Day 7
Today we end our whirlwind trip to Bangkok. A wonderful experience, with extensive walking, moving in modern metro and elevated people movers to traditional Thai boats that move along the khlong waterways to riverboats that travel with and against the current.
The Thai people are gracious, soft spoken, very humble and respectful. Using words like khoe thoot (excuse me), sawaddee kha/khapp with hands clasped together (Thai customary greeting) and khap khun maak (customary thank you, with hands clasped). No matter where you find them...in shops, hotels, restaurants, in the Metro/BTS/boats/tuk tuk, taxis or simply the common man on the side walk or the road side vendor...everyone deserves praise.
Therefore it is a city like no other, vibrant and happening and a tourist's paradise...something for everyone.
The convenience the government has created is impressive to say the least, making Bangkok a truly international modern city.
Since the moment we arrived in Bangkok, we spent some unforgettable, quality time as a family, created memories that were not only captured on digital but etched in our minds and shared with you all as we went along. Shukar Alhamdolillah! And today, we were heading home.
If you recall, in my Day 1 post I had identified the concern that we had regarding the public toilets and the surprise of finding hand showers. Many of the high-end malls like Siam Paragon or Terminal 21 etc did not have the facility of hand showers but the toilet seat was very high techā¦with all sorts of buttons for all sorts of solutions.
So, on our final day, we had about half a day to spend our 7th day in Bangkok. Our flight to KHI was at 6:50pm so the plan was to check-in at 3pm.
As usual, we all went down for breakfast but today...was different and we had to do something different so... none of us had any eggs and for the first time on this trip, I had granola with yogurt...not bad! We had some stir-fried vegetables, coffee and multigrain toasted breadā¦and of course fresh fruit.
After breakfast, we went back to our room to get dressed and at 11:30am went back down to checkout and left our luggage in the holding area. The receptionist told us that on our return to collect the bags we could use the hotel shower. Nice of the hotel to offer this service to customers who had already checked out.
We had time to kill but not enough to go on an excursion. So we decided to head to Terminal 21. No last minute shopping just some window-shoppingā¦this time, we decided to use the Metro. From Petchaburi to Asok Sukhumvit, just one stop and in no time we were in Terminal 21.
We just chilled, compared the photos we took on our trip and also observed shoppers go about their business. We left Terminal 21 by 1:30pm this time in a taxi, first to the hotel to collect our luggage and then onward to the Makassan airport rail link station. We paid Baht 65 by meter and reached the airport rail link in quick time. The next train would arrive at 2:10 and it did so on the dot. If you recall in my day 1 post, we had used the walkway to reach the Petchaburi Metro and walked it to our hotel. Then, we had much lighter bags and lots of energy...but on this return trip, our bags were full and our energy levels, low. So hence the taxi. Good decision!
The ride into the airport was uneventful. We found familiar surroundings and made our way to the departure lounge but stopped on the way to indulged in some last minute Thai snacks on the way. Check-in and immigration was a breeze. Our flight departed on time. Received the customary Thai hospitality on boardā¦this time I did indulge in the onboard meal, I chose shrimp. Not bad. My family too enjoyed their meals. And before we knew it, we had started our decent for landing.
Well thatās all from me. Jazaakh Allah Khair and khapp khum maak for taking out the time to read my travelogue.
This is Khalid, Signing off.
Allah Hafiz o Nasir!
