Red-hot rooming, writing, reading, relaxing and roaming in rainy Thailand.

[Human]

Readers of my Trip Reports might recall that I’m writing a book. This is not easy, given that I work full-time at a school and am also a carer. It’s difficult to find more than a couple of hours every week to write.

School holidays, though, allow me to get some serious writing done. I’ve decided to try to spend a week or so of each school holidays on a “writing retreat”: getting away from the distractions of home to a nice location, preferably with a water view. I write for half a day or so, and spend the rest of the day recharging: walking along the beach, enjoying nice food, reading for research and/or pleasure, getting some exercise and doing some “tourist” stuff if the opportunity arises.

My first writing retreat in June-July was at the Gold Coast (sans AFF Trip Report!). This one will be slightly more exotic.

Several months back I decided that Da Nang in Vietnam would fit the bill nicely, but then I fell for the Accor “Red Hot Rooms” marketing. Accor was offering ocean-view rooms at the Pullman at Khao Lak in Thailand for THB 1100 (about AUD 50) per night. I found reward flights relatively easily (it’s easier when you’re only looking for one seat) and took the plunge.

How could sea-view rooms at a five-star resort be so cheap?

Well, it’s the wet season. And apparently wet means very wet. But that doesn’t bother me because my first priority is writing. The more it rains, the more I’ll write. And when the rain stops, I’ll be in a great place to explore and relax.

I also suspect the resort is following the low-cost-airline model of having the rooms as a loss-leader and charging full-price (or overcharging) for things such as food. I intend to venture out for my meals as much as possible (weather permitting). Will I manage to thwart the LCC model? Or will the resort make some decent money off me after all? I’m about to find out.

I really don’t know what to expect. Apart from a couple of brief BKK transits, this will be my first trip to Thailand. Hopefully it’ll be both an enjoyable and a productive one!

 

[Human]

On this trip I will be flying on two airlines I have not flown on before, and one airline I would be happy if I had not flown on before. One of the airlines I have not flown is Thai Airways.

Melbourne airport tonight is a breeze. There was no queue at the Thai Business Class check-in…


… and security and passport control were both quick and easy. My only problem was acquiring the mandatory Last Decent Coffee Before Overseas Travel*. The Air New Zealand Lounge was a picture of tranquility…



… but the Lounge stopped serving barista coffee after the last ANZ flight. So I sheepishly explained to Lisa, the very friendly and understanding Lounge agent who had let me in, that I’m really truly honestly not a coffee snob but I just had to go in search of my LDCBOT*. She totally understood.

First stop was the Singapore Airlines lounge, which was a little too crowded for my liking. Barista coffee there is only served until 3pm.

Next stop was the American Express Lounge. “Are you still serving barista coffee?”. “Yes, sir, but I must warn you that the Lounge will be closing in 20 minutes, at 10pm. Could I suggest the Plaza Premium Lounge which is open until midnight?”

So my fourth lounge in what seemed like 10 minutes was the PP lounge. Again, a little crowded, but with reasonably decent coffee. Not amazing, but not bad either. The barista even asked me if I would like one shot or two, which I appreciated.


After skulling my coffee in a quiet corner of the Lounge, I headed back for the tranquillity of the ANZ Lounge. Lisa was interested in whether I had succeeded, and after I explained my coffee odyssey to her she expressed genuine gratitude that she could now advise Lounge guests about how to acquire late-night barista coffee.

I finally sat down in one of the armchairs in the almost-empty Lounge, and enjoyed a cool drink. The icing on the cake was the background music: Carole King’s Tapestry, which I’m sure I must have mentioned previously is one of the greatest albums ever.

Boarding of TG462 to BKK commences shortly.



*Not required for trips to NZ.

 

[blackcat20]

Love Khao Lak, even when it is a bit rainy.

 

[Human]

Thai Airways has a staggered Business Class configuration. I was glad to have selected a “true” window seat, because the people sitting closest to the aisle have zero privacy. None.

The seat itself was showing a few signs of wear and tear…


… but it was comfortable enough, although storage space is minimal, and Thai only supplies pyjamas on flights to/from Europe. I was served a Thai “signature” non-alcoholic pre-departure drink. I forgot what it was called, but it was very nice.


The plane pushed back about 15 minutes early – in fact it was in the air before the scheduled gate departure time!

My normal modus operandi for late-night flights is to eat up in the Lounge, then forsake the onboard meal for the sake of maximising my sleep. But I’d heard a lot of good things about the food onboard Thai Business Class flights, so I figured that I had to give the meal a try. For a 9-hour flight, I wasn’t counting on getting more than 5-6 hours’ sleep anyway.

The menu. I chose the Braised Pork Belly for the “dinner” and the Mee Sua Noodles with Pork for breakfast.


Takeoff was smooth and I settled into my usual in-flight entertainment…


The evening meal was marketed as a “supper” to maximise sleep time. It wasn’t – it was a full 5-course meal (though I skipped the cheese plate).

