arrival at the airport:
siam is an amazing country. it is probably the best deal in the world. people are friendly, food is cheap and the weather is good- at least most of the time.
when i arrived with my bike at the survarnabhumi airport it was raining cats and dogs. that is not unusual in asia.
i put my thin thai raincoat on and tried to bike away to my hotel. the friendly airport guards warned me not to leave the airport. i thought the road was closed for bikes, that is something i have heard from mexico for example. no-they just warned me not to go outside of the safe airport roof because it was raining !!
rain is very bad for most people in asia. they were all looking at me and smiling as if i was crazy to go into the rain on a bike. they were so friendly and so welcoming that i decided to chat with them for a while. i shared my potato chips with them and we shared the usual pleasantries. anything more did not work because of language.
finally the rain ended. one of the guards told me that i would better go down to the first level because the road on the arrival level would be too dangerous in his opinion. anyway he would not stop me to go there. i listened to him and went down to the first level biking away. i felt very good because everyone was extremely friendly.
the road was still wet. my hotel was located near the airport. i was there when i had left bangkok three weeks before. the airport area is huge and i had trouble finding the hotel again. finally i arrived in the dark:
hotels in thailand are very cheap. this was an excellent hotel charging 20 dollars including breakfast.
my bikefriday is in the box, the panniers are in the duffelbag.
