Day: The Fourth To The Seventh

Sorry for the big gap. I got busy once April arrived and had major technology hassles. My smartphone got way too smart for its own (and my) good, and reset itself to Thai language. Unfortunately, I don't have:

a: the Thai language pack installed

b: the ability to read Thai eden if I did.

This meant I could not change it back to Engerish, and nor could anyone else. In the end April opened up the same pages on her phone and eventually muddled thru and got most things going. There's still lots of stuff that is just gibberish. During the process Facebook and Blogger decided someone else was trying to hack my accounts and locked me out. I still can't get into Blogger via my dashboard, so I have had to sneak in through a back door program, meaning I can't see my blog as you see it. What also happened in trying to get the blog back up is that a major update that took me hours to write disappeared. Its very demoralising to think about writing everything all over again, so I didn't. Let me know if its not working out.

So, a quick run down on what has been happening. I took the sky train out to the airport to meet April and Amanda. Its an overhead express train that runs to the airport and other places. Very modern cheap and fast with lots of doors that open with a hiss just like on Star Trek. As I wandered around the fourth floor of the terminal, amidst thousands of people, thinking I'm never going to find them, I hear a shout of "NIGEL". It was April, wearing my bright green Mambo shirt paid off as she came running over to meet me. Big hugs all round, and it was damn fine to see her. We took a taxi back to the hotel, where she had a room with a view of the golden buddhist temple, that I didn't even know was next door. I think she liked the place as it is very different to the plush resort they had been staying in. There was also a visit to a massive dept store fitted in there too.....

That night we had a mission to complete. April had bought clothes with her that, for various reasons, she wanted to get copied. When they stated in Bangkok before going to Phuket, she took them to a taylor near their hotel. To cut a long story down, they had two or three visits, each with rising tensions, ending with a massive shouting match, and some of the original clothes missing, while the copies were far from satisfactory, to the point where the new clothes even had pieces of the originals sown on, not even matching colours! Our mission was to try to sort out the worst of the mis-matches and try to get the missing items back. The sleazy Indian taylor kept calling me "brother" and patting me on the back. The story was he had sent the work out (I suspect he actually does none of the work he says he does) and there was a police raid on the factory. For some reason the police took the clothes as evidence!? So we spent and interesting hour or two at a Thai police station while he tried to explain in his limited Thai to a series of different people, each more disinterested than the last. Needless to say, no joy there. However, we did get an undertaking from him to fix the various problems, and arranged to collect the clothes the next day. After that we went to Khoasan Rd, the backpacker area which was really pumping, bright lights and drunk travellers, markets and touts, food and smells. Fresh orange juice, pad thai, and banana pancakes, all from street trolleys. April ordered some IDs, I tried to find the ones I had paid for, we did some shopping and went home.

The next day we organised a boat trip on the Bangkok River. It was in one of those skinny long-tail boats, with a car engine on gimbals (sp?), that speed up and down thai rivers. As there was seating for about 12, I asked two Dutch families staying in the guesthouse to join us. Great fun, saw a 1 1/2 meter long lizard sunning itself, travelled various Klongs (navigation canals built way before anything like them was ever made in Europe, and ended up at the flower and vegetable markets down river.

That afternoon April had a bit more "essential" shopping to do.....so she went back to heaven.. errrrr MKS, eight storeys, more than a kilometre long, more than 5000 shops, many of which are maket stalls so you can bargain. And does she what.... I doubt if the locals could do better. I stated back at the inn, chatting with the two Dutch families, and playing with the dads and kids with my new toy steam boat in the little pond, while having a few cold ones. I think we both could not have been happier!

When she got back, we sallied forth to do battle with our friend from the sub-continent. We arrived an hour later than we said we would but nothing was done. He said we had to wait an hour (yeah right, there was lots to do, it would take more than an hour, and it was 8pm already). We said we had been waiting for long enough and that he could send it to our hotel. April even offered to pay for the motorbike delivery. The while thing ended up with him shouting, me trying to explain that it was actually his responsibility to sort out what he had been paid to do, and please, stop calling me brother all the time, and his wife trying to calm him down. In the end we left, took a photo of his business (the petty prick took a photo of us taking a photo) and walked away, not expecting to see Aprils clothes again. However, some time around midnight they did turn up.

More later.