Today we were flying to Bangkok from Hong Kong, and thus it involved an early morning (getting up at 5am). I really need to stop choosing early morning and red-eye flights – this could all be solved if I paid a bit extra and chose to fly full service legacy airlines but alas until someone hands me over a Platinum or even better a Centurion American Express, I will continue to dream. Alas I digress.
So after catching a bus down to the Macau Ferry Terminal in central, Hong Kong. We waded through the hoards of Chinese tourists to go to the ticket windows and purchase our one-way tickets to Macau. We were able to score free upgrades to Cotai First class, so that was a bonus this morning. Want we didn't count on this morning however, was the sheer number of Chinese tour groups that would be crossing immigration to get out of Hong Kong the same time that we were passing through. You would expect that this sort of thing happens quite regularly and that immigration would provide lines for independent travellers to ensure that they are able to make it to their ferry on time. Natalie and I pushed our way through to the front (when in Rome, eat pizza; when in China, lose all sense of social etiquette). We managed to get the attention of some tourists and were told off by one such woman who suggested that we join the queue like everyone else. Considering she was on a tour and it didn't matter which ferry she boarded –the ferries leave every 15mins for them and they board which ever one is about to leave next, I thought this was a bit rich. Luckily, immigration was understanding of our situation (our ferry was about to leave in 15mins) and we were let through and processed straightaway… take that mole! Lol.
On board comfortable in the first class cabin, we settled in for the hour cruise and were served breakfast shortly after departure. The Macau people sure do like the word Cotai. It’s possibly to travel by Cotai strip’s Cotai jet in Cotai class to go see a performance in the Cotai arena. Not a Cotai a lie! Arriving into Macau, we took a short taxi ride to the airport and checked in for our Air Asia flight to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport. For those not acquainted with Air Asia, it is basically the Jetstar of Asia and half owned by the guys of RyanAir fame (shudder at the memories…). The flight was a fairly uneventful 2½ hours made only a little annoying by the large number of buckles being popped to release seatbelts as soon as the wheels touched down.
Upon arriving in Bangkok, it was a half hour cab ride to the Holiday Inn Silom, which was to be home for the next 4 days. A free upgrade for the room (yay to priority club gold!) and we were settled in and temped to lie on the bed and just sleep. We weren’t however about to waste and afternoon in bustling Bangkok and so began wandering one of the main streets until we hit a BTS skyrail station. The afternoon was spent wandering inside Siam Central/Siam Paragon (nice shopping centres, but the usual brand names that are no where near the reach of us mere mortals). More appropriate price-wise was the MBK centre, but it was more market like and being dazed by so many choices was not the most ideal way to shop after being up since 5am. We topped the night off by having some Japanese Ramen noodles and then heading back to the hotel for a well-deserved rest.
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