Mad it through flight one of the trip; Chiang Mai to Bangkok.
It was an afternoon flight, so I got to have a leisurely start to the day; Breakfast at the café next door, chatted with a friend in NZ, that sort of thing.
The Grab ride to the airport was mostly fine, though it got a bit odd at the terminal. There were police ( people in uniform who the driver referred to as police ) looking at cars that had stopped, and this was apparently a problem and would get the driver a fine, so he drove a bit further up to drop me off.
- If you’re going to get a fine by going to the airport, why did you accept a ride who wants to go to the airport?
- If you want me to get out quickly, why do you have the locks set so that I can only get out on the other side of the car?
- And while I get that you’re maybe panicking, pissing around with central locking while I tied getting out didn’t help, so you had to get out of the car to let me out anyway.
It turned out fine (for me), but … A bit odd.
Fir some reason I ended up with airport lounge access, so took as much advantage of it as I could in the time available. Don’t think I booked a special fare or anything.
A much less weird Grab ride at the other end. BKK airport has a designated Grab pickup zone, and big location signs you can photograph & send to the driver to show where you are, plus people coordinating the cars & shouting out plate numbers. Given the sheer number of rides, it’s absolutely needed.
My ride was, like a lot of them, an actual taxi with meter & everything, doing ride-sharing stuff too. My inner cynic wonders whether it pays better, or if it’s just that nobody trusts the taxi drivers because of meter scams & all the other dodgy behaviour you hear about.
Got to my hostel without incident; It has a rooftop area which is also the hostel kitchen, with a view of the surrounding area. By which I mean the airport.
