Day One, 22nd December.

So, we had just left Mumbai Airport on day zero, btw i call it day "zero" because according to our tour programme it was not part of our tour and our tour really started with departure at 11 50 PM on 21st December which was 22nd December for Kesari right from the start. Anyways, so we left and this was my first International Flight experience. Tried to compare with some Domestic flights i had flown by. Suddenly seats seemed to be slightly more spacious, people more decent and ofcourse Air hostesses YOUNGER! ;-)

I had heard about international travels from several friends saying it was boring and all that. Nothing too see for n hours and stuff. But i must say, i enjoyed every bit of it!
It was a really nice thing which Thai Airways projects on the main screen( I dont know if its the same in other airlines too). They were showing many technical parts of the flight. As in, altitude, temperature of surrounding air, ground speed, head/tail wind speed. It was nice to brush up the simple formulae i had learnt in my first year and actually check the Mach number and stuff from what i remembered about A 330-600. :-D Almost exact Mach number thats specified on any website and stuff. Felt great!

Soon we were served with drinks after about 20-30 minutes. Writing about this as there is a kissa which Dad claims is true although all 3 of us say he is just hiding what actually happened!
Mom, well, doesnt like to see dad drink and is generally very much against it even if its done when she is not seeing. And, i took orange juice, Manu took Apple juice and Mom took something like Sprite. On the seat ahead of us, Vaidya kaku had taken red wine! Mom was shocked and was almost staring at what and how and all that! And then all we noticed the next moment was a can of Singha Beer on dads table!!! Mom, obviously asked what is going on and dads claim was that he asked for 7 Up and the airhostess mistook it for Singha!! Hilarious.. still dad claims so. Meanwhile Mom had her say in the argument too. She said she heard dad saying 7 Up but he was pointing towards Singha beer can while saying it "purposely". So the battle still continues in our house as to the airhostess, well her name was Narintip, was right or wrong!
Anyway, i showed to mom perhaps what would have pacified her a bit. On the Singha beer can, a sentence saying 6% alcohol by volume. She just smiled at me. I gladly accepted it and quickly had 2 sips before she could even stop me. The great Beer tasting saga was over for me and i must say, I WILL NEVER DRINK SINGHA BEER IN MY LIFE! Hated the taste!

Then there were a few more things which i will just mention and not write in detail. I was awake all the flight and had read the magazine of Thai Airways almost so deeply that i can remember that the Channel schedule was on page 83 and duty free shop addresses were from pages 15 to 20!!! Manu had a hard time sleeping with she claiming that the seat and the backrest and all that was just too inappropriate for her "tiny" size. She even had plans of filling up the Thai complaints form!

Finally at 5:05 local time we arrived at Bangkok Airport and it was a hard time for some parents to wake up small small kids! First impression of the airport.. GODgiri. Had read about the new Bangkok "Suvarnabhumi" airport in Thai Airways magazine and that it had opened recently on 28th Sept 2006 and stuff. First thing i tried to look was the much takled about ATC tower which is the tallest ATC tower in the world. Found it ultimately after i left the airport :-)
Whole Airport was very brightly lit and there were 100's of counters at every place. "Travellators" was a first time experience for me and it was nice too! Looking at our own reflections in glasses alongside seeming like running and stuff was enjoyable. BTW, Bangkok International Airport has around 500 check in counters! That i guess gives an idea of the magnitude of the whole affair. I think we would have walked through about 1.5 kms on travellators and climbed up and down about 4 floors when we finally reached immigration counters.
Immigration first time for me was a kissa kind of! From what i know, and from what is followed actually too, we are required to give our passport, immigration form and if asked our boarding pass at the immigration counter. The dude sitting on the counter was a trainee and he asked me to produce my flight ticket!!! I was like, what the hell and managed to say "we are not supposed to show it right?" He gave m one sad look and i came to know he was not letting me in without it. Quietly left the counter and got back with the flight ticket which were in my moms purse and she had already cleared immigration and was on the other side, ofcourse without tickets. Then just felt for a moment that people are staring at me and stuff, well i still think thats imaginary too! hahaha.. Anyways, it was over and we had a half an hour break in which we were supposed to collect our luggage and freshn up for a 2 hour Bus journey from Bangkok Airport to Nong Nooch Village...

