We woke Friday morning and again checked to see if the airport had re-opened. It was still closed and the news read that morning that the police had mobilized to take it back. There was talk of a coup that could escalate with the general in charge of the army now telling the Prime Minister to step down. Apparently tanks had started getting ready to move in…on whose side we did not know.
Katie and I quickly got ourselves ready and walked to Avis where we had reserved a car. We were relieved to get the car in a very busy city Avis location in which we met a nice couple who had been stuck 3 extra days in Bangkok. They were driving to Singapore with their Children, Singapore being their home. They helped to explain the drive to us and the Avis staff was incredibly helpful in getting us maps and telling us how to get to Phuket. We started the drive with a quick stop to pick up our luggage at the hotel and then back to the roads. We had a tiny Toyota Corolla with a right hand drive and we quickly hopped on the Expressway to leave Bangkok.
As we headed towards Rama II Road/Highway, we saw an exit which we flew off thinking we’d almost missed our turn. Unfortunately this turn took us under the bridge we were supposed to go across. With some skillful navigating from Katie and maniacal driving from me we made it back on track onto Rama II and then Highway 41. The drive was absolutely hideous at first with ugly industrial buildings and horrible smog, most of which we could see billowing out of the cars and rickety trucks around us. Many of the trucks were twice as tall as they were wide, piled with what one can only imagine.
From Highway 41 we headed south on Highway 4, a main thoroughfare down the western side of the Peninsula, along the border of Burma. Once we exited greater Bangkok we were out of the ugly industrial roads and began to see beautiful mountains that were craggly, like rocks jutting out of a field. The edges of the roads were covered with jungle foliage, lots of Palm trees. After some driving we decided to stop for a moment. We pulled into one of the many gas station/7 Eleven stops we’d seen, and would continue to see, along the road. Picking up what would be the first of what we didn’t know would be many roadside meals and using one of the "non-western" toilets, we took off down the road again. There seemed to be no speed limit and I wanted to get there so we drove quite fast avoiding the stray dogs, tuk tuks and numerous motorcycles that would appear out of no where. One thing we didn’t have to avoid, luckily, but did see was a family of elephants walking along the highway! How cool.
Highway 4 turned into a two lane road just in time for darkness. The darkness was quite intense given there were no street lights and there were cars everywhere. Not to mention the motorcycles that had no lights that would appear halfway into the lane right before you were about to hit them. The only way to get around the very slow moving trucks full of cargo and people was to pass them, along with everyone else, which was a bit hair raising. Katie and I began a silly game to see how often I would catch her flinching as something was either hurtling towards us or us towards them.
After ten hours on the road we found our hotel in Phuket, at Surin beach, quite easily. As we checked in we were very relieved that the hotel and area seemed beautiful at least at night. Our room at the Ayara Hilltops Resort and Suites was beautiful. It was a full size suite with a huge terrace and an outdoor shower off the enormous bathroom. We’d picked this because the price had been quite reasonable…except we weren’t supposed to be here yet. So now we were paying a lot for the first two extra nights, along with paying for one night in Chiang Mai due to their cancellation policy. Clearly this is why people get trip insurance…which neither of us had.
Waking up the next morning we could see the ocean from our room. It was a great view. We headed down for breakfast at which point I promptly because sick! After going back to the room I managed to stay in bed the entire day, with many runs (no pun intended) to the bathroom. Katie enjoyed the day shopping and laying by the pool. That night after falling asleep I was woken up by Katie screaming “Help Dan!” I frantically asked what was wrong and Katie started laughing. She had been having a bad dream that a man had broken into the room and that she was being taken captive. She had yelled for my help in her nightmare! After my heart slowed down we both laughed hysterically for some time. The rebels demonstrating were starting to get to our heads.
Sunday morning we woke up and having heard that a bomb had gone off at the government house, along with rumors of airport closure in Phuket, decided it was time to leave Thailand. We spent most of the morning trying to figure out a flight, car, boat or train to get us out of the country. We had learned we weren’t allowed to take a rental car across the border. Though we still wondered how the family we’d met in the Bangkok Avis office had done so…or maybe they hadn’t. We drove to the Phuket airport to see if we could get a flight out. The airport was complete mayhem with people stranded trying to fly out. Lines were long and we accomplished little being there.
