The Travel Diaries

 

We were uncertain how things would unfold, and more importantly how on earth we were going to get to Hong Kong in time to catch our Hong Kong to Vancouver leg of our trip home. Bangkok airport was still closed yesterday and so it was clear that we needed to find another way out of Thailand. Fortunately for us, the Phuket airport remained opened, but we didn't know for how long given the escalating situation in Bangkok. In fact, the Phuket airport had been closed just a few months ago, so we knew it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

 

On Thursday we spent the day on the phone and online trying to book tickets out of Phuket to anywhere -- mostly looking to get a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore or better yet direct to Hong Kong. Our original flight to Bangkok was on Thai Airways, and so we'd hoped they could rebook us to Hong Kong. No luck on the phones and time was ticking away. We decided our best option was to get to the airport on Friday morning and see what we could secure in person.

 

We arrived at the airport on Friday at 10:30 am with hopes that we'd be in another country by the evening. Our reservation at the hotel in Phuket was up and hotel rooms were scarce with stranded travelers. Travel agencies had told us that the soonest we could get confirmed seats on a flight would be as early as December 3rd, and worse so for the DragonAir flight from Phuket to Hong Kong, which the earliest would be December 6.

 

At the airport we saw that SilkAir had flights to Singapore every few hours, so if we could get on one of those flights via standby we might have a better chance getting a ticket to Hong Kong in time for our Saturday afternoon departure. Or we may just have to purchase a full ticket home if we missed that flight. While we were waiting in the line for standby, I overheard two British girls say that they opened an 11:30 pm Silk Air flight, so Kyong rushed upstairs to get us tickets. The line was long, but we were victorious. At least we had tickets out of Phuket on Friday evening. Each cost $300, but well worth it. Where it wasn't so great was that to get to Hong Kong from Singapore, the only option was two business class fare seats each running $1300. Now, we were ready to do it if we had to, but we had one slim option that may offer us some financial reprieve.

 

Our names were on the DragonAir standby list for the 6:20 pm flight direct to Hong Kong. If by some miracle we could get on that flight, we'd eat the cost of the $300 tickets to Singapore and not have to pay anything to get on the DragonAir. Because we booked on Cathay Pacific from Bangkok and we'd used miles to get First Class/Business seats, Cathay said they'd cover the ticket from Phuket to Bangkok. I went back to the counter at 5:30 pm to learn if we'd gotten on the flight. While standing there, a woman who was traveling told me that they'd brought in an Airbus which essentially doubled the flight capacity from 150 to 300 seats to help alleviate the backlog of stranded travelers. I was starting to get hopeful as I watched all of the ticketed passengers check in and gauged how many "hopefuls" remained to find out our fate. A woman came over asking for mine and Kyong's passports and it was then I was 90% sure we were going to get to Hong Kong that night.

 

We'd been at the airport with two other couples from our hotel who had also spent the last two days trying to get home. We'd become fast friends and even tag teamed to stand in lines, research airlines options and just wait. Miracle of miracles, we all got on the DragonAir flight, forgoing our tickets on Silk Air.

 

So at 11 pm last night we landed in Hong Kong, giving us nearly 18 hours before our next flight left. We checked into the airport hotel only to find that the room rate was well over $500. Oh well. At least we got a great suite for the night, complete with a separate living room. We enjoyed a lazy morning watching the BBC and CNN news to find out more about what's going on in Mumbai as well as the update for Bangkok. We hope our friends Chris and Adam made it out of Bangkok as they were scheduled to fly home on Thanksgiving.

 

As so we're homeward bound and very excited to be home in less than 24 hours.

 

So, I'm sure you've seen the news that the airport in Bangkok has been closed for the past few days. We'd hoped that the situation would be resolved quickly, but it's now looking very likely that it's not and we're now trying to figure out Plan B to get home.

 

With the closure of the Bangkok airport, people are trying to get rerouted via Kuala Lumpur or Singapore from Phuket to catch their connecting international flights. Our original flight is to leave from Phuket to Bangkok tomorrow morning at 10 am. That's not looking likely, unless by some miracle the airports in Bangkok reopen over night. We've been trying to get on any flight out of Phuket to Singapore or KL in hopes of getting a flight directly to Hong Kong to bypass the Bangkok mess all together.

