Arrival in da City

On the morning of the 10th of October my trip finally started with a train ride from awakening Santander to already busy Madrid. I went straight for the airport pulling a huge suitcase and carrying my definitely overweight hand luggage in form of an almost exploding backpacker’s rucksack. The LAN airline desk officer (for my flight from Madrid to Frankfurt) just smiled about my luggage and didn’t mention any extra charges; I was more worried about my follow up flight with Oman Airlines that had a luggage limit of 20kg per person, whereas my suitcase was almost 26kg. On the flight I met a group of Germans getting back from an archeologically excursion to study the gothic and romanesque relics in the south of Spain and Portugal. After my Spanish summer it felt nice to have a chat in my own language, but probably there will be lots of countrymates travelling Thailand. In Frankfurt the desk officer of Oman Airlines commented on my “poor student” status and waved me through while I noticed an older man discussing about the weight limit to my left. I settled for a last cup of freshly brewed coffee in Europe reading through newspapers headlining the severe flood situation in Bangkok. This year more than the average amount of water had poured down during the rainy season leaving many families without a home. Basically the entire country was in a desperate situation with the high risk that Bangkok could be flooded as the water mass from the north had to pass the capital on their way to the ocean. 
After the first smooth flight to Muscat, capital of Oman I bought some breakfast cookies and met a Dutch couple heading to Nepal. We exchanged travel hints as I had been trekking the Annapurna region 6 years ago and they had been travelling in South East Asia just last year. 
Yes I was on the right way, feeling the backpacker’s spirit slowly coming back to me. Unluckily the second flight was bumpy all the way through and a disappointing Thai movie about army recruits (slapstick used for supposedly normal acting making every scene seem silly - I later noticed that this was the normal Asian style and had to get used to it anyways) couldn’t light up my spirits. Sleeping was impossible and I had only been napping a few minutes here and there during the last 35 hours. Therefore I was more than relieved when my Thai friend was waiting for me at the airport. On the way to his house we stopped at a 7-Eleven, the widest chain network throughout Thailand. The efficiency of this one-shop it all stores is astounding, you can get booze, food and presents, get a Thai SIM card and pay your bills. They are everywhere and you always find one in walking distance no matter if you are in the smallest village or business centre of town. Before heading to bed I enjoyed my first Thai noodle soup, light noodles with pork balls within a spicy soup which you can sweeten by adding sugar or peanuts.
The first days passed without big time travelling tails. I got my VISA changed from a single entry to a multiple entry one, which took almost a whole day and Jays family invited me for a first Thai meal in a mid sized food stall. The boiled chicken legs, one of the dishes,  didn’t seem appealing, but I couldn’t resist trying, for which I received the status “male” by his dad. Apparently woman in Thailand are afraid/ taught to be afraid of everything unfamiliar and only males venture off into the unknown. Anyways it wasn’t a tasteful delight, but rather a chewy not to do again (sorry but no picture). 

Oman airport

  












Jay with his mum and dad

my first noodle soup