Back at the hotel and with some time on the internet we learned there was a train that went out of Hat Yai Thailand. Problem was there were only 15 seats left and they wouldn’t reserve it for us given we weren’t three days in advance. So we decided we’d drive there and take our chances. As we hastily checked out the staff at the Ayala was incredibly helpful, particularly after we assured them we loved their resort, and booked us a hotel in Hat Yai and also managed to get a “VIP Minivan” to pick us up in the morning to drive us to Penang Malaysia where we booked a flight to get us to Singapore.
We set off for Hat Yai at around 3:30 in the afternoon and drove through some of the most amazing landscape ever. Huge rock outcroppings covered with jungle vegetation. We drove through many small towns and saw a side of Thailand neither of us had anticipated seeing. We also saw our first PAD demonstrators. They were in a very small town in their yellow protest shirts screaming and yelling. We drove by quickly without looking back, except of course to take a picture! As darkness hit so did the rain. It rained like I’ve never seen rain. We hydroplaned so badly at one point I thought we’d go right into the house on the side of the road. We ate more “meals” from 7 Eleven and the Esso gas stations as we continued on this six and a half hour drive. Finally in Hat Yai, after some time driving around, we found our hotel. It was the JB Hat Yai, a large business hotel. Not the Four Seasons Bangkok but for the eleven or so hours it would be fine.
Waking up Monday morning we had to return the rental car. So we got up with what we thought would be plenty of time to return the car, come back to the hotel and have breakfast. Turns out it was still raining quite hard and the rivers were overflowing. There was an incredible amount of traffic getting to the airport. We quickly returned the car and then had the most excruciatingly slow taxi ride back to the hotel. We tried calling the mini-bus service to no avail and neither of us wanted to imagine staying in Hat Yai, a town that clearly was not meant for a tourist. We got to the hotel and were very thankful to see our van still there waiting for us. Our VIP mini-van ended up being a version of a beat up old VW Eurovan. There were also three other passengers. Greg from Oregon, later to be named “the alarmist” and Sarah and Michael from south of London. We all piled into the mini-van and headed off towards the Malay border telling our stories of how we’d ended up in Hat Yai. Our driver, smoking in the front seat most of the drive, managed to honk at every car we went past so I was quite thankful for the noise canceling headphones that my parents gave me a few years ago. They also managed to “cancel” the noise coming from The Alarmist who was calling people the entire time trying to find out road conditions and telling the driver not to go “supersonic” speeds. When we reached the border we walked through, after a few Baht were slipped from our wallets to the driver to the customs people, with no question asked. We got back into the van and then stopped again to go to the Malaysian border crossing just a few feet away. After we’d all gone through these two border crossings we got back in the car cheered that we were free again and headed into Malaysia.
After a total of five hours from Hat Yai we arrived in Penang. We all parted ways and I went to the Singapore airlines desk to see if we could get on an earlier flight. I met a man from San Mateo who had told me he and his family had taken an overnight train from Bangkok to Hat Yai and then a mini-van across the border. The airport was full of people looking like they’d all just gone through this same fun exercise. I couldn’t get us on the earlier flight so Katie and I settled in for some food, after another day of eating pretzels and water in the car…I think I’ll write a diet book called the Thailand Diet. We called our hotel and got it two nights early so we could check in once we landed in Singapore. This would be, again, at an incredibly higher rate and we’d still paying the nights in Phuket we weren’t staying there. I don’t want to figure out how much this coup in Thailand has cost me, let alone what it has cost the country with millions heading to unemployment as business and tourism are shutting down. The rumors and news are saying this could go on for a long time with the protestors stating they are ready to die for their cause.
After five hours in the Penang airport we boarded our Singapore airlines flight (not originally in our itinerary) and flew to Singapore. Once in Singapore our taxi took us past the glittery lights of the city and the tallest ferris wheel in the world. The Fairmont is beautiful and since we were paying extra for our room, and because we told the receptionist our sad story of fleeing Thailand, we were upgraded to a nicer room for our five night stay.
While Thailand wasn’t quite what we’d expected we both knew it was something we wouldn’t forget!
