とにかく安い航空券で帰りたかったので、今回はタイ航空。ペナン朝8時発、タイ時間午後10時過ぎの成田行きだったため、バンコクでの乗り換え時間は13時間。バンコクへ最後に行ったのは15年以上前のドンムアン空港の時代。Jasonもいないし、バンコクでまた爆弾騒ぎがあったばかりだったので前日は不安だった。最終的には、これだけ時間があれば、無計画でも大丈夫。何があってもリカバリーは利くだろうと、親子3人で楽しむことにした。
バンコク在住タックのお勧めは、スワンナープ空港からスクンビットにある室内プレイエリアFunariumへタクシーで行き、十分遊んだ後、エンポリアム（デパート）で時間を潰すという計画。子連れでバンコクなんて皆目見当もつかないから、とりあえずこれでいくことにして、この2箇所の周辺グーグルマップを印刷して出発。
空港到着後、まず、観光案内所で地図をもらい、大体のタクシー料金を尋ねると、プレイエリアまで400バーツ（100バーツ＝10RM、270JPY、2GBP）だと言う。200バーツ程という事前情報よりかなり高いのが引っかかる上、市内までエアポートトレインもある事がわかったので、ベンチに座って作戦建て直し。アラタカラはぬり絵に熱中していて（写真1枚目）とりあえず楽しそう。つい長居し過ぎてしまい、暫定的に午前中は11時までしか運行していないというエアポートトレイン（実は本稼動前の試運転期間で無料で乗れたらしい！）に乗り遅れた。今更タクシー代を払う気にはならないので、ショッピングセンターが集中していそうな地区までミニバス（150バーツ）で行くことにした。
40分程で伊勢丹前に到着。綺麗そうなショッピングセンター、サイアムパラゴンに入ることにした。大きなフードコートがあり、ミニプレイエリアやおもちゃ売り場（写真2枚目-レゴのクラウンを見つけたアラタが写真を撮ろうと提案）でかなり遊んだ。その後、スカイトレインで終点まで行って戻って、エンポリアムまでトレインライド。
夕方タックと彼女の実家（超豪邸！）で10年ぶりの再会。シャワーを拝借しておしゃべり。彼女の長女プリムはあっという間に「オリー！」とタカラになついていた。1時間余りしかなく名残惜しかったが、空港へ戻らなければならない。スクンビットから空港までのタクシーは確かにたった170バーツだった。アラタは離陸前から着陸直前まで爆睡。私もタカラより先に寝てしまった。たった6時間弱のフライトの上、ペナンを早朝に出発したので、成田に着いた時点でかなりふらふらの私達。子供達は、空港まで迎えに来てくれた母との再会と新しいスカイライナー（写真4枚目）でしばらく興奮気味だったが、さすがにタカラは夕方4時に就寝。
I wanted to spend as little as possible on our flights and we chose Thai Airways. We left Penang at 8AM and our flight to Narita left at just after 10PM. We had 13 hours in Bangkok.It was again about 15 years ago when I last went to Bangkok. At that time, we still flew to Don Mueang and there was no Skytrain. I was quite nervous about this transit because there'd been another bomb blast a few weeks ago and Jason wasn't with us. I still managed to decide to enjoy ourselves in the last minute, considering the fact we had so much time and if anything went wrong, we still had plenty of time to recover.
Tack, my friend in Bangkok, recommended us to go to the indoor play area, Funarium, in Sukhunvit, by taxi, to spend some time, then move to Emporium department store to kill time. As I had no idea and no time to investigate and plan before leaving, I just printed the Google maps of these areas and set off.
The first thing I did after arriving at Suvarnabhumi Airport was to go to the tourist information to get a free map. I also asked the rough taxi fare to the play area. I was told it was about 400Baht. (100Baht＝10RM=270JPY=2GBP.) Akiyo, who used to live in Bangkok told me the taxi fare between the city centre and the airport was about 200Baht. So I became quite sceptical about the estimate fare given by the tourist information, and anyway by the time, I realised there was also a train to the city. I decided to sit down and reschedule the whole plan. Aratakara were quite happy doing colouring on bench (the first photo).
We must have stayed too long on comfortable bench. When we started to make a move down to the Airport Train station, it was too late for the morning runs. In the morning, it was only running until 11AM, not sure if this is temporalily as the service is quite new. (I learnt later that it was still on test run before the official opening, and it was actually free of charge!) Anyway, I didn't want to pay for taxi any longer at this stage and we just hopped on a mini bus to go to the area where lots of shopping centres seem to be gathering, just out of the map. It was 150Baht.
Within 40 minutes, we arrived in front of Isetan. We got into one of the modern and big shopping centre. It was Siam Paragon. We had lunch at the food court, there was wide selection of food, and boys spent quite some time in the small indoor play area beside the toy section, then we moved on to the toy section to play around for a while. (The second photo is Aratakara with a clown made of Legos. Arata found it and suggested taking a photo with him!) After that, we went on to train ride. We got on Skytrain and went to the very last station, then came back to the one linked to the Emporium.
Lastly we went to see Tack, who is staying at her parents' with her husband and 2 girls. (It was such a huge house!!) Although we had only an hour to spend, we cleaned ourselves and Tack and I were busy catching up, after 10 years of only occasional emails. Her elder daughter Prim was so happy to have Takara and she started to call out, "Ooooolieeee", only after half an hour. We wanted to stay longer but we had to catch a flight. We took a taxi this time. It was surely only 170Baht from Sukhumvit to the airport.
Arata fell asleep before take-off and didn't wake up until just before landing. I went to sleep soon after him and Takara was the last. In any case, it was less than 6 hour flight to Narita and when we got off the plane, we were still half asleep. But boys were quite excited to see their grandmother, who came to meet us at the airport, and the train to Nippori on the new Skyliner (the 4th photo) was so fun. Well, Takara later went to bed very early, at 4PM.
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