Friday was a day of anticipation and nervous excitement. I couldn’t sit still at my desk, maniacally tapping pens and toes and fingers, waiting until 4:30pm to leave the office early, run back to the Ibis to throw a change of clothes in my purse (yes, I packed in my purse, that’s how short our trip was), and head off to the airport.
We flew Air Asia, an airline that I would never recommend to anyone…although most of you know that I’m not a stellar airplane passenger to begin with. Our no frills airline, motto: “Now Everyone Can Fly” (something about that didn’t resonate well with us) moved to the tick of its own clock, and we waited from delay to delay from 8:30pm until 11:30pm to finally take off. Air Asia did regain some points with its in-flight merchandise for purchase: bright red Air Asia baseball cap or windbreaker, anyone? The offer to dress as if I worked on the crew, in addition to some stellar people watching, and the discovery of a half-chewed hot dog under an airplane seat, made Air Asia a flight to remember.
We landed in Bangkok around 1am, jumped into city taxis (which are hot pink in color…and have posted signs/illustrations of what is not acceptable passenger behavior, including no smoking, no drinking, no pets, no urinating, no having sex, and no carrying durian – a really smelly fruit – in the taxi) and headed toward the city center. We booked a 5-star luxury hotel in Thailand – and we will do the same for Vietnam – because they’re wildly inexpensive in American dollars and everyone needs a little weekend luxury getaway.
The Millennium Hilton did not disappoint. Actually, if we had an extra day in Bangkok I might have spent it in the hotel. It was palatial, modern, luxurious…it was so fancy I can’t believe they let a mess like me inside. The rooms were so big that when I first got inside I accidentally made a wrong turn into the closet. And that breakfast buffet….Karen, it would’ve knocked you over. Of course, we were only in the hotel when we were sleeping, but for those 6 hours, it was heavenly.
By the time we got checked in to the hotel it was nearly 3am. I crawled into bed and dreamt of peanut sauce and elephants. I was in Thailand.
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