Tuesday 1 January 2013

New Years day

What a day today was. We were due to leave Bangkok at 9am for Mae Sot which is north about 550 km. But no rental car was delivered as organized. So after waiting awhile, I rang the phone number on the confirmation...no answer. Then I put my Aust SMS card back in my phone to see if there were any messages.None. Change back to Thai SMS. Asked at the desk of the hotel to try the number as I thought I might be using the wrong country code. They didn't get an answer either. Rang England where the agency was based and offered 24hr service and the message said the mailbox was full. Tried phone number on confirmation again and still no answer. Looked up National car rental on google and found a second phone so asked the hotel to ring. They were so good about everything. They got through only to find out that the agent was at the other Centara Grand Hotel in the city and would be another 30 min. (Never mind that the correct address was on the confirmation.) By now it is after 10. Patience has never been my strong suite so I wasn't a happy chappy as I knew we had a long drive ahead of us. When the car comes, it is so small that we could only put one suitcase in the boot. We tried to tell the girl that we were told the car would fit 5 adults and 4 suitcases. So after some arguing and agreeing to pay another 10,000baht ($300) they took the car back to get a bigger one. Good thing that we did this as we don't think the small car would have made the trip from Tak to Mae Sot through the mountains. So the car comes at nearly noon and I had lost my patience. The girl wanted me to sign a credit card docket for 11,000 baht and after arguing I just changed the amount to 10,000 signed the docket and got in the car to drive away. The agent was in tears. I said we'd sort it out later as we were running three hours late. Thankfully the drive ...six and a half hrs was uneventful!!





2 comments:

  1. Great blog! You're a natural, Kathy. Keep at it.

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  2. Looks like Bill was signed in as Camera Club above. Well that wasn't a very "Happy New Year" I'm glad you persevered and finally got what you wanted. It must have been a rushed drive. Stay safe and calm.

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