Thailand - How I First Came Here

I first came to Thailand in 2004 & I came here more of less by accident. I had travelled a fair bit in Europe Russia Western Europe Scandinavia North Africa & north South America but I had never found the time to travel to Asia.

One night I was talking to a friend who had travelled extensively throughout the world & he was telling me about his favourite country to where he had been returning year after year for fourteen years. Knowing the man’s experience as a traveller I was very taken aback to hear that he had been choosing to go to the same location in Asia for fourteen years.

I had to ask him which part of huge Asia held such an attraction for him & he said Thailand. I knew next to nothing about Thailand except that I had had a few meals at a near-by Thai restaurant over the years. I also knew from collecting stamps as a boy that it used to be called Siam. Anyway my friend asked me if I’d like to go. I said that I would ‘one day’ & meant it.

He startled me by stating that he was going to Thailand for a month soon & that I was welcome to go with him if I wanted. I answered that I had a few jazz festivals to go to soon & maybe I would if there was at least a month between them & if I could get a flight & if… I could hear myself putting him off but I did not understand why.

A few hours later I went home & being a keen Internet surfer I checked out a bit about Thailand on the travel brochure sites. It looked really fantastic. The prices were good too except for the flights. Hotels were cheap to reasonable & food & drinks prices were insignificant compared to where I lived. So I checked the dates of the two Jazz festivals & they were thirty-three days apart. Now for the flight. I spent well into the next morning checking flights & found one for the day after the first festival leaving from our local airport. It was not the cheapest flight but it gave me more time.

In a reckless moment I booked it there & then online. I then found an inn with rooms to let online that my friend had said he went to on quiz evenings & thought that they would be open by now serving breakfasts. I sent them an email & a reply came back twenty minutes later. I had been lucky again. The boss was in the middle of checking yesterday’s figures when he saw my email come through. However not sure of his Internet ability he asked me to phone him right away. I checked my watch it was still 4AM so I phoned.

He took my booking on trust & so I did not have to make a payment. I had heard about Thailand made up my mind to go & booked the flight & room all within five hours & I could not wait for nine o’clock to come to notify my friend that I would be going too.

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