Trip To Bangkok : Prelude

( This is Post I of V chronicling, well, what else? My Trip to Bangkok! )

I won a trip to Bangkok sometime back. It was for some MTV contest that I'd entered way back. I don't even remember what it was anymore. They'd called me up around April but nothing came of it. I was busy with my exams and getting ready to move to Delhi for my job and I forgot about it. After joining here, I mailed them and they finally got things moving and told me that it be sometime in December.

The trip was for 3 days and 2 nights for two people. They said they would be paying for the travel and the stay. Everything else would be on our expense. Later they clarified that they would be sanctioning Rs 40,000 and anything over that amount would be borne by us. I finally had to pay about Rs 3500, which is decent, I think.

You'd have thought I'd be swamped with requests from people asking to go along. You'd be wrong. I just couldn't find anyone! I asked my sister, my cousin, my friends. All in all, I checked with about 8 people before I finally got someone who was ready to and able to go. All the others had some problem or the other; someone didn't have a passport that was valid for at least 6 months ( as is required ), someone was busy, someone didn't want to come ( !! ) etc. etc. Finally, Freddie from work, agreed. And we were set!

Not really. Since I hadn't got my tickets or the hotel voucher yet! I was talking to the travel agent ( who incidently was located in Mumbai, since when I'd entered and won the contest, I was living in Pune, closer to Mumbai ) everyday for over a week trying to get things finalized. I received the couriered tickets on the day before I was supposed to leave! Luckily, everything was in order otherwise the whole thing would have to have been scrapped! As an aside, the travel agent asked me how to dial my mobile phone number from Mumbai! She didn't know how to! She'd been trying to get through to me by dialing the area code! I thought it was rather absurd considering that she was a travel agent!

The plane was scheduled to depart at 0840 and since check-in for international flights begins three hours before, we planned to be at the airport at 0530. Which meant waking up at 0300! And since my body clock is set for nighty-night at 0000, this meant only 3 hours of sleep! Groan! I managed to wake up in time though. I'd packed my suitcase and bag the night before along with all my documents and money. All that remained to be done was lock up the house and move to the airport.

Freddie had arranged for a vehicle from the company and he turned up at a little past 0400 and we sped off for a weekend of exotic fun and relaxation. Or so we thought!

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