two moving days

From Thailand_Malaysia_Nov08-Jan09-Thailand-Bangkok

Day 4 and 5 were reserved for just moving: from Greece to Bahrain to Thailand.

The advantage of cutting a long journey into two is double: 
* there is less airplanestress,
* and in this case it's value for money (half price!).
The disadvantages are double too:
* the trip takes more time,
* there's waiting in the airport.
For this part of the trip, we have all the time in the world, there's no book that needs to be written, we just have to enjoy whatever comes our way, so we don't mind the disadvantages. However, if you're in a hurry, do book a direct flight!

Gulf Air delivered us nicely to Bahrain, in a 4 hours flight, rather comfy chairs, good food (although not everything on the menu was available), excellent service, and one can imagine how perfect everything must have been with Gulf Air when they were still very high-ranked, and not aiming for masstransport. Now there's a clear lack of maintenance (fuzzy musicsystem, whisteling doors, unrepaired chairparts, ...) and one can only hope that there's no impact on air safety!

Bahrain airport had no direct access to our plane: a bus brought us in. The airport was very very busy, thousands of travellers waiting to be transported, since they also use the airport as a hub: coming from somewhere, and waiting for the 2nd part of the trip. Most of them are patient and fatalistic, others tired and nervous. I quarreled with the veiled woman that guarded the entrance of the business lounge as a fullblown Walküre: I asked her for the smoker's zone of the lounge, and she nagged I had to respect that the lounge was non-smoking, to which I replied that I didn't have to respect stupidity and lack of hospitality :) that felt good hehehe! I have something against veiled members of the opposite sex that tell me what not to do :). BTW, the only smoking area is opposite of gate 14, dirty and packed with irritated travellers, being bad publicity for that airport!
Other travellers claimed access to the business lounge, pleading that they had to wait 7 hours for their next flight, but no access was granted due to their economy ticket. HL asked around, since we'll have a 10 hours delay (!yes!) on our way back, and he'll have to find a Gulf Air office in Bangkok or Manila, in order to grab a hotelroom during that waiting time!

Fortunately this time we didn't have to wait too long: none less then the fabulous Jet Air was chartered by Gulf Air to fly us to BKK, and what an experience! For the first time we enjoyed fully flat beds and I managed to have a short but good sleep during this (only 6 hours) flight from Bahrain to BKK. HL saddenly couldn't meet Morpheus, not even with the help of the Spirits of Dry Martini and Drambuie hehe!

Arriving in BKK (day 5) is always the same routine: a long walk to the customs, and long waiting lines there, no choice. The hotel transfer was waiting for us, and it took us a long 1.5 hour to reach the hotel, due to traffic jam in the morning hours of BKK. The driver and HL were chatting like long lost old friends, we even got our share of the sextourismpublicity when the driver mentioned that he knew how to bring customers to all places of entertainment, such as 'young boys or young girls'.  

The Starwood system in the hotel worked perfectly: we were welcomed as returning guests, and upgraded to a full suite, with separate bedroom and huge bathroom, a welcoming luxury after the badly digested Bahrain airport experience and the long trip. We showered, slept for a couple of hours, and went for a swim, and this time the water of the pool was nothing less then perfect: not cold at all. Very relaxing.
In the lounge, Poon (short 'oo') almost fainted when he saw that we were back, he repeated over and over again: 'so happy!'. Lovely guy. HL sipped his way through 3 dry Martini's and once back in the room, he felt immediately asleep!

The upcoming days 6 and 7 will be needed to overcome our jetlag; we should more or less be adjusted when heading for Hua Hin (stone head) on day 8 !!!

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