The Land of Smiles

Last month I extensively travelled Thailand and India. This was the longest trip of my life which lasted 38 days. It was a tiring rather a rejuvenating vacation. We were longing for coming back to Kuwait. I got tired of meeting people one after another and most of the time we spent either in the sky or on wheels.

After spending 4 days in Delhi, it was quite a respite visiting Thailand. Right after landing at Bangkok International Airport, outside we saw a huge hoarding stating "Welcome to the land of smiles!" which left us a lot to expect. After a good one hour run through traffic, we reached hotel Imm Fusion, not that well known but delivers exemplary service. We checked in and decided to explore the city.

Both my wife and I being vegetarian, it was quite a challenge to find vegetarian restaurant. Thanks to Americans, right outside the hotel we saw a huge signage of Pizza Hut. It was quite a respite to know that they served Veg-pizzas too. Despite the waitresses were miles away from English, they communicated very well through smiles.

We took a pass of Sky Train and thought to explore the modern Bangkok. The moment you come out of the hotel, you understand that everything in this country is fuelled by tourism. My wife's facination towards shopping took us to Siam Paragon. It was amazingly well managed and most of the time we helped ourselves. However, on every floor there were many counters to help visitors and the pretty ladies were superbly helpful. To the extent that they made phone calls to find out information we needed. A close encounter with 10m long sharks and pool-dive by penguins left us speechless. They claim to have biggest Aquarium in southern hemisphere, and that looked true. It was amazing.

We came out and went to the next biggest mall i.e. Central world. The same experience was repeated minus Ocean World. Everyone looked extremely hospitable to the extent that a feeling of guilt was clearly visible when someone couldn't direct to the asked address.

Then we went to Patpong Night Bazaar. It's a flea market with Gogo bars on both sides where nude dancers were sliding on the poles. But, no one misbihaved. Hiding my eyes away from wife, I peeped into the bars from the street while she was busy looking at the street displays.

We had a burger at McDonald's and called off the day's trip.

It was nearly 11 pm but we didn't have even the slightest fear in an unknown city.