Date: January 16, 2023
After spending nearly a month in (mostly) Manila, it was time to say goodbye and fly out.
Once I was done wasting time (I checked in early), I went back down and cleared immigration.
Manila’s NAIA is notorious for delays but fortunately my flight departed on time.
I could see a few Air Asia airplanes grounded and it was proof in January 2023, post-COVID travel had not returned to normal.
I guess during COVID-19, Thai airport authorities realized it’s a good time to introduce robot cleaners.
As of this writing, Visa on Arrival for Indian visitors is no longer required — well, until May 31, 2024 as of now. We’ll see if Thailand extends it even further.
After clearing immigration, I walked out to the bus area. Even though Don Muaeng Airport has a metro station on the SRT Red line, it does not connect to the Sukhumvit (light green) BTS line. I needed to get to Ratchathewi BTS station but was told by the information kiosk, that it’s better to take a bus to Mo Chit BTS station, which is also near the Chatuchak MRT subway station.
I made a short video explaining the process:
Once I got down at Ratchathewi BTS station, it was just a short walk to Lemon Siam Hostel.
I had a reason for wanting to stay in this area and that was to go DJI’s service center, but I’ll explain that in the next post.
Since this was still a post-COVID era, I didn’t want to risk it by sharing a room with other travellers. After freshening up, I felt sleepy. I hadn’t slept much due to my early morning flight from Manila, so I took a nap after finishing up some work.
When I woke up, I began to feel hungry as I had skipped lunch to nap. So I stepped out to get an early dinner. Just beside Lemon Siam hostel, there was a tiny eatery housed inside what otherwise looked like an appliance repair shop.
Fortunately, the stretch of road I was on had a few eateries (a lot of them Muslim-run). I sat inside Red Istanbul Turkish Restaurant and had a second, much more filling meal.
I went back to my room, resumed working until it was time to sleep. I initially didn’t have too much planned for my stay in Bangkok but none the less, I would end up shooting enough content for a bunch of posts! So look forward to them.
Next posts in this series:
Thailand: Phayathai Food Center and Bangkok’s Gundam Base
Thailand: Siam Square Walking Street, a good place to find K-pop stores in Bangkok
Thailand: Hindu god shrines around Sukhumvit, Bangkok
Thailand: Bangkok’s Wat Saket and the Golden Mount
Thailand: Capturing Wat Arun at sunset