Then we all proceeded behind our guide to our bus and it was a really nice and comfortable one to travel in. All buses there meant for tourists were same. Nice ones and about 3 times more superior than a Neeta Volvo! Bangkok's first glimpses were too impressive. There were about a dozen flyovers near the airport and i did not feel surprised when the guide announced the next moment that Bangkok is called the Bridge City. There are 100s of them in the city and outskirts!

We were on our journey to Nong Nooch village and like every Indian would obviously do, i was aprreciating the cleanliness and the condition of the roads! Every single road was of the level of Pune-Mumbai expressway. No wonder we were going at speeds of about 110 kmph in that bus. Had a short stop for breakfast at Mc Donalds midway and reached Nong Nooch village sometime. well, i dont remember the time!

Was a beautiful place of about 600 acres and first thing that came to my mind was IITM is bigger than that! hehe.. still, Nong Nooch was a typical tourist spot with all the basic things which the tourists love to see. Huge lush green lawns, dozens of flower gardens, butterfly and bird parks as also eating spots!!
We were there to see a typical thai cultural show and i just kept my fingers crossed that the show should not be longer than half an hour! I just hate the word Cultural! For me, it is very hard to appreciate things lik cultural shows, adivasi dances, and ofcourse Modern art!
Anyway, the show was about half an hour length exactly and it was OK OK.. i obviously didnt appreciate the dances and acting but the sets on stage and also the costumes were just wonderful. It was dark in there and my camera battery almost got drained with the number of flashes i managed to click.
Next we went "quickly" to elephant show. Quickly - thats because many shows in Thailand are such that you get seats on first come basis. So as our guide had told, we almost ran to the elephant show to catch good seats. Managed to do so and i must say, Elephant show was the highlight of the first day!
Elephants doing almost all kinds of things. Right from a baby elephant to an old one. They played dart, football, basketball etc. Cycled around in the arena and gladly devoured almost anything that the crowd was feeding them. Highlight within the show for me was the paintings made by elephants during the show! They were just awesome. Purposely enough, they were done on plain white t shirts which were sold later in the crowd. I can remember everything that the elephants painted and wondered how they teach animals to do such things!
Then there was a rock and roll dance of the elephants which the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Then there were some idiotic things like the biggest elephant massaging the back of volunteers from the crowd with his leg and stuff! I hate such things. What if the elephant accidentally steps on me! hehe...

After the show we then went to botanical garden and then to our Bus. It was very hot by that time and we were glad to get inside the bus. After about 1 hour journey we reached our first overnight stay hotel. Hotel Central Pattaya, Pattaya. Was a kind of small place from the outside but a nice hotel from inside. Then we were having our first "rest" of the trip till about 7 o clock after we had lunch at about 2 in the afternoon. Needless to say i slept as did everyone.

Went for dinner with the group again and after dinner we were taken to the world famous Alcazar show. This was a total paisa wasool show as i would call it. Reason, well it was a slowish cabaret or whatever one chooses to call it! Again the sets, the backdrops and the costumes were just too awesome. Mom didnt appreciate them much as also the show but i guess you need to be age 30 or less to appreciate such things! As i can remember, i had said bhari dresses hote na tyanche and mom replying kay kapde re baba tyanche! hahaha...
Anyway i enjoyed every part of the show as it was individual + group dances alternately. When an individual performance would be going on the backstage people wold be arranging for the next group dance and the individual performer actually performing in front of a curtain! That was one thing i had never seen before and appreciated it very much. So much time is saved this way! The drink served during the show was also nice and i must say i came across the most weird shape of icecube, well not a cube. In my drink i found an elongated toroidal shaped ice piece which i tried to recollect whether i had read its name anywhere but no luck! It was just a more than weird shape!

After the show we were again taken back in our bus to the hotel and we were told that the wake up call next morning was going to be 5 30, breakfast 6 30 and departure 7 30. I was already scared! 5 30???

BTW there are so many more things to write about the entire day as the tourist buses have PA system in them. Almost throughout the entire time we spend in the bus the guide is constantly telling what we are seeing on our right and left sides. That was again a new experience for me and i must say i enjoyed this sight seeing more than any of the actual shows/places we were supposed to see.

I guess i will stop here with Day 1, 22nd December as it was time to say Good night to newly formed friends. :-)

To be continued in Day Two, 23rd December.