The Amuse Bouche:


The appetiser:


Main course:


And dessert.


It was all delicious, and served quite efficiently (after an 11:30pm takeoff, the dessert was cleared at exactly 1am).

The lovely cabin crew member then offered to “turn down”"my bed.


It was comfortable enough for a Business Class bed. I slept as well as I usually do on a flight – that is, not well at all. According to my Apple Watch, between 1am and 7am, when I was trying to sleep, I slept for 2 hours and 44 minutes. Oh well. One of the things I appreciate about overnight flights in Business Class is that you can be sleepless and comfortable, as opposed to sleepless and uncomfortable!

Breakfast was served on a single tray about 90 minutes before landing.


I was given a code for free internet, only to discover that it was only good for 60 minutes. On an overnight flight, though, that was more than enough.

We landed at BKK in steady rain at 5:30am local time.


Would I fly Thai long-haul Business Class again? Of course! I don’t think Thai is quite in the top echelon (Singapore, Cathay, Qatar etc) but it’s still pretty darn good. Make sure you select your seat wisely though!

 

[Human]

Given the rain, the landing was exceptionally smooth. After disembarking (does anyone else hate the word “de-planing” as much as I do?) I set out on the long, long walk to the Domestic Transfer area. It was well over a kilometre.



Eventually I arrived at the Domestic Transfer desk and I joined the queue. There was no separate queue for Business Class passengers, but it only took 10 minutes or so to get through.. Interestingly there were no Smartgates at the domestic transfer immigration area, so despite having entered Thailand last year (on a 14-hour overnight transit) I needed to do the fingerprint/photograph thingy again. It was all very friendly and quick though.


I found myself in the Domestic terminal, and entered the Thai Royal Silk Lounge where I am sitting as I write this. I’ve got a few hours to kill here before my flight to coughet, and I have to say that it has exceeded my expectations as a domestic Lounge.




This is the view from where I am sitting right now – one of the better Lounge views I can recall.

 

[I love to travel]

The welcome drink is butterfly pea - gets is vibrant hue with the lemon juice added. I agree it is yummy

 

[Human]

A few more pictures of the Royal Silk lounge before I head off to my next flight. The atmosphere, space, food and views make this up there with the best domestic lounges I have visited -- possibly even the best. The only thing missing is barista coffee but that's no surprise. Overall, I'd give this lounge an A.

 

[Human]

After that, the day went pear-shaped. And it went pear-shaped in the worst possible way: Excruciatingly slowly, in gradual increments that slowly became a cascade.

Feel free to read on – I get that reading about things going wrong can be interesting! But the tl;dr version is that after a long and frustrating series of delays, I arrived at the Pullman at 10pm, over seven hours later than expected.

BKK does its security screening at the gate, so I left the Lounge at 10am, giving me plenty of time before my 10:50am flight. I’d made sure that I didn’t have any liquids in containers of more than 100ml, and that I’d packed them all in a clear plastic bag, as per the BKK website’s repeated and clear instructions. At the gate I discovered that none of that applied and they just waved everything through.

Things got worse at the gate itself. Soon after I arrived, the gate agent announced a 30-minute delay due to the need to “prepare” the plane. There was no other announcement for well over an hour. I could work out from FlightRadar that the delay was due to the weather and that plenty of other flights were delayed both arriving and departing. But no flight information was updated on any website. This screenshot, for example, was taken just after 12pm:


Of course the airline can’t be blamed for the weather. It can absolutely be blamed for its poor communication.

At about 12:20pm 90 minutes after the scheduled departure time, and just as I was rueing the hours I’d spent at the gate rather than in that quite lovely Lounge, the word came through: we would be boarding in 10 minutes. About 15 minutes after that, the gate agent animatedly called “Business Class! Business Class!”. With some relief I came forward, had my boarding pass scanned, walked into the aerobridge, and out of it again onto the tarmac and a waiting bus.



As is normal in these situations, once the bus was uncomfortably packed, we set off on a rather long drive to the remote gate, and our plane. I boarded it at about 1pm. This is the Business Class seat on a Thai domestically-configured A320:



Then nothing happened. It seems that the bus had to drive all the way back to the terminal to collect the second bus load of passengers. They boarded at 1:30pm. At that point — finally — the internet gave us a new departure time of 2pm.

2pm came. The cabin doors were closed. The safety briefing was given. And the captain announced that Air Traffic Control had advised of a further 30-minute delay.

2:30pm came. A VietJet 737-8 pulled up alongside us. A few minutes later, our plane started to move … for about 50 metres. Then it stopped.



At 2:43pm, the Captain announced that there was a “technical problem” with one of the engines which would necessitate a return to the bay while it was looked at. At 2:50pm — exactly 4 hours after our scheduled departure and almost 5 hours after I had left the Lounge, the plane pulled back in.

