Upon arrival in Bangkok international airport, I must say I was impressed. Picked up bags and on a bus within the hour. The 45 minute journey into Khoa San district was nice but I noticed a yellow cloud hanging over the city, smog maybe.
Our hotel was situated in backpacker heartland. I have never seen so many backpackers in my life, but a really nice vibe about the place. Strange thing happened during check in. Our hotel did not accept credit cards even though we booked online using the credit card, hmmm? I went to draw out cash but none of my cards worked either, very strange. We paid and checked in, our room was quite nice considering the complaints that were being voiced at the front desk, that was, apart from the lingering smell of smoke in the room. It later turned out that my credit card details had been stolen and my current account had been blocked, most annoying.
We headed out shopping for medical supplies and trekking gear, leaving the a/c on full blast to remove the smell of smoke. First stop was Boots, spent about £50 on drugs then headed onto MBK and Siam shopping centres. We caught a tuk tuk to the shopping district, quickest way in Bangkok given the amount of traffic, but we were hit by a 25 tonne juggernaut. The tuk tuk driver was clearly shaken, but extremely annoyed the lorry driver didn’t stop to check the damage, so for the next 10 minutes we were party to a car chase around Bangkok. It was clear that the tuk tuk driver was in no position to pull in front of the lorry to make him stop so gave up. There was no real visible damage to the tuk tuk, so we paid and harried into the shopping centre. Managed to get some really good day packs for the trek, but decided to buy the rest of the gear in Kathmandu as Bangkok was expensive. Shopping is exhausting so we needed to re-fuel on donuts on a number of occasions. Took a tuk tuk back to the hotel, this time with no accidents, touch wood, salt over the left shoulder and so on.
Our second day in Bangkok was again further shopping. We had all legal drugs on the trekking list but could not get any Diamox. Diamox is a product used by trekking drug cheats which allows them to continue higher without acclimatising. It is not fool proof but can ease a severe headache without descending 300m.
Found a great café outside our hotel that sold mashed potatoes, so we had breakfast lunch and dinner there, for once, good English food was a blessing in disguise. I had lost a considerable amount of weight over the past 3 months, down to 81kg at the last weigh-in, so really needed to eat some good old fashioned fat before the trek.
The final morning, we took the first bus out of the city destined for Kathmandu via the airport. Our Thai Airways flight was exceptional. The plane was huge and almost brand new, the saffron veg curry was delightful and we both felt really safe.
Our second day in Bangkok was again further shopping. We had all legal drugs on the trekking list but could not get any Diamox. Diamox is a product used by trekking drug cheats which allows them to continue higher without acclimatising. It is not fool proof but can ease a severe headache without descending 300m.
Found a great café outside our hotel that sold mashed potatoes, so we had breakfast lunch and dinner there, for once, good English food was a blessing in disguise. I had lost a considerable amount of weight over the past 3 months, down to 81kg at the last weigh-in, so really needed to eat some good old fashioned fat before the trek.
The final morning, we took the first bus out of the city destined for Kathmandu via the airport. Our Thai Airways flight was exceptional. The plane was huge and almost brand new, the saffron veg curry was delightful and we both felt really safe.
Arriving at Kathmandu airport gave me flash backs to Mumbai airport in India, absolute chaos! Luckily, we had pre-booked a room at the legendary Kathmandu Guest House, so was greeted by a Shapiro who whisked us away from the pleas of rogue taxi drivers offering you best price, my cousin owns a hotel, and I am a trekking guide. Upon arriving at the KMGH, we were very disappointed to find no rooms available. The poor excuse was that 6 of the guests had food poisoning and that they needed to stay another day to recover, which I didn’t believe for one minute. The hotel tried to put us in another place which was awful, so finally settled for the Kathmandu Resort Hotel.
The next two days were spent rushing around buying supplies, trekking gear and booking the trip itself. We finally agreed on a mid range price trekking company whom seemed to know about safety and acute mountain sickness. We were introduced to our guide Mochindra, whom was a real Sherpa which was satisfying.
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