It’s time to go home.
As promised, we were picked up at 5.30am by Bell Travel Service with a minivan which sent us to bus station. Booking online in their website is so easy (and cheaper than buying ticket in their office). We select the route (for example: Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport), departure date and time, how many passengers and bags, pick up and drop off location, and seats number. Then we input the passengers data, and pay by credit card. When we select pick up location as “hotel”, there will be many hotels in Pattaya listed to be chosen. There is no “April Suites“ (our hotel) in that list, but the hotel staff said to choose “August Suites” instead. August Suites is so close with April Suites, only 1 minute walking, and they are from the same management. The receptionist of April Suites called August Suites to ask if the driver from Bell Travel Service already arrived. When we got the news that he’d arrived, the hotel porter then helped us bring our bag and lead us the way to August Suites where the driver of Bell Travel Service already waiting.
We weren’t the first passengers in the minivan that early morning. It then went around several hotels to pick up other passengers, before finally reaching bus station almost 6am. One passenger can bring 1 baggage only for free (unlimited weight), while additional baggage will be charged. In its counter in the bus station, we changed our tickets. Actually we just showed them the booking confirmation on the phone, because we didn’t have time to print it since we just booked it the day before. The coach is really nice and the seat is vast. That morning the bus was full with 40 passengers. One and a half hours later we already arrived in Suvarnabhumi Airport, since the traffic was good. I wonder if the traffic was always good like that, maybe taking 9am bus would also be fine (our flight was 12.30pm by Tiger Air Mandala). Well, better not to risk. It was really a convenient trip with Bell Travel Service. They also have services between Bangkok and Pattaya, but it costs 345 Bat ($10) per person, almost triple than the usual public bus, and only have 3 schedules per day.
In the airport we had about 5 hours to kill! We walked around this huge airport, window shopped and ate. Here are some unique statues inside the airport.
In
the first post about my Bangkok trip, I said
“we wouldn’t need letter from gynecology”. I was wrong! When I was just about to walk from check-in counter (we got 17B and 17C), I was being stopped by a lady from
Tiger Airways. She seemed a manager. She asked me whether I was pregnant and asked my doctor letter (medical certificate). Luckily we had prepared for that. She then escorted me back to the check-in counter, and asked them to change my seat. Actually I was already satisfied with our seats, C/alley seat was perfect because I would be going to toilet often. We then got 6B and 6C, in the front side of plane. We were a little bit happy, maybe we got seats with bigger and wider space for our feet.
Apparently NOT, it was just the same seat with others.
Tiger Air Mandala plane doesn’t have business class, and the only vast seats they have are emergency seats. Worst, we got seats behind a group of noisy college teenagers who were also in front of us in our flight from Jakarta to Bangkok last week. Give me back my 17C!! However there’s no one sitting in 6A, so we got one half row for ourselves, and I could rise my feet on the next seat. Maybe that’s why the staff gave those seats to us.
Kapunka (thank you)!
It also proves that airport staff in Bangkok are more care with the passengers and the airplane. When we entered the boarding gate, the staff approached me again to check my seats, asked my doctor letter and asked me to sign up a letter to state that I would not sue the airplane if something terrible happened with my baby on the flight. It was the usual procedure. But in Jakarta airport, there’s no one approaching me in the check-in counter or boarding gate, nor giving me the best seats they could find, nor asking me to sign up any letter.
That is the end of my Babymoon trip to Bangkok. Excluding flight ticket, accommodation and souvenirs, we spent about 4million Rupiah for transportation, foods and sightseeing for 6 days in Bangkok + Pattaya. We walked slowly, not able to visit all the interesting places, but it was really enjoyable, refreshing from works and chaotic Jakarta. Many people warned us about the politic crisis in Bangkok, but it was safe, and hopefully we didn’t encounter any commotion during our stay. I and my husband had really a great time together (despite of scams and getting lost :P). Hope I can visit Bangkok again one day.