Dreaming of Thailand
Honolulu, Hawaii to Ko Samui, Thailand
After a night of three hours sleep, two hours waiting before our flight in Honolulu, a seven and a half hour flight from Honolulu to Tokyo, a four hour layover, a five and a half hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok, an eight hour layover there, and finally an hour flight to the island of Ko Samui, Thailand, I have arrived! The last several hours of the journey were dreaming of this island. Especially in the Bangkok International Airport at 2:00am trying to sleep on the cold, hard tile floor without the benefit of a pillow or blanket, I dreamed of this island. My dreams were filled with golden beaches and turquoise waters and a pleasant sun. I dreamed that I would get directly off the plane and someone would hand me a Mai Tai and I would be escorted to the beach where I would lounge in a chair and gaze at the sea as it lapped ashore.
Having a window seat, I watched as the island came into view. Perfection from above. We landed and were taken by bus to the “terminal.” I put quotes around terminal because it was really more like a cabana or large grass hut. A community of bleary-eyed travelers, fresh off this 6:00am flight, shuffled around the cabana-terminal until our luggage arrived on the conveyor belt. Yep, they still had a conveyor belt. Being the sagacious travelers that we are, we waited around till most of the people were gone and it was then that we decided where we should stay. We didn’t feel that pre-booking a place to stay was necessary. And turns out it wasn’t. The friendly Thai booking agent offered an album of “resorts.” Again, you may notice the quotes. They use that term liberally here. We chose a rather expensive one called Central Bay for $25 a night for both of us. The last mode of transport to our resort was by way of local taxi, that no doubt overcharged us, but what’s the use in bartering over a few cents? The booking agent didn’t lie, our room had two beds, private bathroom, A/C, and was footsteps from the beach. A conventional Western resort it was not. But we are not in the West. We are in Southeast Asia and Thailand in particular and for us—it was perfect.
So back to fulfilling my dream…Brad and I figured we owed it to ourselves—for enduring 30 hours of being in transit—to take a quick nap. After all, it was just after 7:00am and the beach would be there when we woke up. NINE HOURS LATER…we woke from our “nap.” Again I use quotes to denote my sarcasm. The beach was still there in the early evening when we finally walked the 50 paces to view our paradise.
The early moon hung in the fading blue sky, just a day shy of being full. We looked at each other, exchanging slight grins. We made it! One thought. One idea. One amazing journey.
Welcome to Thailand.
Posted in travel - international, travel
