Escape from Thailand

Hello again everyone! Sorry, its been a while since I've been able to post anything... I've been on the road quite a bit, and my laptop isn't working at the moment. I still managed to upload some new pics though!

I'm not sure if everyone noticed, but the Airport in Thailand was closed for about a week by protesters. The day before I was supposed to leave it so happens... I'll fill you in on what I've been up to since the last post.

My last day in Chiang Mai (Nov 25th) I rented a motorcycle and ripped around town and explored the area for most of the afternoon. This city has about 200 temples in it and is smaller than Saskatoon. Every corner had some Temple, Pagoda, or Buddhist monument of some sort. There is also a moat that goes around the 'old city', and used to have a wall, but only a few parts of this wall are remaining. That night I had a big Thai meal (thinking it was the last) and even when for an hour long Thai massage to finish off the night.

It wasn't the happy ending I was looking for though. The next morning when I woke up I turned on the news and saw that 18,000 protesters had taken over Bangkok airport. No flights were coming in or going out. I was supposed to fly to Bangkok that morning and connect to Singapore. That wasn't going to happen it seemed, so I went online and moved my flight from Singapore to Australia back 4 days. That would cut my time in Oz down to only 6 days, which I was fine with, I've already been there before. I'm sure this whole airport thing will be over in the next day or two... thats what the news was saying too anyway. Bangkok airport is a huge, important airport not just for Thailand, its a major hub for south east asia. It cant be closed for long! (thats what I thought anyway).

So after 3 days of waiting for someone to take back control of the airport it looked like my only option was to get out by land. I happened to be in the far north of Thailand, the closest international airports were in Laos or Burma. There were no roads into Laos and took about 3 days to get there by boat. And the political situation in Burma was far worse than in Thailand, so there wasn't much point going there either. All the other airports to the south were booked solid until Dec 7th - a week of waiting!! no thanks. When I was walking around town I started to notice full military buse rushing by quite often. Because the PM couldn't land in Bangkok, they flew him here to Chiang Mai. My only option looked like busing out. On Nov 29th I hoped on a 9hr overnight bus to Bangkok.

I should have come to Bangkok sooner! Because there were about 60,000 stranded tourists standing around, the Thai govt were putting people up in hotels around the city for free! I was put in the Prince Palace Hotel (the name says it all, or look it up) and given a room bigger than most peoples apartments! All my meals were provided by the hotel too! It was nice to relax by the pool and be pampered a little, because the next evening I was on a bus to Singapore. I left Monday evening and would arrive in Singapore Wednesday evening, 36hrs later.

The bus ride wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was pretty much like being on a plane. A stewardess came by with water, snacks and blankets for everyone and the seats reclined. The only bad part was the organization of it all, which it typical of Thailand haha. The bus route from Bangkok to Singaproe is just something that was put together. Most sane people fly this route. We were told to be at the bus station at 6pm sharp, after 2 hours of standing around we finally got on the bus at 8pm and were heading out of the city. From bangkok we drove 12 hours to a city called Surat Thani and made a bus change, then 8 hours to Hat Yai where I hopped on a 2hr minibus to the border where we had to go through customs/immigration to exit Thailand and then through it all again to enter Malaysia. Then crammed 11 people +luggage in another minibus that barely seats 10. The ride was only 2 hours long to a city in Malaysia called Butterworth. We had to wait there for a few hours to catch the 10 hour bus ride to Singapore. The ride through malaysia to singapore was ok, but I couldnt see the Petronas Towers when I went through Kuala Lumur... I asked the bus driver if we could go by them, but he didnt speak english...

Once we got to the Singapore/Malaysia border it was the same process. Check out of Malaysia and then into Singapore. There was a group of 12 of us that had been travelling together for most of the trip and we had all became friends and kindof looked out for each other and made sure that we were all on the bus before the driver took off. This was working well until Singapore. I was one of the last ones to get through the customs area and when I went down to get back on the bus it was gone! Luckily I found 5 others that had been left behind too, only they were all going to the airport. I hoped in a taxi with them to the airport and then caught a train to the city center - only cost me $1.50! So it all worked out well in the end.

I had to wonder around town for about an hour because all the hostels were full. Finally I found one just as it started to pour outside. As soon as I shut the door I hit the bed and slept for about 5 hours. Sleeping on busses suck, and the bed was exactly what I needed.

Feeling refeshed after having a shower and a nap I went and wandered around town and explored as much as I could. The first thing I noticed was that its Christmas! In Thailand about 90% of the population is Buddhist and dont celebrate Xmas. I had nearly forgotten that it was coming so soon! Singapore is known for its shopping, and they were playing the Xmas card to the max. In Thailand you can buy t-shirts for about $3, they are nice and good quality, its just everyone has the same 12 t-shirts for sale. In Singapore its all about fashon. I was in a few shops and the t-shirts were going for $70 each! Luckily I had stocked up on t-shirts in thailand.

The next day (Thurs Dec 4th) I didnt fly out until 10pm, so I had the whole day to explore a bit more. The city is really pretty, but it started to rain in the evening, so I just went and caught a movie. I was really excited about travelling in a plane again and getting to Australia finally.

From Singapore I flew to Darwin - a city on the northern tip of Australia and had to go through customs there. They actually pulled me aside and grilled me about my travels; why I was in Cambodia for 3 days, Malaysia for 2 days, Singapore for 2 days, and then only 4 days in Australia... So they went through my entire backpack, X-rayed it a few times, swabbed some of my things for drugs and grilled me for about 15 mins. Welcome back to Australia. Fortunately I didn't have my daily serving of drugs and needles with me, so they let me go, but not without a stern warning for bringing in Claratin (allergy medicine) they said it can be considered illicid drugs... haha. I guess they had to come up with something for all their troubles. It was nice to be in a place where everyone spoke english again and eat some familliar foods again.

I'll tell you more about Australia on the next post. This one is getting novel sized...

Well, thats all for now!
Come back soon for more!

Nate.