 

So alas, we sit and wait until tomorrow morning to see what happens as there's no other option at this point. I guess it could be worse (being stuck at a beach resort vs. in Bangkok). The hotel has told us there are no rooms available beyond tonight, so we'll have to figure that out as well. Doesn't help that it's Thanksgiving back home and our travel agent is off until Friday.

 

We've been told that if the airport doesn't reopen tomorrow to allow us to catch our flight, it may be as late as Dec 3 before we can get a new itinerary. Wish us luck!

 

Ok, I know I said the last entry would likely be my last, but I figured I'd tell you about our day trip to Phi Phi Island, a hour and a half boat ride from Phuket. First I should back up and explain that two of Kyong's friends managed to meet up with us here in Phuket -- which was a nice surprise. Yvonne flew up from Singapore and Yena from Korea.

 

We sat out at the pool much of the day yesterday, dodging the scattered rain showers. Yes, it's true. It's not all sunny here, but it's not too bad. The cloud cover makes the temperature pleasant and rain doesn't really bother me a whole lot. And when it starts to come down, we head inside.

 

Kyong and I got a suite with an amazing view of the water. Definitely worth it. Sadly, Yvonne and Yena weren't able to get a room close by and so they are on the opposite end of the huge resort compound, almost as if they were at a different hotel all together.

 

Yena and I ventured into the ocean yesterday. Absolute bliss. I can't remember the last time I've been to a beach where the water was warm and the sand was clean of any seaweed or debris. For dinner we decided to head a couple of hotels over to Mom Tri's Boathouse, which is said to be quite the restaurant. I have to agree after having my first bite of beef tenderloin in who knows how long.

 

After dinner, we grabbed a tuk tuk to go to the night market. Pretty disappointing after all of the great markets we've seen over the last few weeks in Laos and Cambodia. Mostly just t-shirts, sarongs and such. But Yvonne came up with a brilliant idea to get a Thai foot massage while we were out and that was the perfect night cap of the evening.

 

 

Today we decided would be the best day to do a day trip over to Phi Phi. The jury was still out on the weather, but we figured better now than never. We caught a bus to take us to the boat landing on the other side of Phuket. And then it was a 1.5 hour boat ride over to the Phi Phi Islands. We didn't sign up for any tour, just transport there and back, so when we got there, we opted to get off at the Long Beach -- a stretch of white sand beach with a few restaurants and bungalows.

 

 

And so there we sat all afternoon. I got in the water for a little bit and then resettled back to my lounge chair under the shade of a tree. Even before 10:30 am, I could see that my SPF 30 wasn't holding up too well to the sun. A little snooze before lunch on the beach and then catching the boat back to huket at 2:30 pm.

 

I think I'm coming down with a cold -- starting with a sore throat and some nasal congestion. Hoping it's nothing more than allergies. Going to head back to the hotel room now to clean up for dinner and drink some Airborne.

 

Two more days on the beach and then Kyong and I start our long journey back home.

 

Kyong and I are officially done with the REI Adventure trip and are now in the lovely beach resort town of Phuket, Thailand. Lots of R&R in store for the next few days while we sit by the beach and pool, sipping our fruity cocktails, soaking up the sun and reading some mindless novels.

 

I don't expect that I'll be blogging much more ...

 

See you all after Thanksgiving!

 

 

Our last day in Cambodia and with the REI tour. It's been great fun, and we've really enjoyed the people on the trip with us. For our last excursion, we all got on our bikes again for a cycling tour around Angkor Thom. We had three temples to see in the morning, a stop for lunch at a cafe near the lake and then one last temple before the end of the day.

 

We were pretty "Wat"ted out by this point, but the highlight for me was knowing that we were going to see the Wats where Tomb Raider was filmed. The cycling was quite nice as it was flat roads, just having to make sure we didn't get run over by any passing cars. The most interesting temple we visited today was one where the trees had grown on top of the temple and have now actually become part of the architecture.

 

We had our last group dinner together at a very nice restaurant in town. Holly, one of the REI tourists, had written a poem about our trip and got up to share it with the group. Very cute and reminded me of summer camp days.