The flight from Bangkok was a very short trip yet surprisingly a very big airplane was used, and it was completely full! At the airport the whole flight was directed to the international arrivals for their baggage pickup. However, for some reason my baggage and that of another couple was sent to the domestic baggage arrival hall, which we only discovered after waiting for 45 minutes.

I was met by a very posh chauffeured Mercedes and two very friendly hotel staff, one of them in charge of the trainees. They took me to my hotel, as the Le Meridien was completely booked due to the Chinese New Year. Both hotels are situated right alongside the famous Night Bazar. After dropping off my stuff and quickly freshening up, Khun* Por** (the trainee supervisor) took me to the Le Meridien (a mere 5 minutes' walk) where we had dinner from the restaurant buffet. It was a very delicious buffet with a great assortment of Chinese (in honour of the Chinese New Year), Thai and some European dishes.

After dinner I returned to my hotel for some much needed sleep. The time zone in Thailand is GMT+7, meaning that there is a 6 hour time difference with the Netherlands, and a 7 hour difference with Portugal.

*Khun = Thai equivalent to Ms

** At birth Thai people get given a very long and often complicated name, so they are immediately branded with a very short nickname, examples are Por, Faii, Tong and many more mono-syllable words.