Ahhhhh, it’s a rough life. Sitting here on the balcony outside of our luxurious room (and I do mean luxurious….there is an awesome amazing hot shower, a gargantuan bathtub with pillows, a bed that was made for an average-sized elephant – hush, I’ve lost a lot of weight!! -, tv/dvd, wifi IN THE ROOM – you have no idea how much that means to me….gods, not having to make time to get down to a café is so damn nice….a mini-bar with prices that are 10 baht more than the restaurants …so like $0.35, making it an easy choice to reach for that Singha….a/c, room service….anyway you get the picture) and looking out across the bay here. It simply is idyllic. The sun is gradually peeking through the fluffy clouds, the two headlands are glimmering against the emerald sea with faint sand bars visible off in the distance. Our room is perched slightly up on a hill giving us just the most stunning vistas. This really is paradise. Chez Chris seems a long way away. Hmmmm…some pictures of our little slice of heaven, perhaps to help you all visualize.…..
And to top it off, our journey here was good!! The missus didn’t have any puking incidents on the ferry over (can’t say the same for the poor lady next to us, she heaved and hurled before we even left port and then kept up the slurpy-slurp rhapsody the entire trip) and we had a little walk around the main port while we waited for our taxi to the resort. Ok, the resort van-trip to the resort was a bit of a harrowing experience (the van was fish-tailing down steep jungle roads despite the driver taking every precaution), but it was fun nonetheless….kind of like a jungle-adventure ride.
Saw some cool potential side-trips for tomorrow too, elephant rides, monkey tours and there are apparently some über-cool waterfalls to be seen on the island. We have to do SOMETHING tomorrow, today we laid by the pool ALL day. We’re just back in the room at almost 4 p.m. after leaving at 10:00 a.m. and eating and reading and sun-worshipping.
This of course is partly the hotel’s fault….the hotel itself is very pamperific….little tiny vans to get us to and from various parts (although we’ve chosen to walk instead….yay being healthy!), Thai staff who keep bowing to us all the time (I always knew there was someplace where someone respected me ….. or is it the almighty dollar? Ah well, I can pretend they are kowtowing to me in particular…at least for another day), beautiful infinity pool with little people bringing us drinks and food and now shortly we are off for some spa pampering to boot. After finally settling into Koh Tao life, this is too much. Going back is going to be hard all over again….
Having said all that, it seems that the missus has recovered from her travel travesty….but just so you know how it ended, here is Part 2 of the guest blog:
To Koh Tao via the Gates of Hell (Part 2): The “empty” Reunion
It’s me again, the Missus. Unfortunately, the second half of my journey was not much better than the first. I left off still trying to get out of Vancouver. I was not alone in my attempts to get out of Vancouver. There were several thousand passengers stranded at the airport who were looking to re-book their flights. At 11pm, Air Canada decided that they would shut down for the night and stop helping stranded passengers. Other airlines like WestJet stayed open all night to re-book people. Once Air Canada came back to work, one person showed up to re-booked thousands of passengers. It was total chaos.
As so many flights were cancelled, it was impossible to get a hotel room. I “slept” on the floor of the airport in the re-booking line in front of a door that opened every 30 seconds. There was a windchill of –20. I slept with some really nice people who made the time pass a little quicker. By sleep, I mean climb in to a small grey plastic container that they put luggage into and try to conserve body heat. I don’t know the names of the people that I slept with that night, but I hope they made it to their destinations for Christmas. I’d sleep with them again anytime!
Before dawn, Air Canada had actually re-booked our flight to leave at 8:20am. I got a new boarding pass and hoped that my luggage would make it back on to the plane. How can things get worse you ask? Look away Stone! I could not hold off going to the washroom any longer. I sucked it up and went. I actually felt better as I had a stomach ache from holding it in so long (I don’t like to go in public places). As soon as I went, I felt relief, until I looked over and realized that there was no toilet paper. What could be worse than sleeping in your clothes on the floor of the airport, which you then have to wear for the next 20 hours? I’ll tell you what. Do that and then realize that your clothes just got a whole lot worse due to a lack of toilet paper! I had to wait until someone came into the stall next to me who would spare a square. I wanted to die.
Needless to say, we didn’t board the plane until 10:30am and didn’t actually take off until 1pm (which meant another 2.5 hours on the runway). And then we were off. If we weren’t strapped in, there would have been a standing ovation.
My flight to Bangkok went smoothly. When I arrived in Bangkok, I had to re-book my flight to Samui for the next morning where I would then catch the ferry to Koh Tao. As luck would have it, I arrived at the Bangkok Airways desk 5 minutes after it closed for the night. Nice. I now had no flight to Samui (as I obviously missed my connecting flight) and only a short window of time in the morning to be able to make the ferry to Koh Tao.
My choice was to get a good night’s sleep and risk not making the ferry or get to the airport early and see if I could get an early flight. After feeling sorry for myself for a while, I decided that I could sleep when I’m dead and I got up at 6am to head to the airport. However, I felt rejuvenated after a couple hours sleep and a hot shower. I even shaved my legs!
I was able to secure an early morning flight, which got me to Samui in time for the 12:30 ferry to Koh Tao. Because I missed all of my connecting flights and ferry, I no longer had a reservation for the ferry. It was packed. They put me on standby. I was so close to my destination, but yet another roadblock. I think the woman at the ferry took pity on me after seeing the look on my face and snuck me on the ferry even though it was technically full.
It’s Christmas Eve and I’m on the ferry!! I will make it to see Chris by Christmas!
For those that know me, they know that seasickness is one of my many weaknesses. I took Gravol in an effort to stave off the inevitable. I made it to the first island without incident. I called Chris and told him that I felt good and that I’d be there soon! I was so excited. And then the Gates of Hell swallowed me whole. I have never been more seasick in my life! It took 2.5 hours to go a 1 hour ferry ride. I filled three bags with bile (I didn’t eat before I left knowing that I might see it again) and dry heaved for what seemed like an eternity. I really wanted to die. I meant it this time!
When I finally saw Chris, I couldn’t even hug him because I thought I would throw up on him. I’m sure he wasn’t too eager to hug me either as I was a nice shade of green and smelt like puke. Nice. I drank some water on dry land. That stayed down until I made the 5 minute journey to Chez Chris. The first thing I did when I walked in was throw up the water that I just drank. It was not the reunion that I had been dreaming of. Chris put me to bed and he went out for Christmas Eve drinks alone. Merry f@%$ing Christmas…
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