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 We flew from Hong Kong on a Thai Airlines 747 with the upper deck
devoted to business class. It was a pleasant flight with good service. It was somewhat spooky to be flying over Vietnam on the 25th anniversary
of the fall of Saigon. Soon we were in Bangkok and had a long wait at immigration as the officer memorized the details of each person's passport. We were staying in the Mandarin's sister hotel in Bangkok,
the Oriental, and were met by their representative at the airport. While she got our driver, a self-proclaimed tourist board representative convinced us to take a half-day introductory tour the
next day for $10 US. Considering this included an air-conditioned car and guide, it sounded like a good deal and we went for it.
 We had second thoughts on the ride in as the Oriental driver
hustled us to use him and the hotel cars rather than the "bad" ones promoted at the airport. We told him we would think about it and make our mind up the next morning. Worst case, we were out $10 if
we did not like what we saw. And the amount of hustling from our well-paid (at least we assume so – we paid enough!) driver was getting annoying. The key factor in the decision would be air
conditioning in the car. It was 37C with very high humidity and made Hong Kong feel cool and dry.
Welcome to Bangkok!
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