Road to Thailand

Bridget:

Getting to Thailand and then down to the gulf islands of Koh Samui and Koh Tao was an adventure in itself.  After being delayed over three hours in Tokyo’s Narita Airport, we flew to Beijing only to be harassed by the very skeptical Chinese Immigration Officer (sorry China, we’ve changed a bit since getting our passports almost 10 years ago).  We finally arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, at 3:00 a.m.  Even though we had booked a place to stay that night, by the time we made it through immigration and customs (okay, customs was a bit of a joke), we grabbed a cab and arrived at our hotel near the airport at 3:45 a.m.  That meant after checking in we had about 30 minutes to shower and get ready to leave again to head downtown to catch our bus.  The cab driver didn’t speak a lick of English, so we resorted to showing him a sub-par map of the location we hoped was where we needed to go (the bus/ferry company’s website never actually said where to meet). 

Because of the red-shirt protestors, cab drivers had to stick to alternate routes and carefully avoid any chance of running into a riot.  Luckily for us, it was only 5:00 a.m. and a bit too early for the protestors.   After finding the bus departure point, we exhaled a huge sigh of relief and waited for the 6:00 a.m. departure.  The bus ride was an 8 hr. ride on a double-decker chartered bus, stopping only once to let some girls on board who passed out water and suspicious-looking snacks procured from the local 7-11.  A few more hours and two really bad movies later, we arrived at the ferry port.  We knew going to Thailand in April would be hot, but I don’t think anyone can truly be prepared for temps over 100F with humidity levels to match.  Just carrying our bags down the long pier to the boat forced our sweat glands to revolt in protest.  The AC inside the bus was much welcomed.  By this time we were pretty tired.  We still had a few hours to go until arriving at Koh Samui.

All the uncertainty and sleep deprivation was worth the sight we saw upon arriving at our beachside hotel’s courtyard:  my brother Bryan sitting on the porch and sipping a Thai beer.  Oh yes, I failed to mentioned that my “little” brother Bryan just went on terminal leave with the Navy and at the last minute hopped a flight out to Thailand to hang out with Craig and me.  None of us had cell phones or even a constant Internet connection to keep tabs on each other.  The last I heard from my brother via Gmail chat, he was boarding a flight in Jacksonville, Florida.  Next time I saw or heard from him was on that porch in Koh Samui, giving him a big hug and reveling in the absurdity of the moment. 

Let the games begin!