Buggery bollocks.
Well, it was all going very well. My flight from Narita to Bangkok was fab and i even managed to get some sleep, courtesy of Mr.Ambien (though i mistimed it a bit and for some reason took it before take-off thinking i would just sleep and miss dinner - then realized, amazingly, i was a bit hungry so then had to fight to stay awake and not faceplant into my beef shortribs). Anyhoo, I get to Bangers, breeze through immigration with no line, collect both my suitcases which made it (huzzah) and mosy from Arrivals into Departures, where i have about 6hrs to wait before checking in for my Bhutan flight.
There's not a whole lot to do in Bangkok airport at 2am in the morning, but I did find the strip of food places (including a Starbucks) PLUS a place where you could get a foot, shoulder and hand massage. It was lots of comfy seats in a quiet darkened room that you could stretch out on (lots of people were obviously completely sparko), so it was the perfect place to camp out for a bit and pass the time. Even at inflated airport prices, for a pretty bloody good 2hr massage, it was only $28! Bargain! So i blissed out for a bit, then headed to the food court to enjoy some green tea noodles and duck and a bowl of wonton soup, until FINALLY it was time to go to the check-in counter for Druk Air and initiate the Final Phase of my TransGlobal Adventure.
And that's where the wheels promptly fell off my Party Bus.
I spent most of yesterday raging about what happened (I did not take it well) so i'll keep it pretty brief now, cos i dont want to get all pissed off again. Basically the travel agency who booked my whole tour (itinerary, air tickets, visa, road permit) from soup to nuts managed somehow to neglect one rather important detail. Check the date on the Visa that allows you entry to the country actually matches the date on your flight ticket. Trying to fly to Bhutan on the 4th of June when the Visa allows you entry from the 5th of June is not a winning combination. Pretty basic detail you'd think they would have got right, yes?
Anyway, i'm sure you can imagine this did not go down well with me. There was absolutely nothing i could do about it and there was nothing the airline could do about it, so i found myself completely and utterly stuck. I was absolutely devastated - having to spend the day in Bangkok was bad enough (I'm not a fan of the city) but it was missing out a whole day of my trip in Bhutan that i was more upset about. I've been looking forward to every single little bit of that trip for so many months now, that missing out on any of it heart-breaking. My angst (and anger) was made worse by the fact that i wasnt able to get through to the f*ckwit travel agent who'd made all the arrangements - i kept trying the phone numbers on the email and travel website and kept getting the message that the number was incorrect. by this stage, i was starting to wonder if the travel agent was actually real or not, or whether i'd been duped in a big scam and that Yetis and Dragons Travel Agency was actually some spotty youth wunderkind master criminal, sitting in his parent's garage basement, mercilessly defrauding hapless would-be travelers out of their hard-earned cash.
But no. Fortunately that wasnt the case and i finally got through to the travel agency via the US number they'd listed on their website (go figure), so i expressed my extreme displeasure at the state of affairs. He was very apologetic, said they'd cover all my expenses for my unintended stay in Bangkok and that everything would be sorted out. So i rebooked my flight for tomorrow and then tried to make the best of a bad job for the rest of the day.
I ended up staying at the Novotel at the airport, so checked in, had a couple hours sleep, then got up intending to take an afternoon cruise on a Rice Barge which left the River City Pier at 2pm for a couple hours sailing. I still hadnt been able to call Mum and tell her what had happened and get a little pep talk, and no one in the hotel seemed to have the faintest idea as to what telephone codes i needed to use to be able to dial out. How is that possible??? Also, i needed to call the bank too as I'd just tried to get some cash out of an ATM with my debit card and that wasnt working (something else to add to the stress quotient). The automated HSBC debit and credit card systems are enough to instantly piss you off on a normal day, so to have to deal with that (after taking a good 40mins to figure out the correct dialing number) when jetlagged, upset and generally really annoyed, did nothing to improve my mood AT ALL.
