we'd seen so far with lush seating and a big TV that we found out one day actually worked. We arrived at our hotel and OMG - the place had an actual foyer, with computers available, hooked up to the internet. It had comfortable chairs, with not one but 2 eateries but the best was still to come.

I was sharing a room with Dee from Londahn and when we opened the door to our rooms we were greeted with the luxury of space, clean rooms and the best surprise - clean showers with complimentary shampoo and body wash. It was amazing. My favourite perk of the room was that the TV picked up Australian "best of" network. And I settled down to a treat of a Home and Away episode. It's the little things in life.

Everyone made full use of the hygenically white bathrooms and those that wanted to, met up later to go out and PARTY, Thailand style. This means walking down a street choc-full of bars and Thai restaurants where you see loads of tourists. I hadn't seen this many since Europe and it was a shock to the system but a nice one. A few of us found a nice little bar with a guy playing acoustic guitar covers of all the tourists' favourite hits. (Yes, he did play Oasis 'Wonderwall'). Unfortunately, becuase all these guys were Thai, there were some interesting pronunciations of lyrics.

Thailand is cheap - we all know that -except for one aspect of life: Alcoholic drinks. And when you want to party after a long spate of not being allowed to drink for religous reasons - you want to participate in a bit of a drinking sesh. Wallets must be prepared for the blow. Anyhow I can't exactly remember when I went home that night but the next morning I did manage to get up for breakfast at 9.30am. What a beautiful sight the Thai breakfast was. It had EVERYTHING. If it was almost imposible to eat anything in India - then Thailand sure was making up for it.

So I eat a delightful array of things and then went back up to my room and slept until about 1pm. Now, as I mentioned, I was sharing with Dee and at this point in the trip she had developed a firm reputation of being a terrible faffer. A rep. I thought, was unfairly given at that point in time. What the rest of Ozbus11 didn't know about me was that I was a secret faffer and notoirious for it in my own circle of friends. And so, due to this pairing, old habits started to emerge and there are large chunks marked in my diary where the activity written was 'poter' and 'faffed'. However it was a good pairing as the two of us ended up with the ultimate and best hotel room to hang out in.

I'm pretty sure by the evening of Day 55 our room was decorated with fairylights round the mirror, a blow up Giraffe named Henry and trinkets set upon the Television. Luckily we were scheduled to stay in Bangkok for a grand total of four days which in Ozbus terms is like renting an apartment. So the interior decoration was justified.