LOS Trip Report

jimmie50 · 2025-10-18T10:29:53Z

Day 0 (lol) Travel Day.

Flight leaving Denver was 30 minutes late. Not totally unexpected, as most things landing and taking off at Denver are always delayed. Same for San Francisco. Total of 20 hours confined on a flying tin can, plus an additional six hours in layovers. Draining experience to say the least. I moved to Denver from the SF Bay Area a few years ago and at that time the SF airport had completed their new international terminal and the older terminal buildings were undergoing renovation. Was somewhat of a surprise to find the airport once again undergoing some reno projects. Made for a very long walk from arrival gate to international departure gate. At least it did not require leaving a secure area so no need to pass through security checkpoint again. Next stop Taipei. It has been many years since I have flown through Taipei for anything…probably 20 or more. Back then it was still called Chiang Kai-Shek International and consisted of two main terminal buildings. Now we are Taiwan Taoyuan International with terminals A, B, C, and D. Naturally, our arrival was in Terminal D and the new departure gate was in A…thus another very long walk. Certainly got my steps in on this trip. Change in carrier from United to EVA. Was reminded once on board EVA how much better the Asian carriers do at customer service and the food was pretty amazing. US carriers in general are just bad all around…in my humble opinion…by comparison. Somewhere between Denver and Bangkok I completely lost one day. Wednesday just ceased to exist. Arrival was 10:30am Thursday morning. In my previous trips to visit with my Thai friends, they always had me arrive late in the evening between 11pm and midnight. Not sure why they always preferred that…possibly work and family schedules…but the late arrival always messed up my internal body clock and I had a terrible time adjusting for a few days. Since I was not planning to depend on them for this trip, I scheduled my arrival for mid-morning and I have learned that is much better. Will definitely do that again. Arrival was on time, immigration/customs was a breeze, and I didn’t need to wait on my checked bag. I had completed the new online entry form prior to departure in Denver and printed it out. Went through the priority line for seniors with no wait whatsoever. My luggage was on the carousel before I got there, probably because of the distance I had to walk from the arrival gate to baggage claim. These airports are so huge nowadays. Thanks to recommendations from forum members, I had pre-booked with SP Limousine Service. They provided very detailed info via email about where to meet their contact person, and it was seamless. I think the entire process from deplaning to getting in the reserved car and on the freeway heading to my hotel was only 45 minutes! I was amazed…and grateful. Other than the travel duration, in general the trip was long and tiring but uneventful.

Day 1 Bangkok

Thanks to the many posts and recommendations from forum members, I decided to step outside of my normal comfort zone. After all, this trip was all about me and having some fun…not spending time with my friends and their families. Naturally, traffic from Suvarnabhumi to Silom was horrendous, so even though my entry to Thailand was smooth sailing, it was probably 1pm before arriving at Ibis Styles Silom. Overall first impression was it was new, modern, and staff was all very friendly and helpful. Check-in was easy and I was given a room on the 5th floor. As per previous comments on the forum, rooms are definitely on the small side. Since I have never stayed in a hotel here before, I really have nothing to compare it to. For me, it’s fine, but with two persons for a week I imagine it would be very cramped. View out the window was a bit unusual. My room overlooked the back which was mostly low income family residences. Lots of small, pieced together buildings mostly of steel siding and roofs or fiberglass. Just not something I expected to see in the middle of Bangkok. I would have thought some developer would have bought up all of that property and built another shopping mall or high rise. However, it did make for some interesting people watching. To be honest, I wasn’t really planning on much excitement the first day in BKK assuming I would be exhausted. Those plans quickly changed. Based upon several recent posts on the forum about using apps and how successful some members were, I decided to add Grinder to my phone. While I did not post a photo, I was pretty honest about age and appearance. It was like my phone was blowing up! From the time I checked in to my hotel until my first ‘date’ was about 4.5 hours. 27 year old, originally from Surin, twink, very dark complexion and a real cutie. Just getting off work at 5pm…where was I staying…could be here by 5:30pm via BTS…could we please meet. I simply couldn’t refuse. Met in the lobby then went up to my room. No issues with front desk at all. Nobody said anything. Took a shower together and then had some playtime or as I like to say…did the wild thing. Decided to go upstairs to the rooftop and checkout the pool, bar, and fitness areas. Enjoyed some liquid refreshment and ordered some dinner at the bar. Nice evening enjoying the Bangkok skyline from the outdoor seating area, food was good, although a little on the spicy side for me, and pleasant company. Nice conversation over dinner, and then back to the room for round 2. He headed home around 10pm. I didn’t invite as I really was completely wore out by then and ready to just crash. Oh, and not a MB. All in all, a great first day and I surprised myself at being so adventurous. Certainly helped with the jet lag to stay up and active until 10pm. Had to turn my phone to silent. Went right to sleep and other than a couple of trips to the bathroom during the night (normal routine) slept soundly until morning. Woke up refreshed, hungry, and ready for more experiences.