Facts28 Dec 2006
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| 1) I am a fool 2) I am uber lucky Thus I am an uber lucky fool! I was supposed to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok and from there on to Ko Samui today, but very nearly didn't make it at all... Dan and I were supposed to fly at 4.25 in the afternoon, and so had to be at the airport, an hours drive away, by 3.40 at the latest. In typical fashion we made we were late for the bus, catching it at about 2.30 and so nearly being late for check in on the first flight. Despite joking about it on the way there, when we got to the airport I discovered that I had left my passport back in my hostel, kicking off a long chain of stress, bad luck and very good luck. The fisrt straoke of luck was that there was another flight to Bangkok at 6.40 which got in to Bangkok in plenty of time for the next flight, which I bought a ticket for, and so began a very stressful journey. Not having the phone number for the hostel to see if they would bring my passport to the airport for me, Dan got on the first flight while I had to get a taxi in to KL and back to the airport in the two hours before check in closed for the second flight. Despite the taxi driver saying that it would take 3/4 of an hour to get to the city and back, it took a full hour and a quarter just to get to my hostel because the traffic in KL was so bad, and then another hour and 3/4 to get back to the airport because it rained so heavily that the roads pretty much came to a standstill. My second stroke of luck came when I got a text telling me that the flight was delayed by an hour, giving me, I thought, plenty of time to get to the airport. This was not so. The taxi driver seemed to take a completely random route back to the airport, and I got to the airport only 40 minutes before the new departure time, 5 minutes after check in closed. In a slight panic, I had to beg the staff to let me on the flight, and luckily they did, with 30 minutes to spare. I raced through security and met Tasha, Dan's sister, and her friends Shell and Chris in the departure lounge where they were waiting for the flight. I spent the last of my money on a much needed bottle of Jack Daniels, and got on the flight - literally the last people through the gate as we were a bit too engrosed in a game of cards to notice that everyone else had gone! The flight, despite having been delayed, should have still got me in to Bangkok on time, except for the fact that the "brakes were too hot" for us to take off and we were sat on the runway for another half an hour, putting our expected arrival time 5 minutes after final check in for the second flight. We landed in Bangkok too late for the flight as expected, and I was met off the plane by a guy with my name on a piece of paper (although I nearly completely ignored it as it read Philip Minton). Not entirely sure what was going on, but having an image of Dan having faked a heart attack or something to hold up the plane, I was told that my second flight had also been delayed by an hour! Hugely relieved by the fact that i wasn't going to have to make a 20 hour bus and boat journey to the island, I was raced through customs and immigration by the airport guy, had an agonisingly long wait to collect my bag, checked in my bag for the flight, and finally met up with Dan again on the way to the deprarture lounge after the most stressful day of my holiday and some 8 or 9 hours sat in a taxi or crammed in a plane (another airbus A320 with bugger all leg room). I can't believe just how lucky I was to make it to Ko Samui. I don't think I can ever complain about transport being late or delayed ever again! |
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