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The First Evening In Bangkok
Jan. 2nd, 2020 10:45 pmSo last month I went to Thailand, immediately after the Londonfurs Winter Party, which meant a rather hungover journey from the capital up to Manchester, where it was £250 cheaper to fly from to Bangkok as well as having more convenient times. It was the first day of the new West Coast Rail Franchise Avanti, but it was good to see the zealous nature of their ticket guards continue unabated as he was determined to see my ticket despite me struggling with two sets of luggage and a bottle of water. Still, I managed to retrieve it from my wallet and once ensconced on the train, enjoyed listening to podcasts as the dismal British countryside flashed by.
The journey to Manchester was surprisingly smooth, giving me three hours at the delightful airport. At least it was Terminal 1 I suppose, with a far greater range of bars and restaurants, so I just sat in The Grain Loft, charging my phone and dealing with work email as I waited for my flight to Istanbul. This was the first time I had flown with Turkish Airlines and was a bit of a departure for me, as usually when I go to SE Asia, I do a short hop to a Western European destination then a long haul flight from there. This time, it was a flight of four hours followed by a flight of eight, which was quite different but no less enjoyable (at least on the way there anyway, it was a bit tedious when knackered on the way back). I was surprised to see an Airbus 333 on the Manchester to Istanbul route, but to be fair it was pretty full, as was the flight over to the Thai capital. The other difference from usual was because the length of the flight to Istanbul was so long, we got a meal on this flight too, meaning three meals over the course of a very short period. All were reasonably good in all honesty, but it was perhaps a little too much. Anyway, I fortunately got a window seat next to just one other person on the first flight and an aisle seat on the longer one, which made me content enough (as opposed to the long flight on the way back when I was sandwiched between two mercifully thin people) and I managed to sleep for much of it, not particularly tempted by the range of predominantly American 'comedies' they had on the entertainment system. Still, I did get to watch The Secret Life of Pets 2, thinking it better than the original, as well as a number of two-minute videos detailing some of the destinations to which Turkish Airlines fly. Some of these were very interesting, particularly those in central Asia, but they were all sponsored by the same furniture outlet mall somewhere in Turkey, whose bombastic advert became pretty annoying pretty quickly.
I landed in Bangkok shortly after 3pm on Monday 9 December local time, a little groggy but generally fine. Passing through customs and picking up my baggage was largely a formality, and soon I was in the main arrivals hall dodging the approaches of taxi drivers. I had arranged to meet my friend Gao, a local fur who told me he would take me to my hotel after a whole host of confusion regarding the ordering of a pick-up service from my hotel (I had to phone them from Manchester Airport in the end and they assured me it would be better to just get a taxi from the airport, which is something I was loathed to do). After a little bit of arranging, we agreed to meet at the Meeting Point in the arrivals hall, which we did after about fifteen minutes of waiting from my part. We then headed down to the railway, with Gao showing me how to navigate the change of line successfully (annoyingly, each line in Bangkok has an independent ticking system so you need to buy tickets every time you change). We were heading towards Sam Yot MRT station, one of the newer ones on the network and certainly not there during my last visit in 2009. As I say, this was one change and about fifty minutes of travelling, so it was all rather straightforward. Howeverm once at Sam Yot, we realised the platforms were on two levels and the whole arrangement was confusing, with Gao admitting he had never been to this particular station before. Still, we managed to navigate our way through the whiteness caused by the shiny bright lights and marbelled floors, leaving the exit literally opposite my hotel. After taking our lives in our own hands at a very busy crossroads where the green man didn't seem to work, I was soon checking into my hotel and dumping my bag in the room.
The hotel was basic but reasonable - certainly everything functioned although it was noted that toilet paper was not to go down the sink but in sanitary bags to be popped into a bin at the side. Gao let me get settled, telling me that there was a local meet-up of furs at centralwOrld, a shopping centre in the heart of downtown, from 6:30pm. This gave me about forty minutes to grab a shower and freshen up, with Gao disappearing to a local toy store which he reassured me was the best in the city (and sadly one I didn't get chance to visit). He came back shortly after 6pm and as I was told this was going to be a fursuiting meet, I bundled my partial into my bag, fearing that a full suit with jetlag, a hangover, high heat and a huge bag would be just too much hassle to deal with. In the end, although I did have fun, I somewhat regretted not taking the full suit as the evening was pretty cool by Thai standards at about 23C and a few of the furs had brought their full suits to show off. We were also suiting right outside the admittedly Americanised Christmas display on the mall's forecourt, something which was quite an honour to do as we had to get permission from security and everything. There were also a lot of people, particularly kids, and although they loved my partial, I think the full suits had a greater effect. Interestingly, after every picture they took, the Thais clasped their hands in prayer as thanks, which is something I started to copy, despite it feeling a little weird in fursuit. I had forgotten to ask about the cultural aspects of things but in the end I was told it was fine.
