All good adventures have some sort of crisis or minor disaster somewhere within their mists and so it was that Kris and I decided to get ours over and done with at the very beginning of our holiday!
Lisa had dropped me at Heathrow airport in the early hours of Saturday 28th March. The check in at 6.30am had been painless much to my surprise – I have never booked a flight by e-ticket before and not having anything tangible in my hand as I approached the check-in desk left me feeling strangely vulnerable! I handed over my passport and suddenly all my fears were put aside as the computer screen popped up my details including the vegetarian option for in flight meals. Luggage check-in was even simpler as I didn't have any, just my usual Indian bag that comes under hand luggage and is never out of my sight.
Flying Arabic Airlines, for those of you who have never had the pleasure, is a pure joy. All needs are inclusive and catered for, from the vast supply of magazines for all tastes – I picked up this months copy of Lonely Planet – to the pre flight drinks that are served along with socks and eye pads (the blanket and pillow are already on your seat when you arrive) They even have an on-board camera that shows you where you are as you taxi down the runway and then take off. The view below the plane as you lift into the air slides by on your personal screen until you disappear into the mists of the high clouds, by which time everything looked so small you had begun to loose interest anyway!
Then the real fun starts – for someone who does not own a TV, and doesn't miss it either for that matter – the in-flight entertainment is my yearly fix of all the latest releases. From a choice of 79 films (there is also TV, interactive games, flight and world mapping, plus music channels to chose from) I began with the film 'The Duchess' – a good period drama that was entertaining yet easy to watch and based (I believe) on true characters. This was followed immediately by Australia – a film so full of clichés that it was positively painful to watch – woman steps into the unknown, finds that her husband was killed that morning and that the 'Bad Men' are after her land, she overcomes everything they throw at her, falls in love with the rough outcast, even crosses the never before crossed dessert to get the cows to market!! A bit of the Japanese war thrown in just so they both think the other is dead and just before the film finishes and they disappear into the corners of the world never to find each other again, in the distant mist she hears the unmistakable sound of his mouth organ(!!) and they fall into each others arms after the traditional slow motion run down the harbour wall! Its redeeming quality's however ( and the only reason I carried on watching it) is some quite good music and a gorgeous guy with a beard! Any film containing a guy built like that, stripped to the waist in various scenes as a bonus, with such a divine beard deserves my attention, and so I did indeed watch it to the very end.
After dinner, a wonderful spinach and chick pea curry with rice and fresh salad, miniature rolls and butter, followed by fresh fruit salad with optional cream and complimentary drinks from the bar, I chose juice and lemonade but there is no limit to what you order, I settled down to watch 'An Affair To Remember' with Cary Grant. A pure classic and one that Vicky would have approved of. I too have seen it many times but they just don't make films like that any more and yes the tears were there at the end when he discovers it is her wheelchair! True Class!
A quick game or two against the planes backgammon, which I lost but it was good to play again after so long, and we were there. 12 hours of actual flight time, 5 hours of sitting around including the 2 at Abu Dhabi, 8 hours added to the clock for the time difference and it was now 7am on March 29th.
I filled in the relative entry forms, breezed through the luggage claim and customs and stepped out into the arrival lounge of Bangkok Airport. The compound containing those awaiting new arrivals overflowed with people calling and thrusting name boards in front of me. I scanned the faces for any sign of recognition but there was defiantly no Kris!
Had I honestly expected him to be there waiting? I had hoped but I wasn't surprised nor perturbed by the situation and wandered aimlessly out of Exit 10 and into the morning heat of Bangkok. Smells and the noise of the city assaulted me as I settled myself into a corner to wait. There was no point ordering a taxi or finding a bus as I didn't now where we were going! I called his phone but a strange high pitched voice shrilled a stream of pre recorded foreign words at me, so I hung up.
At 7.30 Thai time, 12.30 UK time, I sent a text to Lisa, who I knew was still working. Could she go onto My Facebook when she got home and get Steph's (Kris's German Girlfriend) phone number for me as I knew she had talked to him two days before and may know where he was! Lisa phoned back half an hour later to say Kris had left a message on My Wall saying he was in the Airport but couldn't find me, he wasn't going to leave until we somehow found each other! Lisa then wrote on his Wall that I was at Exit 10 and to go find me – and so the search was on!
