The way to Thai

Plans earlier this year had been utter failure... Leh-Ladakh dream was shattered by unavailability of dates of my friends. They didn't get leave from the respective companies they work. And I was unable to attend the Ajanta-Ellora trip because of my own work assignments. So I wanted something big this time. Finally I decided that if I go, it will be a huge one. 

It was really a huge one. Initially planned was Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand for 10days. But considering the possibility of less enjoyment due to more travel and looking into the cost-visa issues, we cut short it to Thailand alone. There were lots of reasons to choose Thai as our destination. Visa on arrival was possible, cheaper flights were available and the stay for 5 days would be far cheaper than Malaysia or Singapore. 

All the booking were made well in advance. The flights were booked in Air Asia. Air Asia is an ideal low cost airlines. Everything you take in flight you have to pay extra. Check in luggage, food... Even for water they charge 30Baht. Hotels were booked in Phuket and Bangkok. The rates were cheap. A hotel was available in Bangkok at the rate of Rs.1800 while a good hotel in Delhi will cost more than that. I took with me around 6200Baht which was exchanged for Rs.10000 at UAE Exchange. It was my first international trip. So decided to accompany my friend from Delhi. I heard a lots about problems during international travel. But got past everything very easily. Immigration check in Delhi was quite comfortable. Flight was at 11.45PM from Delhi International Airport.

Day 1 :-

We reached early morning 5AM at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. Our friends were supposed to arrive by 8AM. We had planned to take Visa on Arrival immediately after we reach Suvarnabhumi. Was easy to find out the counter. There were two options. Ordinary which charges 1000Baht and express which charges 1200Baht. We thought of going with ordinary as we had lots of time till our friends came. Ordinary was having very long queues, only one person who processes the applications and they will bug you for each and everything including latest photo and 10000Baht hard money to enter Thailand. We hadn't 10000Baht per head and our debit and credit cards were not working in the forex counters in the terminal. We had a flight to catch to Phuket at 10.30AM and we were getting late. Finally we decided to go for express where they don't check anything. Pay 1200Baht and it gets processed immediately. No questions. We were able to board the flight to Phuket on time.

It was raining when we reached Phuket. We took a taxi to the hotel which was at Patong. We can get scooters for hire at Patong for 200Baht per day rate in which we roamed the area the next three days. The evening we reached there we planned for roaming the town in scooter. We went to Patong beach which was nearby. Did bungy jumping from a height of 60m. I was shivering when the crane climbed to that much height. But held my nerves and did my jump. It was a lifetime experience. Video is embedded below. Also we tasted some Thai food from the road side as well as from a hotel. Some of the food look like live stuffs. Roaming the town itself consumed the day...

Please read the below blog about the further description of our Thailand Trip

http://rajeevdaniel.blogspot.com/2011/10/land-of-thousand-smiles-thailand.html