However, determined to push on and try and make lemonade, I took a cab from the hotel to the city - and immediately got into an argument with the cab driver over the fare. The hotel said it would be about 300 Baht on the meter - the cabbie didnt put the meter on at first, so when i asked him to, he said it was 500 flat rate. I protested and said that was too expensive and why wasnt the meter on - to which he started going into this whole spiel about how i could have the meter on but then the roads werent included or i could pay the flat rate and they were or something like that. My choice, it's up to you he said - what do you want to do? Well, I dont bloody know, do i??? I'm just here for today and all i want is a very simple, stress-free cab ride into town for this cruise I feel almost obliged to do, so that I could look back and say "I made the best of a bad job - see? I took a cruise to explore!" But no. Not with the kinda day i was having. Not knowing if we were going to hit traffic and then i'd be sitting staring at the meter ticking ever upwards, i went with the flat rate. I was simply too exhausted, jet lagged, sleep deprived and beaten down to care by that stage.
So, we got to the place where I could buy my ticket for the River Cruise - I think the cabbie felt sorry for me by this stage, so he led the way to the ticket place. Which existed. But the cruise I'd seen advertised didn't. That ticket desk was only offering Evening Dinner Cruises With Local Entertainment which I would have to had to have been almost near death to have considered. By this stage i'm thinking the non-existant Gods have really got it in for me, so i go for a different kind of spiritual counsel, and go have a Watermelon Vodka cocktail, sitting outside on a terrace overlooking the river. I begin to start to unwind and think what i could do to turn the day around. Naturally, my thoughts turn to shopping (I've already done all the temples, Palaces, enormous Buddhas etc on one of my previous visits and i'm waaaay too knackered to schlep round these places again, in the heat and humidity). I remember this fantastic shopping centre i went to before, so get the address from the waitress and head over to the taxi rank to grab a cab over there. Apparently it should cost about 30 Baht, but when i ask the guy to take me there, he says "how much you want to pay?". Errr... several answers pop into my mind. One was "Nothing. Take me for free, you f*ckwit". Another was "Here - here's my wallet. Why dont you just open it and help yourself, while i just sit over here and watch". The others had too many expletives that were so imaginative, i probably couldnt even spell them. Instead, i opted for the rather more moderated response of "Well, you tell me!". Which he did. And quoted me 300 baht. Really? REALLY? I said that was too expensive and i'd been told 30 baht - he kinda laughed and then said "30 baht and I take you to one stop to a tailor store or a jewelery store". Err...thanks, but no thanks. I really dont need to go to your mate's tailor shop and suffer through a hard sell, just cos I want to take a frigging taxi to a shopping mall. That pretty much the last straw, so I just walked away in disgust. Come on, Bangkok - is it REALLY that hard to get a taxi and just pay what i should pay, without absolutely everyone trying to rip me off? Or is that against some local by-law that i should be aware of? On a normal day, it would be totally "whatever" but today, i'd just had enough.
So i gave that idea up for a bit and decided to just give up altogether for a bit, and go and have some food. So found myself back sitting outside along the river, on a different terrace, having spring rolls and a green pork curry and 2 glasses of chilled white wine (intolerance be damned today). And that's where the little bright spark in my shit-fest of a day happened - there was a retired Aussie chap having lunch a table over from me, so we ended up chatting for a bit and i explained what had happened. He was very sympathetic but kinda echoed the sentiment of "well, you're here now so make the best of it" - i didnt really feel in the mood to talk, but was practicing talking without bursting into tears, so it was good for me. He finishes up, gets his cheque and we say good bye - i then get my cheque, to find he'd already picked up the tab for me. This complete random stranger did a lovely thing and bought my lunch as a random act of kindness. I called out after him to say thank you and he waved at my over his shoulder as he walked out of my line of vision (enjoying, as he should, the feeling of having done something very nice for no reason) - but then had to come back as i think he'd forgotten something! Kinda spoiled the dramatic exit, i think, but it did give me the chance to shake his hand and thank him face to face.
And with that, I gave up trying to make anything of the day other than it was. An unfortunate episode in the beginning of what should still be a trip of a lifetime. I called the same cabbie who brought me in to take me back (at least i was getting fleeced by a face i knew) and simply headed back to the hotel. I managed to get online and as a very last act, installed Skype on my mac to see if that would work to call Mum - and it did!! So, we talked (well, i mainly raged) for a good 45 mins before I'd completely exhausted myself, called it a day and went to bed.
So now, Phase III Take Two. Am heading off to the airport in a few minutes - lets just start this again, Bhutan, shall we?
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