Of course, culturally, Christmas is just a commercial thing in Buddhist Thailand, with the sleighbells and snow theme predominant, even though it hasn't snowed in Bangkok since the last Ice Age. There was a huge Christmas tree, one of the largest I had ever seen, a little wooden stage with presents and the like and a sleigh over in the far corner. There was also a great deal of lights and a red carpet, making it have something of a grotto feel. It was all a bit hot in what would be summer temperatures in Britain but I have been to SE Asia a lot in December and am aware it's like this everywhere.
Before this, we had met with the furs in one of the restaurants in the shopping centre. Kaiyoki, a Singaporean friend of mine who was holidaying in Bangkok, had largely arranged things but timings hadn't been made clear so we ended up missing the meal, only joining them towards the end of their food. This wasn't a huge problem as Gao and I had headed up to the food court and had sampled a devilishly hot red Thai soup which was probably too spicy for me. Still, it was quite a re-introduction to Thai food and was made more palatable by the coconut juice drank straight out of the coconut. It also afforded us a good opportunity to catch up, as we hadn't seen each other for two years, before meeting up with the others. It turned out there were about ten of them, with a couple of Belgian furs vacationing in the city too. Alas, they hadn't known about FURUM otherwise they may have extended their trip, but it was great to meet them and fursuit with them too.
There were eleven fursuits in the end (me, Gao, Makarm, M2Mafang, Koolmasuke, Yuni, Yern, Shou, Sorairo, Aulder and Kiyochii) and we suited for two hours, finishing just before 11pm. I needed to head off after then, partly because the MRT was closing soon, partly because of the tiredness but largely because we had a 7am start the next morning to head to the ancient city of Ayutthaya. With it being Constitution Day, 10 December, there was going to be quite a furry convoy heading north for the ninety minute journey, far more than I anticipated, and with the spectre of full suiting, I certainly needed the rest. Indeed, full suiting on the Tuesday was one of the other reasons I only partialled on the Monday, and it turned out that this was perhaps the right call.
The journey to Manchester was surprisingly smooth, giving me three hours at the delightful airport. At least it was Terminal 1 I suppose, with a far greater range of bars and restaurants, so I just sat in The Grain Loft, charging my phone and dealing with work email as I waited for my flight to Istanbul. This was the first time I had flown with Turkish Airlines and was a bit of a departure for me, as usually when I go to SE Asia, I do a short hop to a Western European destination then a long haul flight from there. This time, it was a flight of four hours followed by a flight of eight, which was quite different but no less enjoyable (at least on the way there anyway, it was a bit tedious when knackered on the way back). I was surprised to see an Airbus 333 on the Manchester to Istanbul route, but to be fair it was pretty full, as was the flight over to the Thai capital. The other difference from usual was because the length of the flight to Istanbul was so long, we got a meal on this flight too, meaning three meals over the course of a very short period. All were reasonably good in all honesty, but it was perhaps a little too much. Anyway, I fortunately got a window seat next to just one other person on the first flight and an aisle seat on the longer one, which made me content enough (as opposed to the long flight on the way back when I was sandwiched between two mercifully thin people) and I managed to sleep for much of it, not particularly tempted by the range of predominantly American 'comedies' they had on the entertainment system. Still, I did get to watch The Secret Life of Pets 2, thinking it better than the original, as well as a number of two-minute videos detailing some of the destinations to which Turkish Airlines fly. Some of these were very interesting, particularly those in central Asia, but they were all sponsored by the same furniture outlet mall somewhere in Turkey, whose bombastic advert became pretty annoying pretty quickly.
