~oh, what a night

 October 3, 2016
indonsia here i come~

Short version -  The day started out so good but the ending could have been better! I left Marianne (Poulsons)’s house (a.k.a. bff), in Thailand, at 4:15 in the afternoon to travel 12 miles, by taxi, to the Don Mueang International Airport.  Unfortunately, I didn’t arrive until 8:23pm and I missed my 7:05pm flight. I had spent over 4 hours stuck in the taxi with a horrific thunderstorm raging outside where the traffic was in total gridlock mode for the majority of the time. There were a number of accidents and the flooding made for slow moving with the water up to the middle of everyones tires; more in some places. Difficult night with a few tears.  The good news was that I was able to catch an early afternoon flight the next day to spend some quality time in Jakarta, with my bestie, Kim Hofhiens!

Longer version ~ Today started off to be a fantastic day!  I got up early and got ready and then Marianne’s driver took me to the Hair place “Pim's(?)” in Nichada Thani!  They colored my roots, blew out my hair and gave me a nice little shoulder/foot massage.  Then Manit (their driver) and Billy came and picked me up and we went downtown to the Suvarnabhumi Airport where we dropped Billy off.  It was nice to be able to visit with him before he headed back to Cambodia.  When Manit and I got back to Nichada I was going to have him take me over to the Villa (grocery store) but I thought I could get the few things I needed, plus money, from the stores by the front gate.  I had Manit drop me off there and told him I would get a taxi home.  I got some money and a few items from 7/11 (my 2 other little shops were closed).  I decided to get a massage and then go back to Mariannes. The motorcycle taxi driver happened to be the same guy from my visit in July that helped me get my backpack fixed (see: "can't leave home without it")! So far, so good!

Arriving back at the house; I wrote a few notes, texted back and forth with Billy until he boarded his plane, packed up and got ready to go to Don Mueang (the airport that was near by).  I was getting ready to leave (about 4:15) when all of a sudden it started to rain, thunder, lightening and then storm with sheets of downpour (it was, literally, like buckets of water pouring down from the sky).

 

Marianne’s housekeeper run out to the gate to get a taxi called for me (bless her heart ~ she came back soaking wet). I wanted to leave her some money but I only had 480 baht (about $14.50) and even though I thought that my fare would only be about 250 baht I didn’t want to take any chances to be without enough money for the taxi.  The taxi came right away and off I went.  As we were heading down the road he made a left turn and we passed Big C and then flipped a U -turn about 1/2 mile down the road.  This was not as fast as it would have been had we just gone over the overpass, but I had plenty of time (my flight didn’t leave until 7:05pm) so I thought we would be just fine . . . NOT!

We slowed down from the get go (right after we went under the overpass).  It was bumper to bumper and we were crawling along.  I took out my nook (a gift from Billy from last Mothers’s Day!) and got nice and comfortable.  After about 15 minutes (when we should have been fairly close to the airport) I started watching the clock as it was ticking away (and the meter).  It just didn’t seem like we were getting anywhere.  I kept thinking that we were moving along but each time I check my GPS it indicated that we were still 1 hour and 40 minutes away . . . 

"What the?!?".  I wasn’t sure how that could be since we were only 12 miles from the airport (and it usually took less than a half hour to get there with normal traffic). After a very short time I realized that we were not moving . . . at all.  

I kept checking the time and the GPS but each time it indicated that we still had an hour+ to go.  I then started watching the meter and that sucker kept going up and up and up. I knew this wasn’t good since I only had 480 baht on me and it was approaching 300 by this time.  Finally, as I was thinking that we had to have passed our turn off, I looked over and saw “Sizzler”!!!  I totally recognized this 

landmark, since we ate here a lot when we were living here, and realized we were really still a great distance from the airport.  At this point it was already past 7pm and my flight was just taking off.  This whole time I had been texting back and forth with Billy and I wasn’t sure if I should spend another couple hours and just go back to the Poulson’s or try to catch another flight out tonight (there was one that left at 8:05) or just stay at the airport and try to get out tomorrow.  Unfortunately, 8pm rolled around and we were still on Chang Wattana so the chances of me catching this later flight was 0 to none. Finally, at 8:23pm, I arrived (with not enough money for my fare) and had to explain to the taxi driver that he could either take American money or I needed to run inside to the ATM.  I left my bags as collateral and ran, got the money - 529 baht, and gave him an additional $9 tip - I know, I went a little crazy but after 4 hours in his taxi and listening 
to his wife thrash him I just had empathy for the poor dude. 

So, $24 lighter, I headed back into the terminal and went around to many different locations trying to find someone who could direct me to the ThaiLion Airline office.  After locating it and telling my horrific, anxiety filled story, they were not very sympathetic (good grief 4 hours in a taxi for not that many miles, who wouldn’t sympathize).  All they could offer was (for an additional $112.00) a new ticket that would get me in at the same time tomorrow night to Jakarta.  Fortunately, Billy had found an afternoon flight that would get me in at 2:30pm 
on AirAsia for the same price so I went to the ATM for the 3rd time that day 

and got out $120 and bought yet another airline ticket to Indonesia. 
 

FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD BECAUSE I NEEDED IT BAD!

As I was wandering around I headed upstairs and an airline worker yelled over, 

I just kept walking then thought I’d better see what he wanted.  I turned around 
and walked back and he wanted to know where I was going.  It was just kind of weird, so I just said, “Upstairs for food” and walked off.  I got upstairs where 
a tall, skinny, (a little bit creepy) guy came up and started talking (I think he 
was saying words) and was pointing and waving his arms in different 
directions.  I had to go to the bathroom but I was afraid to go down the 
hallway in case he followed me so I went in the other direction around the 
corner and there was a host of other eating places and another toilet! Phew!

I wasn’t sure where or even if I was going to sleep during the night (I figured I could just grab a chair and cuddle up with my Nook until my 10am flight the next morning) but Billy said I should go to the hotel across the street.  I was having a little money problems (as in 'I didn’t have any') but he said he would pay for it and that I should go across the ramp and get a room.  I didn’t really want to leave the airport and as I turned around I saw “The Sleeep Box” and went over and 
checked it out.  The little girls were so sweet and totally empathized about my 
story (perhaps because I was giving them money instead of wanting them to 
comp me a room ~ like I wanted the airlines to comp my next flight!)!

I ended up paying $54 (back to the ATM for the 4th time) and got this 
beautiful little white room (good size) that had a nice bathroom and was 
very cozy! I went in (checked for any American Channels on the TV ~ none) and organized all my stuff and wrote about my day.  So instead of arriving tonight 
I’ll be seeing Kim tomorrow afternoon!!  Oh, What a Night (day)!