At 3pm the crew came through and gave every passenger in Business and Economy a small chicken wrap and a bottle of water.


It tasted quite good and it was great to eat something.

More good news came through in the form of an announcement a couple of minutes later: engineers were performing their “final checks” and they were preparing for departure.

But at 3:10pm the cabin doors were opened again. Two engineers came on board and knocked on the coughpit door. They walked in, and five minutes later they walked out.

Nothing happened. Again. The passengers started getting up, stretching their legs, using the Business Class toilet … and who could blame them? The cabin door remained open and even the flight attendants started to look forlorn.

At 3:45pm, three hours after the boarding call, and almost six hours after I’d made my way to the gate, the announcement was made: we were to take all our belongings and get off the plane. As we disembarked, the Captain met us at the door and apologised.

We crammed onto buses again and were taken to a gate area in the airport.
A whole lot of Thai Airways staff in hi-viz yellow vests were standing around, occasionally talking into walkie-talkies. They all looked like they were under 25 years old. Eventually one of them shouted at the top of his voice to be heard:

Weather permitting, they were attempting to organise a departure at 5:30pm. Those who wanted to fly on it were to gather to the staff member’s left, and those who did not were to gather to his right. In the meantime, there was a muffin and a bottle of water for everyone.

For over an hour after that, nothing much happened. The staff were still huddling with each other and their walkie-talkies, occasionally breaking off to say goodness-knows-what to agitated passengers who wanted to know what was going on.

I sent an email to the Pullman at Khao Lak, explaining the situation and begging them to not cancel my booking if I didn’t arrive.

At 4:52pm I received an email from Thai Airways, informing me that my flight had been delayed. No kidding. New departure time: 5:00pm. Not possible. As of 5pm, we were still all stuck in the gate area.

By that stage the physiological implications of my 2 hours and 44 minutes of sleep the previous night were beginning to manifest themselves. But at 5:45pm it happened again: boarding was commencing. Back on the bus, which drove us past our old dysfunctional plane, over to another A320. A couple of minutes later I was in my seat again, 12F: second row of Business Class (of 3 rows in total), on the window. Best of all: no-one sitting next to me.

Given the time of day and my sleep-deprived state, my agenda was simple: eat, then sleep. If I could get a 20-minute doze in, that would be priceless, and probably all I needed to get to the hotel in one piece. Scheduled flight time was 65 minutes.

Of course, things still did not go smoothly. At 6:15pm the captain announced yet another delay: “ten to fifteen minutes”. But we started to move after 14 minutes.

The flight itself was very pleasant, albeit too short to provide me with sleep time.

Dinner was chicken rice. Very tasty.


I asked a member of the cabin crew what “Thank You” is in Thai. He taught me how to pronounce it and a couple of minutes later he brought me this:


That act of kindness was probably the highlight of my day.

Finally we landed at coughet seven and a half hours behind schedule. After a long, escorted walk to International Arrivals to collect my bag that had been checked through from MEL, it was another long-ish walk to the designated Grab pick-up area. From there it couldn’t have been easier to order and find my car, and after a 90-minute drive I arrived at the Pullman, weary beyond words, just before 10pm.

Positives? Well, I made it to the Pullman. Seven hours after I expected to, but I made it. And the fact that the disruption occurred at BKK rather than a Thai Airlines outstation meant that they could organise and put us on a new plane relatively easily. A seven hour delay, while frustrating, is better than a 24-hour delay!

Negatives? Well, Thai’s communication – both online and in person – left a lot to be desired. For huge swathes of the day we just didn’t know what was going on and how long the delays were going to be. Thai Airlines isn’t responsible for the weather, and the engine breaking down was just one of those things. But they could have done a much better job of telling us about it.

 

[Human]

My standard Accor diet is Novotel and Ibis, with the occasional Mercure and Sebel thrown in. The Pullman at Khao Lak is a different league entirely. And I don't think I've ever spent less per night at any Accor property.

The check-in staff couldn't have been friendlier. The lovely agent who greeted me, Milk, explained that as I'd requested a nice view, they'd put me on the 5th floor in the middle, with views of the length of the resort and the sea beyond that. I was taken up to my room.


This is the only hotel I've stayed at where the bed is so wide that each side is actually in a different time zone:


The welcome snack:


And the late-night view from the balcony:


But, I thought, I'll start enjoying all this tomorrow. I had a much-needed shower under the rainfall shower-head, and was asleep within seconds after putting my head on the pillow.

 

[Quickstatus]

Disastrous flooding in Bangkok. I hope was not too bad in your neck of the woods.

 

[Human]

Disastrous flooding in Bangkok. I hope was not too bad in your neck of the woods.

Oh dear. That's the first I've heard of it. Thanks for your concern -- no, things are fine here. It's rainy, obviously, but the rain is sporadic. In fact I'm just back from a short walk along the beach.