I landed in Bangkok shortly after 3pm on Monday 9 December local time, a little groggy but generally fine. Passing through customs and picking up my baggage was largely a formality, and soon I was in the main arrivals hall dodging the approaches of taxi drivers. I had arranged to meet my friend Gao, a local fur who told me he would take me to my hotel after a whole host of confusion regarding the ordering of a pick-up service from my hotel (I had to phone them from Manchester Airport in the end and they assured me it would be better to just get a taxi from the airport, which is something I was loathed to do). After a little bit of arranging, we agreed to meet at the Meeting Point in the arrivals hall, which we did after about fifteen minutes of waiting from my part. We then headed down to the railway, with Gao showing me how to navigate the change of line successfully (annoyingly, each line in Bangkok has an independent ticking system so you need to buy tickets every time you change). We were heading towards Sam Yot MRT station, one of the newer ones on the network and certainly not there during my last visit in 2009. As I say, this was one change and about fifty minutes of travelling, so it was all rather straightforward. Howeverm once at Sam Yot, we realised the platforms were on two levels and the whole arrangement was confusing, with Gao admitting he had never been to this particular station before. Still, we managed to navigate our way through the whiteness caused by the shiny bright lights and marbelled floors, leaving the exit literally opposite my hotel. After taking our lives in our own hands at a very busy crossroads where the green man didn't seem to work, I was soon checking into my hotel and dumping my bag in the room.
The hotel was basic but reasonable - certainly everything functioned although it was noted that toilet paper was not to go down the sink but in sanitary bags to be popped into a bin at the side. Gao let me get settled, telling me that there was a local meet-up of furs at centralwOrld, a shopping centre in the heart of downtown, from 6:30pm. This gave me about forty minutes to grab a shower and freshen up, with Gao disappearing to a local toy store which he reassured me was the best in the city (and sadly one I didn't get chance to visit). He came back shortly after 6pm and as I was told this was going to be a fursuiting meet, I bundled my partial into my bag, fearing that a full suit with jetlag, a hangover, high heat and a huge bag would be just too much hassle to deal with. In the end, although I did have fun, I somewhat regretted not taking the full suit as the evening was pretty cool by Thai standards at about 23C and a few of the furs had brought their full suits to show off. We were also suiting right outside the admittedly Americanised Christmas display on the mall's forecourt, something which was quite an honour to do as we had to get permission from security and everything. There were also a lot of people, particularly kids, and although they loved my partial, I think the full suits had a greater effect. Interestingly, after every picture they took, the Thais clasped their hands in prayer as thanks, which is something I started to copy, despite it feeling a little weird in fursuit. I had forgotten to ask about the cultural aspects of things but in the end I was told it was fine.
Of course, culturally, Christmas is just a commercial thing in Buddhist Thailand, with the sleighbells and snow theme predominant, even though it hasn't snowed in Bangkok since the last Ice Age. There was a huge Christmas tree, one of the largest I had ever seen, a little wooden stage with presents and the like and a sleigh over in the far corner. There was also a great deal of lights and a red carpet, making it have something of a grotto feel. It was all a bit hot in what would be summer temperatures in Britain but I have been to SE Asia a lot in December and am aware it's like this everywhere.
Before this, we had met with the furs in one of the restaurants in the shopping centre. Kaiyoki, a Singaporean friend of mine who was holidaying in Bangkok, had largely arranged things but timings hadn't been made clear so we ended up missing the meal, only joining them towards the end of their food. This wasn't a huge problem as Gao and I had headed up to the food court and had sampled a devilishly hot red Thai soup which was probably too spicy for me. Still, it was quite a re-introduction to Thai food and was made more palatable by the coconut juice drank straight out of the coconut. It also afforded us a good opportunity to catch up, as we hadn't seen each other for two years, before meeting up with the others. It turned out there were about ten of them, with a couple of Belgian furs vacationing in the city too. Alas, they hadn't known about FURUM otherwise they may have extended their trip, but it was great to meet them and fursuit with them too.
There were eleven fursuits in the end (me, Gao, Makarm, M2Mafang, Koolmasuke, Yuni, Yern, Shou, Sorairo, Aulder and Kiyochii) and we suited for two hours, finishing just before 11pm. I needed to head off after then, partly because the MRT was closing soon, partly because of the tiredness but largely because we had a 7am start the next morning to head to the ancient city of Ayutthaya. With it being Constitution Day, 10 December, there was going to be quite a furry convoy heading north for the ninety minute journey, far more than I anticipated, and with the spectre of full suiting, I certainly needed the rest. Indeed, full suiting on the Tuesday was one of the other reasons I only partialled on the Monday, and it turned out that this was perhaps the right call.
