[Update: adds images.]
So much for knocking, first. And I’m sitting at a work table where my laptop is located. She continues to hold the door open a crack and I’m waiting for her to enter and start emitting something akin to a laugh-scream. I’m not actually in what might be generously called publicly presentable dress. So much for Thai modesty, too.
That was just one of string of annoyances today. Although it began well enough with a very good espresso at a shop 25 metres west of the hotel entrance on Khuanthani. Bit of a surprise to find good coffee in a city remote from Bangkok. I had two, could sit outside and watch the passing parade (boy, where did all the good looking Thai girls go . . . yeah, I know) and could access the hotel’s free wi-fi signal. Cool.
Upon my return to the hotel for breakfast, I discovered my “free” meal offer expired at 10 a.m., and it was now 11:15. All right, will try a cafe I’d read about, Peppers on Uppalisan, near the military airport. Not far and reachable by the No. 11 baht bus (Song Taew, or two seats in the bed of a pickup). I was not in the mood for noodle soup, which normally works for me.
Peppers is a very well appointed bakery-cafe, situated at one end of a military jet runway. All walled off but you could see the instrument landing arrays. No luck though at the cafe. Seems the food kitchen is closed till something like Jan. 9 or 10. I didn’t want a piece of cake or pizza. I wanted breakfast. Had a very nice banana-pineapple fruit shake though, although felt rather frustrated by it all. So it was back to the Wrong Way cafe on nearby Phadaeng, which is quite good really. Ate there twice already.
Waited in the bare heat for the same bus on its return and when I got to the Wrong Way, it was the Wrong Time. Didn’t open till 2 p.m. Same every day. Argh! Wished I’d looked out from the back of the passenger pickup before getting off and paying my 10 baht fare. Now I had to pay another fare.
Well, time to look for a noodle shop. Didn’t know where the well regarded N-Joy cafe was. Peppers had wi-fi but my iPhone, while receiving the wireless signal, refused to select it and insisted on taking the mobile phone data network to connect to the Net. But I don’t have a data plan and the phone refused to let me quit the search for the data network until it timed out. Triple argh! I was going to look up the N-Joy address.
The noodle shop I selected I’d seen yesterday. It seemed to be popular so I noted it in my mental notebook. 30 baht for a rather miserly rice noodle soup with a variety of “meats”. Others, i,.e., Thais, were served the same volume and type. And the price was on the board. I’d rate it 6 out of 10.
So I came back to the hotel to write and wait for Wrong Way to open. And off I go . . .
Moments ago I heard slippers scuffing the tile floor outside my room at the Hotel Ratchathani. The key enters the door lock although I didn’t get that it was my door for a moment. Then I sing out, “hello!”, to warn off any error in door number reading. But the key kept turning and the door opened and I said “hello” again and said something like “uh, uh, uh” and then a hand reaches in with voice attached, “getting my . . .” something in a Thai accented English. And I can see a spray can, which I assume was a cleaner, which came from the corner of my closet and it was pointed at me in explanation. I can see one side of her face, a cleaning lady I’d seen earlier in the day when my room was tidied up.
So much for knocking, first. And I’m sitting at a work table where my laptop is located. She continues to hold the door open a crack and I’m waiting for her to enter and start emitting something akin to a laugh-scream. I’m not actually in what might be generously called publicly presentable dress. So much for Thai modesty, too.
Upon my return to the hotel for breakfast, I discovered my “free” meal offer expired at 10 a.m., and it was now 11:15. All right, will try a cafe I’d read about, Peppers on Uppalisan, near the military airport. Not far and reachable by the No. 11 baht bus (Song Taew, or two seats in the bed of a pickup). I was not in the mood for noodle soup, which normally works for me.
Peppers is a very well appointed bakery-cafe, situated at one end of a military jet runway. All walled off but you could see the instrument landing arrays. No luck though at the cafe. Seems the food kitchen is closed till something like Jan. 9 or 10. I didn’t want a piece of cake or pizza. I wanted breakfast. Had a very nice banana-pineapple fruit shake though, although felt rather frustrated by it all. So it was back to the Wrong Way cafe on nearby Phadaeng, which is quite good really. Ate there twice already.
Well, time to look for a noodle shop. Didn’t know where the well regarded N-Joy cafe was. Peppers had wi-fi but my iPhone, while receiving the wireless signal, refused to select it and insisted on taking the mobile phone data network to connect to the Net. But I don’t have a data plan and the phone refused to let me quit the search for the data network until it timed out. Triple argh! I was going to look up the N-Joy address.
The noodle shop I selected I’d seen yesterday. It seemed to be popular so I noted it in my mental notebook. 30 baht for a rather miserly rice noodle soup with a variety of “meats”. Others, i,.e., Thais, were served the same volume and type. And the price was on the board. I’d rate it 6 out of 10.
So I came back to the hotel to write and wait for Wrong Way to open. And off I go . . .
