Sawadee! After a 15.5 hour flight to Hong Kong and connecting to another 2.25 hour flight – I arrive in the “Land of Thousand Smiles” — Thailand.

As I exit Customs, I see a  man holding a sign with my last name and flight number. I approached him as I have arranged for a car to take me to my hotel in the city centre. After he welcomes me, he tells me that he is ready to take me to Pattaya, which is a beach city on the eastern seaboard that is around two hours away! After much discussion (and argument), I walked away from him in frustration despite having already pre-paid my transfer. As I was about to arrange for another car to take me, I noticed another person holding a sign with my first initial and last name. That’s my car! Blame it on the 17+ hour flight and having a very common last name.

I stayed at the Metropolitan by COMO, Bangkok. The contemporary design hotel by Singaporean Kathryn Kng is both timeless and modern and the rooms are of generous size. Service is excellent and very warm. They even packed me a breakfast box to go as I had to check out early in the morning to catch a flight out.