We made it!

Well, it has been quite some time since I have sat in a hot and foreign country, hearing the various sounds (more on this later) from outside whilst I sit with my laptop and just begin typing my usual 'my diary type' drivel and nonsense.

For those that do not already know where we are, we are back in Bangkok, Thailand, baby! We are starting to think that this could be an easy second home for us. Though I'm not sure how we would feel about the wet season or the very hot summers here.

The Journey

As usual, the trip here was quite long (about 17 hours, including layovers). That said, it did go by reasonably quickly, and it was significantly better having only two flights (Glasgow-Dubai and then  Dubai-Bangkok) rather than the three we had last year (Glasgow-London, London-Doha, and Doha-Bangkok). We flew with Emirates this time, and it was great having the more direct flight option. Both aircraft were the big A380-800s, and we saw around 26 crew (excluding the Captain and pilot). We were in the economy section, but I would have loved to have seen (& tried out) the upper deck where first and business class passengers go - perhaps one day! R did get the opportunity to upgrade to Business class, and our brains experienced a fleeting intrusive thought to 'just do it', but we thankfully came to our senses and agreed that as much as it would have been a lovely experience, it wasn't worth it......and our companions would have been so miffed if we had!

Ah yes, our 'companions' on this trip are our amazing daughter (S) and her equally fantastic best friend from school (Ms R - to distinguish her from "big R"). Later, we shall be joined by another two companions (A & Ms A), so that will be fab and I will tell you more when they arrive.

Back to the journey. The first leg of the journey was just around 7 hours long, then we had around a 3-hour layover in Dubai. Of course, we forgot that when you have younger companions who like to leave you to look after their bags, whilst they explore the airport shops, it can be a little scary. By this, I mean that your times are all out, you're a bit knackered (from the early rise and the journey), and you have no way of contacting your companions (as you have not activated your new eSim yet, have no data, or if you do have data, your companions won't have, so are unlikely to receive your message, telling them to 'shift their butts'!).  The result is that you can experience a mild panic that boarding is about to begin, and your charges are nowhere to be seen or found! I should also add here that Ms R works as a flight crew member, and although she is very experienced in the aviation industry, and with the protocols, etc., there was an occasion when she and S were at the airport and embarrassingly missed their flight home!  I could tell that R was getting a little antsy with 'the look' on his face, but thankfully, they appeared, and after a quick dash to get some strawberry slushes from Starbucks (kids today!), we got boarded on the 2nd flight fine. I had hoped we would be able to sleep a little on this flight, which was about 6 hours, but sadly, that didn't work.

The food on the flight was excellent, so we were well fed and watered throughout. I had a couple of new gizmos to try out on this journey. The first was a dongle that works with my noise-cancelling earbuds and means you don't need to wear the overhead earphones provided by the airline. This worked really well. The second item was a foot hammock, which you attach to the table, and you can rest your feet on it. I found this quite good and liked that I could use it as a sort of foot swing, so maybe it's best suited for people of a shorter stature. The girls also had a little try of it and thought it was good.

I also really liked the fact that not only could we track the flight progress on the entertainment system, but we could also see various camera positions during the flight, which I really liked.

The flight was delayed in getting airborne due to a door issue and then getting clearance for takeoff, so by the time we arrived in Bangkok, we had all been up for around 26 hours. Thailand is 7 hours ahead of UK time, and by the time we got through immigration, got our bags, activated the eSim, ordered our taxi and arrived at the apartment, it was around 15.30 hours (or 08.00 am, the day after we had left home). The best way to try and get over the jet lag is supposed to be to try and stick to the new time zone as much as possible, so we were aiming to try and stay up to 10 pm (spoiler alert: we didn't manage that!).

The Apartment

The apartment had everything waiting for us, and it was great to just be able to get in right away. I didn't mention earlier, but this time R and I decided to use the baggage check-in, as we are not doing as much flying on this trip as we did last year, so we thought this would be a lot easier, and it would mean we didn't need to carry everything in our rucksacks. Can you guess who had the biggest and heaviest cases? I'm sure you can, but the title for the biggest and heaviest case goes to Ms R, followed by S, then R and then me.

The apartment is an older-style condo, so it is a lower-built building (11 levels), and that means you have more space, which is great. However, the downsides are that the soundproofing is not as good as the newer buildings, and almost immediately R was able to detect several local keols (yes, the ever so annoying cuckoo type birds). Having pointed this out to everyone, we are ALL now attuned to their noisy, loud calls - thank you, R!

The swimming pool, gym and communal area are located on the level below us, which should be handy (she says, like she's going to be hitting the gym anytime soon!).

The apartment location is very good too, as it's easy and handy to get to Sukhumvit Road, various shops like the EM Quartier and EM Sphere, Benchasiri Park and our nearest BTS is Phrom Phong.

First Tasks and Initial Impressions

After unpacking, having a shower and changing (to try and refresh our tired and weary bodies), we headed out to give the girls a taste of the area and to get them their Rabbit cards (needed for the BTS skytrain system), as you need your passport to initially buy this card. Payment is by cash only. The card costs 200 baht, which includes a 100 baht deposit for initial use, and you can then just add money onto it as you need. It's valid for 7 years, so it's handy if you are planning on using the BTS to get around, or if you might return and have credit remaining on it.

As usual, the weather was hot, and it was quite busy with people and traffic when we went out (around 5 pm) by this point. We had a quick look around some of the shops, and then we went and got some basic essential groceries (water, yogurts, bananas, etc.) to stock the apartment and also to have our first meal at the apartment. The girls also got to experience Custard Nakamara, as this is close by to us!

We were all starting to flail by this point, so a quick dinner, tidy and then we all headed to bed around 8 pm. I had hoped to read for a bit - the mind was willing, but the body definitely wasn't, so I didn't last long before I had to call it a day.

Day 1, 24 Nov, 2025

Bangkok, Thailand