We rose early, about 6:30am. Jeff was up first, but Ken and Evelyn were already up and about. They’re still suffering from jet lag. I was tired but excited. We had a long journey ahead of us, Honolulu to Tokyo and Tokyo to BKK. It rained as we left Honolulu. I like to think the island was sorry to see us go. But we’ll be back some day.
Being in Tokyo airport again was very interesting. It was so familiar, it almost felt like we were still at home. Having lived in Japan for 15 months it was still easy to recognize how things worked to get service etc. which is usually difficult for first time tourists to a new unknown culture and country.
On to Bangkok, the flight was uneventful and full. I slept a little, which turned out to be good as we wouldn’t get to our hotel until 2:00am BKK time, 7:00am the previous day Honolulu time. We had been traveling for close to 24 hours in all.
We landed at Bangkok at 10:30am, and we got our luggage very quickly, it was the process of getting a cab and and getting into the city center that took the extra hours.
First the Cab was a piece of junk. The engine was so noisy we could have been traveling on a tractor. One third of our way to Bangkok the cabbie had to pull over on the road, make some repairs to the wiring up front- he actually used a bic lighter to fry some wires together to get us going!
About two thirds of the way we began to slow down on the highway, as if the car had lost power. Out hops the cabbie and does something to the gas supply in the trunk which stops the AC. We get off on the road again and he says he needs to get gas for the car as it’s out. Now that the AC was off, the windscreen started to fox up due to the rain outside and us 3 bodies inside. He was driving with an open window and a fox front screen, slowly, to the gas station.
We passed a few Esso stations which we thought he could have stopped at, and said so. No, he needed natural gas and there was a special cabbie stop where he got it at. Finally we pulled into the cabbie stop and he backed up to the natural gas pump because the refueling happens at the rear of the car. Jeff jumped out and stood watching as we were in a very dark, way off the road, little pump station and I wasn’t too sure how safe they would be without us keep our eyes on them.
While the gas was filling the pump attendants rudely stared at me, I put it down to the fact that I’m fair skinned and blue eyed. It felt awful.
Finally the gas was full, the cabbie paid the money, and got in to start the car. But no luck. Now it looked like the battery was dead. Finally, after fostering around under the hood for a little, he got the attendants and Jeff to push the car for a jump start. That got us going.
We arrived at Khao sarn road about 1:30am, got a room at the well known D&D Inn and took off for some food onto Khao sarn road. It was pretty dead but we got some Pad Thai from a street vendor and tried to get a beer, but all the bars were closed. Back to bed and a good nights rest.
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