Chapter 58: Siamese Style, Overseas Labor Service Office [Please read]
The four-hour flight ended quickly.
The plane landed smoothly at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
After the cabin door opened, Chen Xuan followed the crowd of passengers across the connecting bridge with his backpack.
Traveling lightly, he is in sharp contrast to the busy and noisy passengers around him.
Climbing the escalator, he had already taken out copies of his passport, entry-exit card and electronic visa on arrival.
Pass through customs and go to the visa-on-arrival counter at the beginning of VISA to submit the information prepared in advance.
Electronic visa on arrival, also known as E-VISA, is very convenient. There is no need to wait in long lines to fill in the information and apply on site.
The whole customs clearance process is very smooth, and spending the extra 500 plants is a great value.
Suvarnabhumi Airport's annual passenger throughput can reach tens of millions.
As a modern international airport, its design is still very good.
The signs are marked in Siamese, English and Chinese.
The electronic navigation screen is also available in three languages.
After successfully entering the country, Chen Xuan was located on the second floor of the airport.
Not far away are the money exchange offices set up by major local banks in Siam.
The exchange rate here is usually slightly lower than the daily international exchange rate, but slightly higher than the exit currency exchange point at Xiaguo Airport, so you can earn a certain difference.
Chen Xuan used part of the cash prepared in advance to exchange 5,000 baht.
There is no use in exchanging more money. Most ATM machines in Siam accept UnionPay cards. In big cities and scenic spots, you can also use Alipay and WeChat to scan QR codes, so you don’t have to worry about consumption.
Follow the signs and the next floor is where you can take taxis and buses.
If you want to take a taxi, you have to use the electronic ticket machine.
The machines all have Chinese options, so you can just get your tickets directly.
The ticket will show the taxi's parking space and license plate number.
Once you find the corresponding parking space, you can get on the bus with your luggage.
The starting price of a taxi in Siam is only 35 baht, but it is not close to the city.
As soon as Chen Xuan got into the back seat, the driver with dark skin and a blue uniform said hello in broken Chinese.
"The monk howled in the mud!"
Chen Xuan lit up his phone and showed a picture to the driver.
There is an archway with red pillars, yellow tiles and cornices, and a row of festive red lanterns.
"China Town?"
"ok.ok!"
"Look at this beauty, can you mark it?"
It was obviously not the first time for the driver to receive tourists from Xia Kingdom, and he was quite proficient in the business process.
Chen Xuan smiled and nodded, and the taxi left the parking area of Suvarnabhumi Airport and drove towards Bangkok along the ring road.
The distance is less than thirty kilometers and takes about half an hour if there is no traffic jam.
It is currently 12:43 noon, Xia time, which is exactly one hour behind Siam time.
The weather in Bangkok is sunny, with sparse white clouds floating under the blue sky.
The temperature is 5~7℃ higher than that in China, which is just right for wearing summer clothes.
There are many green mango trees on the roadside, and occasionally you can see banana trees, bodhi trees and tamarind trees.
On the Ring Expressway, you can see the side view of Bangkok through the car window.
The golden dome of the pagoda looms in the gaps between the towering buildings.
This is also a city with great heritage.
The Chao Phraya River flows leisurely through Bangkok.
There are not only modern high-rise buildings in the city, but also various majestic pagodas and temples.
After entering the city, the traffic became denser.
You can see fashionably dressed young people on the street, as well as vendors carrying bamboo baskets and wearing floral cotton shirts.
When passing through a square on the way, there was a huge statue.
Holding a sword and spear, he stands solemnly wearing a "trip tail curtain".
This is King Ramkhamhaeng of Siam.
It was this emperor who established Siam's current territory.
In the hearts of the Siamese people, he is like the first emperor of the Xia people.
In addition to pagodas and temples, you can often see statues of Ramkhamhaeng, Naresuan, Chulalongkorn and other great emperors here, which are like some kind of mascots with the meaning of worship.
Chen Xuan was in a very relaxed mood, casually enjoying the unique scenery of a foreign country.
...
More than ten minutes later, the taxi arrived at its destination.
After paying the fare, Chen Xuan got out of the car.
The 16.45-meter-high archway at the street entrance has the four characters "Holy Life Without Borders" written on it, which was personally inscribed by Princess Sirindhorn of Siam.
Yes, his first stop was Bangkok’s Chinatown.
Located in the West District of the city, it is one of the most prosperous business districts in Bangkok.
It is about two kilometers long and connected by three streets and multiple streets.
At the same time, this is also a must-visit attraction for tourists from Xia Kingdom when they come to Bangkok, such as the famous Chinatown Night Market.
Chen Xuan walked among them, looking around like all ordinary tourists.
The streets are lined with signboards, and both the architecture and the signboards retain the style of the last century.
Food stores, department stores, hotels, grocery stores, shoe stores, handicraft stores, gold stores, and pharmacies abound.
Looking around, you can see signs such as [Chinese Bird's Nest Shark's Fin Restaurant], [Guizhou Moutai], [Shangjing Wang Zhihe Stinky Tofu], [Tongrentang Pills], [Zhanggang Pien Tze Huang] and other signs.
Moving on, there are [Teochew Theater] and [Mandarin Cinema] as well as various kiosks selling Chinese magazines, books and newspapers.
The street is very lively, with tourists from all over the world.
My ears were filled with Siamese, English and heavily accented Chinese.
Chen Xuan skipped most of the shops, passed through the Yaowarat Road Night Market, and walked into Shilongjun Road.
The two ends of this road connect different neighborhoods.
Half of them belong to the Chinese community and the other half to the Tianzhu community.
It’s considered a mixed bag of places in the West District of Bangkok.
There are obviously fewer tourists here. There are several old Toyota Vios and Venza sedans that are at least 20 years old parked on both sides of the street.
From time to time, he checked the information on his phone to confirm his location.
It took more than ten minutes to find the target in a community alley on Shilongjun Road.
It was a small shop with a simple signboard of "Dahui Siam Overseas Labor Service Office".
The yellowed and oxidized plastic door curtain is covered with various recruitment notices.
This is a snake head shop, both bright and dark.
It is said that they can easily solve any immigration procedures that are difficult to handle.
He also knew the smuggling routes and contacts in neighboring countries around Siam.
You must know that Southeast Asian countries have always been the hardest hit areas for illegal immigrants.
As early as the 1970s and 1980s, many Southeast Asians chose to sneak across Hong Kong.
The well-established smuggling network has never disappeared, but has changed with the development of the times.
The core of recent years has not been Siam.
But after all, this place is the "crossroads" of Southeast Asia, and its significance is self-evident.
This was Chen Xuan's first time coming into contact with this matter, so he didn't know exactly what was going on. He could only take one step at a time. If he was interested in asking, he would always have clues.
Thinking of this, he pushed open the plastic door curtain.
The store was filled with smoke, and behind the old table lay a stocky man with short hair, wearing a vest and tattooed arms.
The walls of the store are also covered with recruitment notices.
There is also a small altar nailed slightly to the front, with a Gumantong sitting in it.
There was a strange smell like a mixture of curry and lime floating in the air.
He frowned slightly, approached the table, reached out and tapped it lightly a few times.
(End of chapter)