My first nights when I came to Bangkok after having changed to Thai Airways in Copenhagen was spent in Hotel Ambassador.
www.amtel.co.th I remember eating peanuts from the refrigerator which tasted rather old. I came on Thursday morning thai time, and because a pain below my right shoulder, I asked for a massage as soon as possible. The oil massage helped, and afterwards I slept well. and I needed also to sleep most of the Friday also. One of the sliding doors became so loose that I had to call room service.
There was a color tv with several channels, including japanese.
When I tried to use my visa card in the airport, the woman showed that the machine explained: "declined". That was my first experience with money problems in Thailand. Luckily a Danish man who was sitting on my right hand side on the plane from Denmark helped me by asking if I had some Norwegian money. I happened to have a 100 NOK bill, which he managed to put into a exchange machine. This about 600 baht was enough to pay for the taxi and the extra stops at the booths, on this trip which started 07 thai time.
On Saturday night around 04 came a woman from Ban Dung. She mentioned soon that she had debt from a school finishing ceremony which she wanted me to pay.
After flying with her to Udonthani airport, I decided to fly back again on Sunday.
I regret that I did not take more time to rest, and become more at home in this beautiful hotel.
I think I needed 2 or 3 weeks to start enjoying the heat in Bangkok.
When I was back in Bangkok airport, I was awfully tired and disappointed. I considered going back to Norway as soon as possible, but there was enough good things happening to me including meeting some people who treated me with kindness and respect.
I remember eating a good breakfast at
www.royal-parkview.com with a lot of fresh sweet fruits. The bread was availabel only as white. There was too much noise from the neighbour room, and the carpet in the room was not clean for me to feel well.
I did not use the swimming pool. The first time I was swimming was in a big park, which I think was called Siam Park.
I enjoyed swimming and relaxing afterwards while eating some spicy thai food which I got from the mother-in-law of a Pakistani man married with a thai woman. And also ice cream.
http://www.thailandforvisitors.com/central/bangkok/bkk-family.htmlI tried to teach another Pakistani man to swim, but I think he would need more lessons.
When I stayed at Pradipat Hotel, I lost my only visa card. This was a Monday or Tuesday around Nov. 20. I went to the nearest bank on the other side of the Pradipat road, but the only help which was useful was cold water to drink on the back side of the building,with less heat from the sun. I went to the nearest post office, not far from Big C, but did not get any help from the man behind the desk. But a woman had listened to my story, and she approached me to help. She gave me 200 baht, which was enough to buy a card which made it possible to use internet on second floor near the post office. I bought it because I wanted to call a friend in Norway, but for some reason I do not understand, I was not able to establish a connection. This was lucky, because I then saved the card for use with internet instead.
One of the Pakistani men paid money, I think it was 600 baht directly to the account of the manager. I was told that the hotel did not have any account! I became more and more worried about having to sleep outdoor in Bangkok. At the time when the Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon visited Thailand, the Norwegian Embassy in the UBC building was closed. A Swiss man owning a restaurant found out that I had visa overstay. So now I had 2 problems at the same time.Since I was told by a woman in
www.postbanken.no that my money would arrive during the day to my newly opened bank account in
www.kasikornbank.com I trusted her advice, and agreed that the money which was left could be sent. I contacted the Scandinavian Church, and asked the Swedish pastor if he could help me by letting me get some emergency cash from, while waiting for the time needed to transfer from my Norwegian account to his Swedish account. He refused. .....
The next step was to ask the Postbanken to reclaim the money back again. I remember visiting several branches of Kasikorn Bank, asking if my money had arrived. There was a bank inside the same building as Landmark Hotel
www.landmarkhotelbangkok/framebanquet1.htmlA woman in that bank told me that the sender had done an error. Later I found out that the Moneygram office had forgotten to write my name!
The solution came when I was told that I could transfer money to a man living in Oslo. He could then bring the cash to the Moneygram office in Oslo.
