Hong Kong to Bangkok

The Hong Kong culture is very considerate of others-guess they have to be since there are so many of them.  In the public toilets there are signs encouraging users to keep the area clean.  There are two toilet attendants keeping the place spotless.  In one public washroom there was an attendant who pointed to the available stall. 
If you're sick here you wear a surgical mask so you won't spread your germs to others.  In one of the big shopping centres the handrail on the escalator is continuously disinfected as it rotates.

Our flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok was with Air Asia-the discount airline.  It was uneventful, and, being discount, provided nothing except the flight. 

The airport in Bangkok was overwhelming, and we're seasoned travellers.  It took us a very long time to get through immigration and by the time we got to the luggage carousel, our bags were two of the last few dizzy bags still left circling around.  We rescued them and headed for the taxi stand.
We were armed with the prior knowledge that all taxi drivers in Thailand are out to rip off tourists so we were ready.  Our first encounter was with a man who asked us if we needed a taxi-and we weren't even out of the building yet.  Oh, we knew he was going to scam us so we told him, "Nope."  We breathed a sigh of relief that we made it past that challenge and continued on.
Next, we entered the big, open area within the airport just before going outside.  We saw a booth, staffed by professional people wearing uniforms similar to those worn by flight attendants.  A few uniformed people were out in front of the booth and one of them approached us.  She was very polite and professional and she asked us if we wanted a metered taxi.  We said we did so she directed us to the booth.  There, the woman told us what to pay and where to get the cab. We thought this booth was a state-run tourism booth so when the woman told us about tours in Bangkok and we signed up for one we thought we bought a legitimate tour.  Hmm.  Turns out the booth was not state-run and everyone here has a hidden agenda.  More about this tour later.

We made our way to the taxi stand.  We knew taxi drivers pulled a scam on riders.  The cabbies drove without turning on their meter and then stated a ridiculously high price when you got to your destination.  We knew we had to make sure he turned on his meter.  We thought all we had to do was to ask him and he would comply.  We were so wrong.



Cabs are the colourful pink, yellow, green and blue cars

 Sure enough, our cabbie began to drive away from the airport unmetered.  We asked him to turn it on and he pretended not to understand English.  We asked again.  Nothing.  We started to point and push.  Still nothing.  Then, in the back seat, we said to each other, "Well, we'll pay him 200 baht because that's what the hotel guy said the cost was."  Wow, did that cabbie ever move fast to turn on the meter.  Guess he understood that English.  We almost high-fived each other in the back seat-another scam averted.  By the way, the cost of the cab ride cost us 400 baht-$13.36 CDN.
We're staying at the Holiday Inn and it is a beauty.

Poolside

Street view of hotel