Diary Entry from holidays

This was written while we were in Qld and I was writing a few of my thoughts from our trip thus far. It probably isn't the most positive of entries, but it is an entry non the less and gives you all a little insight into a bit of what went on while we were away. Enjoy!!

How can I best describe our holiday so far? Interesting? Testing? Enjoyable? There are so many different circumstances that have come along the way that I don’t know whether to write it all out at once or situation by situation.

Let me start with Thailand. What a beautiful country. The people (mostly) are friendly and nice – probably working over time to get a dollar out of me – and I didn’t have any issues with anyone (till the day we left, but that is a whole other story). When we first arrived we caught a taxi (in which we paid triple what we should have) to our hotel. It was roughly 8.30am and we were zonked. We had spent 6hrs at Bangkok airport sleeping and waiting to catch the domestic flight. When we got to the reception, they said that we did not have any room booked and that they were full up for the 8 nights we needed. We tried to communicate with them for roughly ½ an hour and finally got to speak to the manager who spoke English a little better. The manager put us in a room that we did not know if was ours or if we had taken someone else’s room. We were so tired though that we didn’t care. We both walked in the room, laid down on the bed looking at each other as if to say – what have we done – and then fell asleep for the next 6 hours. We woke up and heard a knock at the door. It was Kim and Shane! We had never been so relieved to see someone in our lives! We had been trying to find a way to contact them, so it was great that they found us! They confirmed that this was indeed our room and that they did have our booking. We then went into Chiang Rai city with them and had dinner and did a few wedding errands. We weren’t too confident to catch a taxi on our own and didn’t know the city well enough either, so we were happy to tag along doing wedding errands.

The next day we headed into the city with Kim and Shane again and I got to have a ride on Kim’s bike (way cool! I want me one!) around the city. That night though I didn’t feel too well. I couldn’t handle “Asian” food for breakfast, lunch and tea. It was too much. I also think that I had a little bit of culture shock. I just wanted to go home. We went to bed at about 6pm and slept straight through till roughly 9am. When we woke up we watched 3 movies on Foxtel. In the arvo Russell thought that it would make me feel better if we went for a walk around town. After spending the arvo and evening in the city – doing the night markets and all – I did feel better. I just needed to get out of my fetus ball and get out there. After this, I was ok for the rest of the week.

The week went pretty smoothly. We were on our own (pretty much) until Wed night and Thursday when other people from WA turned up that we knew. We all got along really well and it was a really good time getting to know certain people better and spend time with friends.

I will just say here that I got sick to death of some certain fools who kept going on about different things, but I wont go into too much detail – sorry that is really random

We enjoyed $4 cocktails, and $3 meals. We bought various items of clothing and also got ourselves a nice new digital camera. We have needed one for a while, and I am sure that Russell’s parents will be glad for the cease in our borrowing of their camera.

We had the wedding on Saturday, which was a lot of fun, and 38°! It was the only day while we were there, that didn’t rain. It was so hot and I felt really sorry for the entire wedding party. It was a pretty laid back wedding and reception (hence my wearing of a tank top) and it was a great night all in all. By the end of the night though, I thought Shane was going to suck Kim’s face off! I think he was more than happy to leave at 10pm! :)

At the reception Berit and Gunnah lead a Norweigan dance that was so fun! We were dancing down the streets of the resort. Everyone was so sweaty and tired, but everyone was so into it! I have honestly not had so much fun in a long time! Then after Shane and Kim left for their honeymoon, everyone headed off to the pool. It was so warm, refreshing and relaxing after a long hot day. The hotel staff came and gave us all towels and turned on the pool lights for us. After 45mins – 1 hr though, and older man came along shouting at us. He was telling us to get out of the pool “right now!”. We all jumped out and he went off at us saying that is was past swimming hours and that we were all ‘naughty’. There were no pool usage signs anywhere and none of us had been drinking or were being rowdy. He really didn’t handle the situation very well and we all said our goodbyes. The next day over half the people that came for the wedding, left. There were about 5 of us left. We spent the day walking around town and doing a couple of things we had one last chance to get done. We then had dinner and Russ and I made use of the hotels massaging facilities! Russell had a 60 minute sports massage (complete with paper jocks) and I had a pedicure. All up costing $50 - for both! How cheap is that!! That night we played a bit of cards and then headed off to bed.

