Tuesday, September 05, 2006
6th September, 2006 Wednesday
Bangkok international airport
5.45 am local time
The 6.40 am flight is late by 20 minutes and is scheduled to fly at 7.00 am. I have checked in and had a cup of strong black coffee and a cheese and ham sandwhich. Thai people do things in style ,i must say. Today the van came right on time at 4.30 am to pick me up at 4.30 am.
I had a great sleep monday night at the hotel in Pattaya. Woke up at 7.30 am and had a great breakfast of ommelletes ans sandwhich at the restaurant down. this hotelis located much near the beach road and also very close to the minigolf.
It was a glorious cloudless sunny day at Pattaya. The rains has been very scanty this season. The ameircan actor had told me that. Initially i was apprehensive that i may not have chosen the good diving shop, but it turned out that we had a very good crowd and the boat turned out to be a 2 decker with good food and limitless amount of soda/cold drinks.
The water was very warm and i never felt the chill unlike the way i did in maldives. I must say once again that thailand is tourist paradise. Maldives does not come even remotely close to it. But what was dissapointing was the visibility. It was very poor. Maldive was near crystal clear water and you can see the bottom merely standing from the boat.
One of the diver or rather the dive trainee was a 54 year old obese bespecled (reminded me of Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park) NASA mathematician who is currently doing his PhD in cost effectiveness. He makes around 10,000 dollars per month. He described me his house at Los Angeles. Fascinating! His wife had come here along with him for facial lift and silicon breast implantation. He said that both these surgeries here would cost aound 6000 US dollars. That too in the best of the hospital which resembles more like a 4 star hotel with the nurses attending to her every half an hour. Thaiand is doing an amazing job in medical tourism. I had also asked the actor american about the health care in thailand and he was allin praise for the system. A common indian simply does not have that sensitivity and hospitality which an average thai has.
Along with me for the fun dive was a british who had totalled more than 1000 dives allover the world. And he said that one of the best dives he had had so far was in Malaysia. He gave me the name of the place. Called Sabha. He says that you have to fly to it from KL as it lies near Borneo and near Brunei. I am not sure wether i can make it. Lets see once i reach KL.
The diving guys dropped me in their own taxi to the bus stand. their i had thai soup with a mixture of all sorts of sea food. Then i took the bus to Ekkamai. On the bus i was talking to a young that guy. In the end of the jouney, an european sitting behind measked me wether we have reched bangkok. I assured him that we have with a confidence as if i have been living in bangkok for months. It turned out that he was from Rekjavik, Iceland, Scandinavia. He told me that not once that he is lucky to be born in Iceland. He is 45 years and says that he has retired from work as he does not want to work anymore and now spends is life travelling around the whole world.
we both took the high rail from Ekkamai to the station close to the hotel ambassador. The high rail is indeed very impressive. Then we both walked to the hoteland he dropped me there and he carried on. Iasked him i would like to emmigrate to icleland. He says that the laws there are very very strict for immigrants. Scandinavia guards its borders like Swiss.
Today as we (me and the driver) drove from the ambassador hotel to the airport, i saw people in cafes and on the roads. The Thai night life in all its glories was in full swing!
signing off
ballu
Bangkok international airport
5.45 am local time
The 6.40 am flight is late by 20 minutes and is scheduled to fly at 7.00 am. I have checked in and had a cup of strong black coffee and a cheese and ham sandwhich. Thai people do things in style ,i must say. Today the van came right on time at 4.30 am to pick me up at 4.30 am.
I had a great sleep monday night at the hotel in Pattaya. Woke up at 7.30 am and had a great breakfast of ommelletes ans sandwhich at the restaurant down. this hotelis located much near the beach road and also very close to the minigolf.
It was a glorious cloudless sunny day at Pattaya. The rains has been very scanty this season. The ameircan actor had told me that. Initially i was apprehensive that i may not have chosen the good diving shop, but it turned out that we had a very good crowd and the boat turned out to be a 2 decker with good food and limitless amount of soda/cold drinks.
The water was very warm and i never felt the chill unlike the way i did in maldives. I must say once again that thailand is tourist paradise. Maldives does not come even remotely close to it. But what was dissapointing was the visibility. It was very poor. Maldive was near crystal clear water and you can see the bottom merely standing from the boat.
One of the diver or rather the dive trainee was a 54 year old obese bespecled (reminded me of Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park) NASA mathematician who is currently doing his PhD in cost effectiveness. He makes around 10,000 dollars per month. He described me his house at Los Angeles. Fascinating! His wife had come here along with him for facial lift and silicon breast implantation. He said that both these surgeries here would cost aound 6000 US dollars. That too in the best of the hospital which resembles more like a 4 star hotel with the nurses attending to her every half an hour. Thaiand is doing an amazing job in medical tourism. I had also asked the actor american about the health care in thailand and he was allin praise for the system. A common indian simply does not have that sensitivity and hospitality which an average thai has.
Along with me for the fun dive was a british who had totalled more than 1000 dives allover the world. And he said that one of the best dives he had had so far was in Malaysia. He gave me the name of the place. Called Sabha. He says that you have to fly to it from KL as it lies near Borneo and near Brunei. I am not sure wether i can make it. Lets see once i reach KL.
The diving guys dropped me in their own taxi to the bus stand. their i had thai soup with a mixture of all sorts of sea food. Then i took the bus to Ekkamai. On the bus i was talking to a young that guy. In the end of the jouney, an european sitting behind measked me wether we have reched bangkok. I assured him that we have with a confidence as if i have been living in bangkok for months. It turned out that he was from Rekjavik, Iceland, Scandinavia. He told me that not once that he is lucky to be born in Iceland. He is 45 years and says that he has retired from work as he does not want to work anymore and now spends is life travelling around the whole world.
we both took the high rail from Ekkamai to the station close to the hotel ambassador. The high rail is indeed very impressive. Then we both walked to the hoteland he dropped me there and he carried on. Iasked him i would like to emmigrate to icleland. He says that the laws there are very very strict for immigrants. Scandinavia guards its borders like Swiss.
Today as we (me and the driver) drove from the ambassador hotel to the airport, i saw people in cafes and on the roads. The Thai night life in all its glories was in full swing!
signing off
ballu
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