So after goodbyes and a sad tuktuk ride to the airport, I checked in at the obnoxiously slow and crowded counter (three ridiculous lines that I kept no lane loyalty to), after spinning yarns with an old finnish man, and went to find my gate. I had some time, played around looking for free internet, and had a seafood salad at some overpriced place with the last of my american dollars.
The plane ride was easy, with me spending the majority of it typing away, catching up on far too many missed blogs, and at 630, bangkok. I had a flight at 640am, so figured it'd be worthwhile checking in somewhere cheap, actually finally getting some decent shut eye, and then venturing off again.
A female (first female taxi driver yet) seemed to understand my request- cheap, and very close to airport. 40 minutes later we were still driving and she was busy blabbering away on her cellphone in thai, so everytime I tried to get her attention and ask where the fuck we were going, I found no success. Eventually we stopped at what wouldve been her cousin/sister/bff's guesthouse, filled entirely with thai people... They asked for 1000 baht a night. I laughed. That's $33, and I was staying for like no time, and the rooms were shit. I finally was like fuck it, and gave in. I said I needed a taxi at 4am and they said I couldn't get one before 6... The fuck? After a lot of language confused arguing, I forced the driver to take me somewhere else. In the car she tried to make me communicate on the phone with someone who 'spoke english' but all I heard was high pitched bullshit. Nothing. I was screaming, angry, and all I kept saying was 'no hotel, airport. New taxi.' Eventually she understood that, all the while I was watching the meter go up to nearly 200 baht, based on her retarded driving around. I got out, refused to pay, got into a massive argument with the english speaking taxi stand runner, and stormed back into the airport, livid. Luckily I had no one follow nor arrest me for not paying, but in my opinion, if I end exactly where I started, no one deserves shit.
I searched for the left baggage area, nearly crying to a tourist desk who told me the prices of nearby hotels, and suggested I just sleep in the airport. They said heaps of people do it, there are security guards, the seats are comfy, and everything's darker and quiet at night. I decided to put my pack though in the left baggage area so I'd be free of it's weight, and then did laps around the airport, noticing that not only could I not get internet anywhere (since I wasn't in the terminal anymore) but there were absolutely no places that served meals. I was starving, and eventually bought a dodgy looking egg that was sitting on a bit of rice, which had probably been out all day. It all tasted edible, satiated my hunger, but I was a bit freaked out about the egg's unnatural texture, and lack of yolk pour out at the break. Then I found an awesome vending machine that gives japanese rice balls filled with a small assortment of fishy options. I went with shrimp eggs. Pretty good. By 10pm I was done milling around, moved two benches to face eachother, fashioned some sort of bed and used my bag as my pillow, while hiding my valuable filled fanny pack in my harem pants, popped a valium and went to bed.
After a half hour of my alarm blaring, I finally woke up and went to the ticket counter to check in. I was delirious, only vaguely responding to some british couple's debate about jesus/grandpa sandels versus flipflops. After check in though I got a burst of energy and was doing laps around the airport, looking for wifi. To no avail, I sat at the plain gate and waited.
As I got to my seat I realised I was, once again in an emergency row, meaning I had to save the plane if it crashed. Good thing it didn't, because before we had even taken off, I was already asleep, and I only woke up to the rustling of people getting off post landing. As I zombied to the baggage claim I was chatting with a group of americans who were off to ko phi phi. At this point in my trip I was planning to stay a night in ko lanta for christmas eve, and then see what was up from there, but they said I could join if I wanted-- they'd find space. Split second tired, random decision said yes, and before I knew it I bought a ticket and was off with 6 american blokes to ko phiphi.
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