First part and second part here.
After that fulfilling (but also tiring) February 9 jaunt around Bangkok with an extra leg, for February 10, I had to prep again for another full-day historical trip around Ayutthaya. It’s the first tour I booked before the Bangkok one, and the one that made me go full tilt towards two days of tours in Thailand.
This out-there tour is something I will never have dared to do all by myself. It is a tall order to self-plan a tour to a rural area in a foreign country without your own rental vehicle. I don’t drive as well. So I am very very much comfortable paying a tour company to take care of the entire itinerary and planning, plus the transportation vehicle as well. My day will be in their capable hands.
I woke up again around 6AM, and I had two hours to be out of the hotel. Luckily, the meeting place was also the same route as last time, just a bit shorter as I only have to get off a specific exit at Siam Station to see the meeting place for the tour, just in front of the Siam Paragon mall. I did spot their booth the previous day before I headed to Centralworld, so I knew where to go.
I turned on the telly to Arirang, put water in the kettle to boil for coffee, and had my breakfast once I made the coffee. It was the steamed filled bread I bought the previous night at Yaowarat Road, and a mentaiko sandwich from 7-11. Luckily, the filled bread was good and I ate all four – I’ll need whatever energy source I can – plus the backup bread as well. Not bad. I ate while the washing machine at my room whirred madly. I put in there my work/airport attire and my Bangkok attire from the past two days. Also, the hotel provided a free pack of detergent good enough for two runs.
After a shower and prep, I was ready to go downstairs. This time, I wore a quick-wicking green Adidas sports shirt (sleeved) and training pants. Same exact bag prep as the last tour, albeit with a fresh pack of mints and an extra bag in case of purchase overrun. Unlike Bangkok, I anticipated that Ayutthaya might be where I want to purchase a lot of souvenirs. Just a hunch I had.
I left the hotel, went to BTS Nana station, and boarded the line going to Siam Station. I got there fairly quickly too. Maybe it’s the CNY holiday effect? Although I only spotted a few CNY celebratory prep, and most of them were in the malls. Found them again quick, and did the sign-up at the clipboard with my name.
Another thing I realized when I “checked in” with the tour company’s booth at Siam Paragon – there’s a lot of people from Singapore that came to Thailand these past few days, primarily to take advantage of the long holiday breaks. Yesterday there were five people from SG on the same Bangkok tour I was in, and on this one there were four.
By 9AM, we finally boarded the vehicle, which was a big van-esque vehicle with more than enough seats for 12 people, and we were only nine including the tour guide. I thought we were about to leave, but for a few minutes the tour guide said we were amiss by one person. Then my phone buzzed and the tour company booth lady called to ask if I was already in the tour vehicle. I said yeah. I sent a picture of me in the vehicle to have her verify.
Turned out, there was a language mixup. I signed up on the clipboard with my name in the Western arrangement – first name, last name. I was listed by the tour company in the Asian-Western mixup format – “Mr/Ms”, last name, first name. For some reason, they thought those two entries were different people. The person doing the final checks did not put together that those formats pertained to the same person. The only way that they verified it was really me was with the Klook booking number. So guys, informal tip: always have the Klook app on your phone. And in Thailand, look out for the Asian name format, last name first. Use whenever in case it needs to be that way. Double-check with their ledgers in their booth. If they wrote your name a certain way on their end, follow that one.
After that small misunderstanding got cleared up, we were then on our way.



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