It was now 8.15 Thai time and I headed back inside the doors to the information station. Politely I asked if they could make an announcement for Kris to come to their desk to find me. Dutifully they took down his name and made the announcement. Ten minutes later they called him again. Another ten minutes passed and they looked around anxiously 'What flight is your son on'? they enquired? 'Oh he's not on a flight' I said 'he lives here!' Recognition flooded the girls face 'OH Madam he is not allowed in this part of the Airport' she informed me sweetly 'you must go through to that area over there' she pointed to a place 20 foot away.
Now they tell me! Within one minute of stepping over the invisible boundary between one information desk and another I felt a huge arm encircle my shoulders and Kris had found his Mommy!
He had spent the last hour trying to find out exactly where I was. Admittedly he had arrived a bit late and had thought he had missed me. He knew my flight was in, as he could see it on the board, but he didn't know which of the exits 1 to 10 I would have come out from. When he had tried to come further along into the airport (where I actually was) he had been stopped by security and when he had gone out of the airport building and stepped over a low barrier to get to the next Exit (no 9) he had been chased back with a guard drawing his baton! At that point he had gone to the internet place and sent me the message on the off chance that I would do the same.
His none ringing phone was explained by the fact that he had lost his phone a few months back and hadn't thought to tell me, so the number I was ringing didn't exist any more! He also didn't have my number as it had been on his old phone and he hadn't thought to ask me for mine again during our various e-mail contacts – that also explained why he hadn't responded to any of my text in the past two months – at 50p a text I wasn't impressed!
But we were now together. He was clean shaven and browner than me! For the first time in his life he was actually browner than me and took great delight in comparing arms repeatedly! He had been in Bangkok for two days as he had got the dates of my flight wrong (surprise, suprise)– he'd had a great time staying with a friend who owned a bar in Section 7. Apart from a mild hangover he hadn't suffered at all with the wait!
There was nothing I particularly wanted to see in Bangkok so we boarded a bus to Pattaya two hours away and my trip had begun!
The journey down to Pattaya flew by as Kris and I caught up on over a years worth of gossip. He entertained me with wonderful stories about Tioman and Thailand, the most entertaining one being about the time he had a mouse problem in his room on Tioman. Having mentioned the problem of the mouse verse all the various wires connecting i-pods, phone chargers and other bits said mouse was working his way through, his good friend came up with the solution. “What you need Kris is a snake!” “OK you get me a snake and we will put it in the room” replied Kris. “Oh no it is your mouse and your room so you must get the snake!” After a beer or three they headed out into the evening forest in search of a snake and to be fair they returned an hour later with a three foot python curled around Kris's arm. The theory, Kris explained to me as our bus hurtled it way along the roads towards Pattaya, is to grasp the snake behind the head and allow it to curl around your arm – you can see why the size of the snake is an important issue here – too big and you have no arm bones left! Having covered your snakes head with your other hand, leaving the snake now feeling calm in the darkness, you return to the bar and continue your evening. After about two hours you gently open your hand leaving your little finger on the back of the snakes neck. If the snake stays where it is or slowly goes forward your snake is now pacified, if it retreats backwards it needs a bit longer in the warm darkness of your hand. Having subdued his three foot python – see photos – Kris then had to let it loose in his room. He slept that night as one does when you do not have a mossy net, with the sheet tucked up all around his body and only his nose and mouth showing. In the morning he carefully opened his eyes, moved his head from side to side to make sure his snake hadn't crawled up to sleep upon his pillow with him, and then gingerly sat up. He scanned the room for signs of life, nothing. He edged towards the side of the bed and slowly looked underneath it. There curled into a neat spiral was his snake. A prominent bulge in its midriff proved a good nights hunting had been had and it was now sleeping off its exertions! The snake was re caught and gently removed to the outside world and Kris's mouse problem was over.
There were many stories and I am glad I had not been told some of them when they had happened, with him sitting safely beside me they now lost some of their life threatening potential and were tamed to entertaining stories of close encounters. Too soon we were disgorged from our air Conditioned bus onto the boiling streets of Pattaya.
Although I love the heat and humidity of Asia, it always takes a day or two to acclimatise and having been cocooned in the cool bus as the sun reached its zenith, it was a shock to the system to say the least as I stepped out onto that pavement. The temperatures averaged 30c at night and 40+c in the day. With his phone in one hand, my bag in his other, Kris led the way towards the coast. Sheana and Terry lived somewhere in that direction so that was the way we walked.
