Relaxing in Bangkok
Wheres better to relax in?
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Bangkok again!
I arrived in Bangkok with the bike still intact in its box just under 24 hours after leaving Amsterdam. Apparently it’s 2061 days since I left here last time after passing through on my epic Hanoi to Singapore bike ride. I’m once again staying at the Hotel Windsor Suites.\
The flights were OK although a bit dull as I had no interesting fellow passengers this time and in fact Etihad seemed a bit uninspiring too. Not much sleep either. However, Bangkok airport is truly vast and incredibly busy with immigration all very slick & easy
A SIM card at the airport for my modem cost 1099 Baht (£28) for 250GB of data over 30 days with the speed restricted to 4Mbps, which just about handles Facetime calls OK. From the airport I took a taxi with the bike in its huge box squeezing in behind, total cost 500 Baht (£13). I quickly re-assembled it in the foyer and it seems to have survived the flights really well no problems at all.
Dinner amazingly was at the Oktoberfest just across the road complete with dancing etc:-)
I will probably stay in Bangkok until Sunday to fully recover from the flight and biking out of the city should be easier.
Day 2 Hook of Holland to Schiphol airport
Unfortunately for my bank balance, I slept like a log on the boat, last night.
Stena has now discovered a little ruse to cash in whilst you are sleeping. They now have onboard cell service which if your phone is set to roaming it will quickly latch onto. This seems to be outside the EU roaming agreement so Three will charge you £6 per MB not good when the phone likes to back itself up at night 🙁 🙁 even worse 3 then decides to cut off your free data roaming until the next bill cycle.
It was a cold start to the day with lots of ground frost. I did my usual little tour of the Hook before I finally made it to the right path along the dunes straight into an Easterly wind. I eventually found a cafe open to defrost myself with a traditional three-egg starter to the day! No wonder the Dutch are so tall. Then it was through endless woods and forest paths all very pleasant but my mind was wondering if I could get the cycle boxed.
At the airport, once on the free WiFi, I quickly found the Baggage Storage Depot in the basement between Arrivals 1 & 2 who sold me a huge cardboard box for €23. Fitting the bike in was easy, my main concern was it rattling around in it. Time will tell..
Very impressed by the good design of Schiphol Airport, staff very pleasant and even the security guys were very cheerful and jokey even better you just leave your stuff in the bag and it just scans it in full 3D
The ride was only 50 miles all on traffic-free paths
A little bit of escapism
I’m leaving Boris in his proverbial ditch and trying to catch up a little on my cycling which is currently 3,000 miles down on last year. This escapism was bought about by this little post which caught my eye:
Particularly the bit about no winter! So coupled with me getting a place on DC Rainmakers open evening in Amsterdam a plan began to form 🙂
Today was the first stage of that plan, biking to Harwich so I could get my favourite overnight ferry to The Hook allowing me to bike to Schipol Airport tomorrow where apparently I can get a cardboard box and pack my bike up at the airport to go to Bangkok tomorrow night 🙂 and then returning in time for Ray’s do.
The ride was uneventful apart from all the regular cafes being closed and the really cold wind, offset in the day by the sun but quickly cooling down in darkness. Unfortunately I had accidentally booked on tomorrows ferry 🙁 but for £9 it was quickly sorted.
I replaced the unreliable Lumotec dyno light last night and the new SON light seems superb so hopefully, I can venture into the deepest night now plus the new 35mm tyres are fantastic on the muddy rutted Essex lanes.
Now to bed!