Wrong Hotel
Finally I am embarking on my holiday. First stop at Bangkok.
My 115 litre lugagge is 5kg on its own, so I should not be too surprised that it got overweight with my stuff at 23kg. I had actually packed a cabin size trolley bag into this luggage which I thought I will remove if the counter decides to charge me at check-in for the extra weight. They let it through with no issue. Phew!
Josh, Chris and Amy have gone 2 hours ahead of me on another airline. When I arrived in BK, I queued at the taxi box where the service person wrote my destination in Thai on a small form. However, when I gave it to my taxi triver, he hardly took a look at it. It was only after he drove off that he indicated he did not quite recognised what I said. I tried to help by saying,"Holiday Inn - Ploenchit, er..near World Trade Centre". He finally seemed to get it and said, "Oh, Silom". I said,"No,No, no - not Silom. Ploenchit!!" (It was a good thing Josh told me there are 2 Holiday Inns, otherwise, I would have taken the driver's word". It was later that I realised the driver could be illiterate that was why he didn't bother to read the thai destination on the form.
I was quite happy when our taxi arrived at Ploenchit road. Before I knew it, the driver suddenly turned into a hotel which looked like 3 star. The driver kept asking"right? right?" So I tried to look for the hotel sign and saw the back of some large cut -out sign facing the main road. It was blocked by the bushes but I made out some spelling like Y A D I L O H and thought, "yeah, I guess this is it", even though I was puzzled it was not the standard I would expect of Holiday Inn, but Josh did say this is not as grand as the one in Silom. So I paid the driver and the bell boy took out my heavy luggage. As we walked towards the reception counter, I suddenly turned to the bellboy and asked,"er, is this Holiday Inn?". The bell boy was taken aback and said,"no, this is Holiday Mansion" EEK!
We rushed back to the taxi just before he drove off. This time, I got the bellboy to give the driver the instructions and explain where to go. After another 5 minutes on the road, the driver pulled into the correct hotel. What a difference this one was from the Holiday Mansion and what a way to start. I have had so many bad experiences in Thai taxis, they never fail to stress me except when they are taking me to the airport. Thank god for sky trains. I am sticking to these other transportation if possible.
My 115 litre lugagge is 5kg on its own, so I should not be too surprised that it got overweight with my stuff at 23kg. I had actually packed a cabin size trolley bag into this luggage which I thought I will remove if the counter decides to charge me at check-in for the extra weight. They let it through with no issue. Phew!
Josh, Chris and Amy have gone 2 hours ahead of me on another airline. When I arrived in BK, I queued at the taxi box where the service person wrote my destination in Thai on a small form. However, when I gave it to my taxi triver, he hardly took a look at it. It was only after he drove off that he indicated he did not quite recognised what I said. I tried to help by saying,"Holiday Inn - Ploenchit, er..near World Trade Centre". He finally seemed to get it and said, "Oh, Silom". I said,"No,No, no - not Silom. Ploenchit!!" (It was a good thing Josh told me there are 2 Holiday Inns, otherwise, I would have taken the driver's word". It was later that I realised the driver could be illiterate that was why he didn't bother to read the thai destination on the form.
I was quite happy when our taxi arrived at Ploenchit road. Before I knew it, the driver suddenly turned into a hotel which looked like 3 star. The driver kept asking"right? right?" So I tried to look for the hotel sign and saw the back of some large cut -out sign facing the main road. It was blocked by the bushes but I made out some spelling like Y A D I L O H and thought, "yeah, I guess this is it", even though I was puzzled it was not the standard I would expect of Holiday Inn, but Josh did say this is not as grand as the one in Silom. So I paid the driver and the bell boy took out my heavy luggage. As we walked towards the reception counter, I suddenly turned to the bellboy and asked,"er, is this Holiday Inn?". The bell boy was taken aback and said,"no, this is Holiday Mansion" EEK!
We rushed back to the taxi just before he drove off. This time, I got the bellboy to give the driver the instructions and explain where to go. After another 5 minutes on the road, the driver pulled into the correct hotel. What a difference this one was from the Holiday Mansion and what a way to start. I have had so many bad experiences in Thai taxis, they never fail to stress me except when they are taking me to the airport. Thank god for sky trains. I am sticking to these other transportation if possible.
posted by Fiery at Friday, October 28, 2005
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