Sheana and Terry are the two Dive Instructors that were Kris's Mentors in Cyprus. It was they who were in charge of his training up to Dive Master, they who looked after his health and wealth while he lived for the first time well away from home. They hadn't seen him in over two years as they had left Cyprus just after he qualified as an instructor to take up jobs here in Thailand. Kris had contacted them when I said I had wanted to do a bit of travelling before we got to Vietnam. They had been thrilled to hear from him and had invited us to stay with them for a few days and for Kris to do a spot of diving with them. We wandered the streets for about an hour, stopping for refreshments and eventually hailed a cab and gave them the address – what can I say, it was hot and we were lost, the intrepid adventurer part of us could wait!!
Safely deposited by the main entrance of the complex we found Terry on his way back from the shop . Greetings were made as we piled three up onto his bike for the final 100m to the house. The door was locked and he didn't have a key so it was back onto the bike and around the corner to the pool where Sheana and Ty were having their afternoon swim in the huge complex pool. Life is so hard in Asia!
Kris was welcomed back like a long missed child and they all quickly fell into reminiscing about the old days and then into dive chat! I felt positivity anaemic next to all these bronzed bodies and slipped quietly into the pool to catch a few rays as I floated around. Ty joined me for a while before it was decided it was food time and we all headed back the the house for showers. The boys shot off on the bikes returning moments later with bags of goodies from the lady on the street corner. Sticky rice and veg for me and strange things on sticks for everyone else.
It was now nearly 4pm (7am UK time) and I had been up for over 24hours. Not wanting to give in to the time difference and to get my body into Thai time as easily as possible ,I was determined to stay up until at least 9pm and then have a full nights sleep, that, I figured should set my body clock right for the rest of my trip. We headed back to the pool to wake me up. The water was positively hot as the sun went down, swimming in hot water in the dusk of evening is quite surreal yet very enjoyable.
At 7pm we washed again and headed out on the bikes to the night market to eat. With food being so so cheap and also so good it is easier to eat out than cook at home, and cooler. The night market was an assault on not only the senses but also the mind as a whole. Row upon row of stalls selling the most mind boggling things, most of which are edible in some shape or form. Groups of tables are scattered randomly to my eyes but apparently in strict conformity to the markets ways, allowing people to chose various dishes and delicacies that were brought to the table for consumption. Attempting to find out what these dishes were proved challenging to say the least and finding something I could eat proved even a bigger challenge. No Meat was OK, No Fish was met with astonishment but accepted, No Egg was met by blank stares. Everything had egg in it in some form or another. Being not as strict a vegetarian as my daughter I figured if I couldn't actually see the egg I could survive and I ordered my food.
As a side note here, on the way back from Vietnam I had to stay in Bangkok Airport for 10 hours while awaiting a connection – they were shooing people in the town centre so staying in the Airport seemed like a good option at the time. Anyway while there I had the choice of about 15 restaurants to eat in. Opening the menu of the one I had chosen I turned to the page titled Vegetarian/Vegan. My choice was Rice with Vegetarian Chicken Wings or Noodles with Vegetarian BBQ Beef! I do not think they have quite grasped the concept of Vegetarianism in Thailand – I did eventually find some pasta in tomato sauce that I didn't investigate too carefully as I was starving!
Having eaten our fill and stocked up on some fruit for me to eat the next day we remounted our bikes and headed out onto the evening streets. Kris nearly lost his licence driving as he does in Wales yet in Asia he has found his wheels so to speak and can weave his way through gaps I wouldn't walk through. We took the scenic route home along the beach front winding in and out of cars and other like minded bikes. The evening breeze as the bikes raced along was refreshing after the stillness of the market and I arrived back at the house invigorated and wide awake.
I had brought Kris a copy of the Holiday Showdown program on DVD along with all his growing up pictures from baby to 21years old on a USB stick as a pressy for his 21st birthday. Once Terry and Sheana found out I had them, it was unanimously decided by all ,except Kris, that they should be viewed before bed. With much laughter from us and groans from Kris we watched them to the end. It was now 1am (5pmUK time) I had been up for 37 hours and was ready to sleep, as was everyone else by then, and so ended my first day in Asia!
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