Here is where our last few hours in Thailand turned into hell:

Russell woke me up at about 4am saying that he had just vomited, but that he was feeling a little better after doing so. I went back to sleep – although I didn’t really sleep that well. The next hour was spent with Russell getting up and down and running to the bathroom. He had really bad diarrhea and was vomiting every 10 mins. We had planned to be up at 6 and we had to catch a flight at 8.20am. I was packing the last of our things quickly and Russell just laid down in bed. I said that I would try and wake up 2 of our friends and see if they had any travelease stuff that would make him feel better.

After knocking on their door twice and having no response I quickly made my way to see Ange who I had met the previous couple of days. I remembered she was a nurse, and that she would surely have something. I knocked on her door and about 2 seconds later she opened it! She said that she had just thrown up but that she was feeling a heck of a lot better. I explained what had been happening and she looked for some pills. She had nothing! The one time that she had traveled without any medication! She went with me to the front desk to see if they had a doctor on site or if they had any medication. I had been there previously in the morning and had no luck trying to communicate with them. I must have looked like an idiot pretending to throw up and asking for pills! We got in touch with the resort owner who said he would take us to the hospital, I explained that we needed to leave NOW in order to catch our flight. Once in Bangkok we would have had 5 hours to go to the medical clinic and sort him out. I then ran back to our room where Russell was looking significantly worse. He looked like Lurch out of the Adams family. I got him dressed and we packed the bags into the waiting car. We then put Russell in the car and prayed he wouldn’t be sick everywhere. Ange came with us – she was an absolute Godsend!

When we got to the airport, Russell rushed off to the toilet while I checked in. The airports medical clinic was not opened and we found out that it was very rare that it ever opened! I kept saying we just need to get to Bangkok, we just need to get to Bangkok! After a bit of hoo-hah with different staff, we got through to the boarding gates. It was then, that a staff member said that she was refusing to let us onto the flight. It all got very confusing and it was hard to communicate. I said we just need to get on this flight and head to the medical center. She said ‘No, the plane has left’ although I could still see the plane sitting there. I picked up our bags and said ‘we are getting on this flight whether you like it or not, we have paid and we accept all liablility if he is sick’ – she literally grabbed me and forced me down and said that my first priority was my husband.

Let’s just stop it there for a moment. Was she implying that I was putting myself before my sick husband? She didn’t know our circumstances, we HAD to get onto this flight. We had to leave Bangkok at 2.30pm to get to Singapore, and then leave Singapore to get to Darwin where a friend was waiting to pick us up. Not for one second was I ever thinking of myself. This flight to Bangkok was only an hour long. Russell needed to lie down (which he could do on this flight) and then we could go to the medical clinic at the airport (there are about 5/6 OPEN clinics at this new airport). Here was some young attendant refusing to let us on a plane that was still parked!

Ange said that Russell just needed a shot of Maxalen and the vomiting would have stopped.

They dragged us out of the airport and into an ambulance. The ambulance took us to the Chiang Rai hospital. When we got there I kept saying we just need a shot of Maxalen, please we need to get to Bangkok. After about 1 hour, 1 shot of Maxalen and 1 shot of glucose, and 5 packets of different pills later and we were heading off back to the domestic airport.

When we got there I left Russell in the toilet to go and see if we would be able to get to Bangkok in time for our flight. This was one of the most stressful parts of the day. I was talking to the same young fool and she said that the only other flight that would get us there in time would be with a different airline company. I kept asking if we would be able to get to Bangkok in time and she kept saying yes. However, this would get us to Bangkok within 45mins of our flight leaving. You need a minimum of 2hrs before an international flight to check-in. They said they would ring and check us in over the phone. I was then dragged down to Thai airways and paid for our flight to Bangkok. This all took about an hour, even though as I write this it feels like it should have only taken 15mins. There was a lot of mis-communication every where and I thought she said that she would refund the flight they refused to allow us on. Seeing as it was them that did not honor our ticket, I thought they should have refunded it. Instead she told me that they would only give us a credit voucher to which I replied that we did not live in this country and would never use the voucher – you stupid bitch! Neither of us were happy to be dealing with the other and I stormed out of their office grabbing our bags swearing under my breath.

As we boarded the flight I noticed that on our tickets it wasn’t Chiang Rai – Bangkok but Chiang Rai – D……R………..I kept asking people if this flight was gong to Bangkok and they kept nodding their heads in a yes motion!

I was just glad to be able to sit for 30mins - as stressful as that was. When we landed in Bangkok I soon realized that yes we were in Bangkok, but we were at the wrong airport. We were at the old airport. I asked a stewardess how far away the new airport was and she said an hour. I panicked. I was already sitting on a stress level of 7 and this bumped me up to a 9. We had to be at the new airport within 35mins or we would miss our flight. I borrowed an information desks phone and called Tigerair. They sounded stressed that I was still only on my way and kept telling me to ‘quickly get here miss’. We waited in line for a taxi and when we got in one, they said we needed to get into a different one, so we unpacked everything and quickly jumped into another. Only 30mins to get there! Once in this taxi we kept telling the taxi driver that he needed to drive as fast as possible and that it was an emergency. He flew down that freeway and I spent the entire time on the edge of my seat.

