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Day 1
The story begins about a year and a half back when we were on our Trip to Solace 2 (Ladakh Bike Trip).
It was the 7th Night of our trip and we were lying beneath the clear sky near Pangong Lake.
I still can't recall who initiated the conversation, but I remember that Nakul mentioned Thailand somewhere and Banggg!!!! The destination of our next trip was decided.
Welcome to yet another exciting journey of the 4 Indian Travellers - A trip to Leisure🎉
This was the first time when I was traveling out of India. Interestingly, when we decided on the destination, I didn't have a passport. It was August 2019. Then I applied for a passport and It took me 2 whole months to get it delivered. I was so excited when I got it, I was literally showing it off on social media 😂. Finally, everything settled down and we booked tickets in the second week of October for our travel planned in February.
Tickets booked, planning done. Off we go ... ✈️
Day 1
Pune - Mumbai - Bangkok
5:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Our flight was from Mumbai in the afternoon, so we decided to start early in the morning from Pune so that we get enough buffer time in case if anything goes wrong. We took a bus from Pune, Avdhesh joined me on the way and we left for Mumbai. We reached Mumbai on time and took a cab to the International Airport. Nakul and Yash were already there waiting for us.
After a series of calls and location sharing, we finally reached the top level of the airport where the other two idiots were waiting for us. It was a sight that we all were waiting for 6 months.
Four of us, at the airport, ready to take off 😍. We shot some videos there and went inside the airport.
We still had 2 hours before we could board the aircraft, so we decided to explore the Lounges.
We got into one (Thanks to Avdhesh's cards) by paying just INR 2. And since we all were hungry, we rushed towards the food counters and ate whatever we got.
We got so indulged in enjoying our food, that we didn't realize that boarding for the flight has been started.
We were at the food counter and Nakul got a call and the person on the other side said, "Sir, are you going to board the flight? We're closing the boarding in the next 5 mins". We all looked at each other with fear in our eyes. The boarding gate was very far from where we were. Reaching there in 5 mins was not possible. Still, we pushed ourselves, with bags on our backs, we started running, and I still remember, it took us nearly 7 mins to reach the boarding gate. I quickly went to the guy standing at the gate and showed him the ticket. His response was, "Sorry sir, the boarding is completed and closed now."
While he was saying this, Nakul, Yash, and Avdhesh also reached the boarding gate.
Then the round of apologies and convincing begun. All 4 of us were like, " We're extremely sorry sir, this won't happen again, we'll be on time from now on". It felt like we're standing outside of our school gate and the guard isn't letting us in just because we're late for the morning assembly. And in this case, we couldn't afford to be marked as absent 😂.
So, after apologizing and discussing for 5-6 mins, the guy said, ok I'm letting you in, but please, from now on, make sure you reach on time. We all took a big sigh of relief. Got our boarding passes checked and literally ran towards the aircraft. When we entered the plane, everyone was looking at us and giving a strange look, as if they were saying, " Ohhh... So they are the Dukes of Edinburgh, who delayed the flight"😂. We ignored everyone and grabbed our seats. The flight took off in the next 15 mins and within 4 hours, we landed in Bangkok🤩. Suvarnabhumi Airport. It took us around 45 mins to get the visa process done. After that, we moved towards the car rental offices inside the airport to hire a car. I had already booked a car before we left India. It was a Toyota Yaris. We went straight to the office and took the car. I still remember that moment when we were waiting outside the airport and the car arrived. The guy handed over the keys to us and explained some important details about the policies and the car. It was like a dream come true for me. I was very happy and so were the other three.
I never thought that my life will change this much in 2 years. For me, this was exponential growth.
Anyway, after a bit of self-evaluation, I got back into the real world and we all got into the car. Since it was an automatic car and none of us had driven an automatic earlier, that too in a different country😂, Nakul came forward and took the driving seat (P.S.: He had been to Thailand earlier with his family).
We drove towards the city, I was looking out of the window like a kid. Staring at those roads, buildings, cars, towers, lights, etc. and everything was very fascinating for me.
This was the first time when I was in a different country and it was a pretty big deal for me. The same was the case with Avdhesh and Yash. I could clearly see the same joy and happiness on their faces as well.
After driving for 45 mins, we reached the hostel where we had booked a room for 4 of us, The Mad Monkey, Bangkok. It was quite late and we were tired and hungry. We quickly checked-in to the hostel, took a short spin of it, and then took a bath, and got ready to explore the Khao San Street.
Khao San is a very popular party street in Bangkok. We went there, roamed around, danced, ate some food, met some crazy people, and danced again. We were hopping from one club to another, taking the shit to another level.
Let me tell you one of the incidents that still makes me laugh is when we were standing outside one of the clubs, people were randomly throwing some t-shirts in the air, trying to hang them on the overhead electricity cables. Nakul took one of the T-shirt and threw it in the air, someone caught it and ran away 😂😂😂😂. The owner of that T-shirt caught Nakul 😂😂😂 meanwhile the 3 of us were searching for the guy who ran away with the T-shirt 😂😂😂😂😂.
Anyways, we couldn't find him and quietly sneaked out of that club😂. We were tired AF. Avdhesh's leg was aching. So we decided that I and Nakul will go to the parking and get the car, in the meantime Avdhesh and Yash will wait for us at the entry of Khao San street.
We didn't know that another surprise was waiting for us at the place where we parked our car. When we reached the street where we parked our car, I was looking at the parking stickers on the cars and laughing at them.....
A FEW MOMENTS LATER.......
Nakul and I ..... standing beside our car, looking at the wheel locked by the Police and a paper which had something written on it in Thai. After analyzing the situation for 5 mins, we asked a Policeman about the paper, he said we parked the car in a No Parking zone and the fine will be 500 Baht.
We were tired but still tried to somehow find a different way of getting out of this situation. Talked to some taxi drivers, some other people for an alternative solution, but I guess the traffic hacks work only in India😂. Literally, everyone told us to go to the police station for resolution.
Finally, we gave up and decided to go to the police station but before that, we had to get Avdhesh, because the driving permit that we had was issued in his name. So we went back to the street where Avdhesh and Yash were lying like dead bodies on the footpath. We explained the girth of the situation to them and then started walking towards the police station. It took us 6KM and 25 mins to reach the police station. (It was a real test of our stamina that day in the humid climate of Thailand). The in charge at the station took the paper from us, asked for 500 Baht, and instructed someone on the wireless to unlock the car. We were so tired that we asked him if he can drop us back to the car😂😂😂. In reply of which he stared at us and we understood that it's a clear No.
Again 6KM and 25 mins and we were back to the unlocked car. It felt like a mission to get this thing unlocked. At that moment, we promised each other that we'll never park in a no-parking zone and will follow all the traffic rules.
We went back to the hostel and just crashed into our beds. This was Day #1 of our "Trip to Leisure" with the leisure part completely missing 😝.
