Passenger

Friday 24 October 2008
Ko Pha Ngan - Surat Thani - Bangkok

I wake up late-ish, and Bond is nowhere to be seen. This is kind of important, and it was he who arranged my taxi, ferry, and bus to Surat Thani airport on the mainland, from which I would catch my flight back up north to Bangkok. And I don't have the ticket yet.

So there are a few calls made, it turns out he had some stomach ache and I feel really sorry for him as they have to drag him out and have him sort out the tickets. I don't know why one of the others couldn't do it. Anyway it's sorted and I'm on my way.

The ferry to the mainland is actually a car ferry, the first one I've seen. The trip is pretty "ordinary" so it's standard travel procedure: iPod on and listen to some awesome music to kill the time.

As the mainland heads into view it is an awesome though typical South East Asian landscape of dolomite-shaped limestone mountains covered in jungle. It looks awesome and I take a few snaps, though it was hard to get a good angle. We dock and I board a bus that has the most garish upholstery that I have ever seen - a multicoloured flouorescent rainbow flower pattern on a dark blue background. I take a picture of it just for the record. You wouldn't want to be hungover in this environment.

The bus takes us to Surat Thani, and I nervously look at my watch. Aside from the fact that I haven't eaten anything but snacks since breakfast it's now nearly 5 and my flight is at 7. Luckily it's a domestic flight so I don't need to check in ultra-early, but still I wonder how long it will take. We stop in Surat Thani town centre and everybody gets off the bus and leaves. I'm now standing on the side of the road, there's no bus, no people and I'm not at the airport.

A few minutes later a woman comes up to me and says "Airport bus, 10 past 5." Essential information indeed. A nervous five minutes is spent until the bus turns up at quarter past. And when I'm on board, it turns out I wasn't given a ticket that I should have, and there is a bit of a kurfuffle. I certainly wasn't going to be paying anything extra and after a while the situation seems to resolve itself without me having to do anything.

But the clock it ticking and we don't arrive at the airport until a smidgen after six. Am I too late? Have I missed my flight? Is this the most rhetorical question ever? (That one's for you, James!) No, check in closes at 6.30 so everything's fine.

I kill some time in the luxurious departure lounge that actually has really comfortable seats - what a genius idea! - by wifi-ing on my phone and eating a hearty meal of peanut M&Ms.

The Thai Airways flight has the largest leg space of any airline ever - even beating Etihad - but apart from that it's pretty uneventful. I arrive into the domestic airport at Bangkok (though it erroneously describes itself as International ... that was the past honey, live in the now!) and take a taxi to Pete's place.

He's not in when I arrive and their mentally unstable cats watches me with worried eyes. I'm starving so I head out to the part of Bangkok that I haven't been to yet - Kao San Road.

It's full of bright lights and typical traveller stuff. I find a Thai restaurant for some food and it's the cheapest thing ever. There's some spooky Thai horror movie on the TV which is quite funny. Afterward I walk up and down the road to find a bar that was recommended to me called Roof, but I can't find it. So instead I went to a bar that had a guy playing acoustic covers that sounded like it would be good fun ... it was called Roof.

I settled in as I was feeling a bit zoned out and listened to the music. A few songs later and suddenly there were lots of people looking out over the balcony, while simultaneously the staff were clearing out the place like it was closed. Then they stopped. I wandered over to the balcony to see what was happening; as well as the people looking out there was a crowd on the street looking back up.

What's going on?" I asked the people next to me. Turns out that one of the air con units below had caught fire, but it had subsequently extinguished itself. There was still an acrid smell of smoke in the air. Looks like I was seconds away from being burnt alive. Risking death on the streets of Bangkok, that's me.

I chatted with the people I had just spoken to for a while, two Swiss girls, one of the French variety and one German. The German one was very friendly and we talked for a good while before they moved on. I ordered a Mojito and an Australian girl started talking to me. We chatted for a while as well before I became too tired and taxied my way home.