Bangkok, On Arrival 16 October 2007
Our arrival in Bangkok passed without a hitch. Immigration, bag pickup and Customs. We seemed to just fly through, well ok the que was a little long for immigration but at least we seemed to keep shuffling forward. Can not say I’ve been in many cases where it was much different except some odd places were there really were not that many tourists/travellers to start with, I’m not sure you can really put Thailand in that category.
Once we passed through that barrier we walked out into the hordes thronging the entry. Still compared to some even that was orderly. Walking past locals holding placards some with hotel names, some with the names of the individuals they were there to meet. Sure enough as promised was a man bearing the placard with our hotel’s name on it who quickly ushered us off and before we knew it we were settled into the back of a Mercedes, soothing music, a cool refreshment towel to freshen up, cool bottles of water each and complimentary mints to keep us occupied while we stared out the window and the driver sped through an almost sleepy Bangkok. About 40 minutes later, not that I noticed the time its just that the driver told us it would take that long, we arrived at the Shangri-La. The attentive staff whisked us off to our room where check in was done while we sipped on the welcome drink served by the butler in comfort rather than standing at a reception desk. Personally the Shangri-La and there new Krungthep wing get a big thumbs up.