Amazingly…we made it. Only just though. When we arrived at the airport I threw the taxi driver the money (just like in the movies!) and we ran inside. This is a huge airport and we weren’t sure which desk Tigerair were situated at. There are aisles ranging from A – K with big areas in between each. We asked a security office which one had Tigerair and he said ‘J’ so off we ran. Once we got to ‘J’ we realized he must have thought we meant Thai Airways. So we asked the next info booth. They said, no its down aisle ‘D’. So around we turned and ran all the way back down (Russell still vomiting into a plastic bag). We ran up to the desk (with all our luggage – which was insanely heavy) and landed on the counter just as they were about to close. They gave us our tickets and charged us a small fortune for the extra weight in our luggage. We then had to get through immigration and board (they had already started). So, off we ran again. We made it through immigration quickly enough and started our long run to our gate. Since Tigerair is only a small and new company, they have the gate that is at the furthest end of the airport. We ran non-stop for 10+mins. I had to carry all the bags as Russell continued to hurl. The carry on bags were loaded with stuff also and I had sun burnt shoulders. I had 2 on one side and 1 on the other, I must have looked like a bit of a duck. I even dropped money and papers everywhere and not one person helped me to pick it all up. We got to the gate and there was a sign saying ‘final call’. I thought for sure we had missed the flight. We got down the 3 flights of stairs only to find a heap of people sitting around. The flight hadn’t even begun to board yet! I do not know why they had ‘final call’ up, but thankfully we made it!

Once on the flight, it was 3hrs long, we were on different seat sections. I was in seat A and Russell on seat E. He had an aisle seat on one side of the plane and I had the window seat on the other side. I was seated next to 2 young Aussie blokes who were honestly some of the nicest blokes I had ever met. The guy on our sections aisle seat swapped spots with me so I could keep an eye on Russell. This flight was probably the most dramatic. Halfway through the flight Russell thought he may be able to stomach a Sprite (yes, I know) and drank a glass. That was a bad decision. He threw it all up. All over his pants and through to his seat, down the aisle and narrowly missed the shoes of the man behind him. It went everywhere. I was trying to clean it all up and apologize to everyone, it was terrible. I knew how embarrassed Russell must have been and couldn’t do anything to fix it. The attendants were helpful enough and helped to clean everything up. The guys I was sitting next to said they knew exactly how Russell was feeling and they were so good about everything. The flight hostesses refused to give us a bottle of cold water (you had to pay) and instead gave Russell boiling water with a few ice cubes (???). If any of you know Russell that well, you will know that any warm/hot liquid comes straight back up. He cannot drink tea or coffee, hot milo or soup – nothing! He will throw it up straight away. We took the warm water, because it was too difficult to explain this and we ended up buying a few bottles of cold water – not that we could take this onto the next flight anyway as they do not allow it!!

We arrived in Singapore and Tigerair do not just do the whole connecting baggage thing (even if that is how the flight is booked) and we had to pick up our bags and re check-in for the next part of the flight. We waited in line for 1.25hrs to check-in. It was the longest check-in I have ever been in! By the time we were checked in we had to board the flight. We got onto that flight and it was only then that I could truly relax (as much as my body and mind would allow anyway). Russell wasn’t throwing up as much anymore and was able to lay down and get a little rest. We arrived in Darwin at 2.30am and were home and in bed by 3.15am. We spent the next day me watching foxtel and Russell sleeping. He was feeling a lot better and ate one slice of bread. I drove to a local shopping center and picked up a couple of things. In the afternoon we went with our friend and fed some fish, had dinner, watched a basketball game and chatted till it was time to head off to the airport again.

We arrived in Brisbane at 5.30am where Steve and Chantelle picked us up. I will leave it here for now as that is a whole other story in itself!

The good thing is that we arrived in Australia and I have never been so happy to hear Aussie accents and be back in our beautiful country. I do not for one second regret going to Thailand, and I think that we are still keen to travel. Maybe next time with travel insurance though.

Oh, and if your wondering what it was that made Russell so sick? Garlic Pepper Pork – yes folks he braved the pork on the last night of our trip! He had it earlier in the week and thought he would be ok again. Puh! Just when we were saying that we had survived the whole trip without being sick…