Bon Voyage Paradise

I would never think that Paradise could become such a nightmare, but that is exactly what happened to Susan and I, and our friends Ryan and Crystal. As you know from my previous posts we were in Thailand. For the first few days it was amazing. Scuba diving, golf, beaches, and tropical weather in December. But all of that quickly changed when the People's Alliance for Democracy decided to take over the two airports in Bangkok. We were not in Bangkok, luckily, but were scheduled to be traveling there in a couple of days. As those days passed and we realized we were not going to be going to Bangkok we turned our attention to figuring out a way to get home. Now you need to realize that almost every flight goes through Bangkok, and as the days passed it became more apparent that getting out of Thailand was not as easy as you would think. It was estimated that 250,000 tourists were trapped in Thailand. That is a lot of people who are doing the same thing you are in trying to vacate the country. Trains, buses, and alternate flights were completely booked. Immediately after a new flight was open it would be filled. You began to really wonder how you were going to get home. This is where Paradise becomes Hell. For three days we spent most of the day online, working with the concierge, or on the phone trying to find a way out of Thailand. Kuala Lumpur or Singapore seemed to be our best bet, but everyone else had the same idea. 

On the third day I called Asiana Air for what seemed to be the hundredth time. The phone call amazingly went directly through to a customer service rep. Normally, it would be busy or I would be on hold forever. I explained again how we were stuck in Phuket and wondered if they had any options available. They had a flight from Phuket to Seoul on the day we were scheduled to fly from Bangkok to Seoul! And they had seats available! And it put us in Seoul on time to connect with our flight back to the States! And it wouldn't cost us anything! I cannot explain what a relief this was to me. I never considered myself to be someone who stresses about things, but I really struggled with this. It ate at me 24 hours a day. I would wake up in the middle of the night wondering how we were going to get home.

Our friends were not so lucky. They ended up having to by tickets to Singapore where they would be rerouted by their original carrier. That isn't too bad, except that the earliest they could get out of Phuket was four days after they were due to leave. That means four more days of vacation expenses. Did I mention Phuket is not cheap?!

I can't tell you how happy and relieved I was when we finally made it through security and were waiting to board our plane home. It wasn't until we were seated on the plane, though, that I was really able to fully relax and know we had made it out of Thailand. 

The trip was great and I wouldn't trade it because it was what it was. An amazing experience. Plus, it will forever make for the a great story. I can't tell you how glad I am to be home in the good ol' United States!