On the Road Again

30th-31st October 2012

I hadn't planned to write much about the travel process but it was quite eventful so I'll keep it short. Clear and concise and all that. I suppose our travel journey begins in Bangor – it was the morning of the big day and of course I had some last minute errands to run. The first stop was the bank so I popped a double dose of malaria tablets and headed off to get some dolla. While at the desk and talking to the bank lady, I had an overwhelming urge to throw up. At first I thought I could fight it and I even began fanning myself with said wad of dolla, however, it was not to be. Rory said that his years of drinking have enabled him to suppress the need to you know... but it's a skill I haven't mastered and so when the lovely bank lady saw that I was about to, you know, she ran like lightning across the bank, got to the secure door and proceeded to enter the secret bank code. In the heat of the moment she couldn't get the secure door to actually open which lead to a few tense seconds but I composed myself and was thrust into the staff bathroom to, you know. It was unbelievably embarrassing and instead of pretending it never happened, I decided to immortalise it via the internets and this blog. But hey, that's what Blogging is for; telling complete strangers your fears and inadequacies and of course, sharing tasty recipes, writing about how great your children are and let's not forget, telling the world your handy home décor tips. I hope that wasn't too gross. It is just so unlike me, in the slightly-adapted-to-fit-the-situation words of Taylor Swift I am never, ever, ever... sick.

After this little incident I completed my errands, packed, said goodbye to family members and we headed to Dublin. Thanks to online check-in we breezed through bag drop and swiftly boarded our flight to Abu Dhabi. It was a seven hour flight but it wasn't that bad, I watched Rock of Ages, stole Rory's iPod so I could listen to Taylor Swift's new album (yes, you are correct, he does have the whole album on his iPod) and tried, rather unsuccessfully to get some sleep. We even had some food, eventually as the steward completely missed us and had served all the rows behind us. I did have to press the emergency call button to get his attention but I'm fairly certain that missing out on free aeroplane food can be considered an emergency. We then arrived in Abu Dhabi and boarded the next plane to Bangkok. The situation was very similar but this time I watched the Big Bang Theory. It's my new favourite show. I was also sitting beside a very intoxicated man who kept unbuckling his seatbelt so the air hostesses had to come do it up and he did walk around with his shoes and socks off, proudly displaying nine little toes instead of the usual ten, but all in all it was a decent six hour flight.

Once we arrived in Bangkok airport we made our way to the public taxi stand and were greeted by a friendly chap who loaded our bags and had us in the car and our of the airport before we even asked how much the trip would cost. Schoolboy error on our part, the taxi ended up costing 2450Bhat! To put that in to context, our hostel for three nights cost 3000Bhat and we had allocated 500Bhat for the taxi. We managed to get away with paying 2000Bhat which is still ridiculous but lesson learnt and he got us here safely so that's the end of that chapter!

After our taxi ordeal we checked in to our room which is fairly nice, had a quick walk around the area, bought some niceys (because all the street food looked unsanitary to say the least) and curled up in our little sleeping bag liners which we probably didn't need but I spent £3.50 on them so they're getting used! Who knows what we'll get up to tomorrow...