Stepping Foot on the 7 Continents of the World A Step at a Time

Truth be told, I have been to Bangkok more times than to any other city outside Manila. Indulge me while I do the math. 1997-2008 without a miss multiplied by 4 times a year, initially for leisure then mostly for work. It is an understatement to say that Bangkok no longer excited me. Until my last business trip. Before I get into that, let me start first from the very beginning of how my business trip accidentally fell on the first week of the airport takeover. As early as September, I already got myself a visa to Paris, booked myself a ticket and planned out a meet up with a friend of mine who decided to spend his much deserved vacation in Paris. I would be staying with him in his hotel for free so who was I to still mull over it, right? Everything was already set. And then I got an email from the regional gods of my company mandating me to go to a one day business trip in Bangkok in November, that unfortunately fell right in the middle of my vacation. After much pleading and negotiating, I gave in and adjusted my schedule. My secretary moved heaven and earth for me to fly to Bangkok then fly to HK to fly to Paris. She again moved heaven and earth back for me to get a return flight from Paris to Hk to Bangkok and then finally to Manila. All was set. November came and I left for my business trip. The one day meeting was a non-event really. Until now, I am still at wit's end figuring out the much ado about that meeting for nothing to be honest. But I digress. The day ended and my vacation officially began. In Bangkok. I had a day to kill before I fly to HK. On my second day in the city, having spent it aimlessly wandering around the malls, I was greeted by the news that people started to converge at the airport when I arrived at my hotel that night. Apparently, the small talk in my meeting about people trying for months to overthrow the government was not small talk anymore. It was happening right before my eyes, in my room, watching CNN. I shrugged it off, fell asleep, half hoping that it would be over the minute I opened my eyes the morning after. I woke up and found out that the mini convergence has become a takeover of the airport. I had to think on my feet. Should I risk my flight the following day in the hope that the people would go home and converge somewhere else? Or should I already rebook my flight? I decided to rebook my flight after I talked to the front desk of my hotel. They advised that it's wiser to rebook flights because there was no certainty as to when the takeover would end. It made sense because it just started last night. My redial button in my hotel room was working on overdrive, trying to reach Cathay Pacific. As luck would have it, the earliest available flight was already on a Friday. It was still a Tuesday then, which meant that I had 3 days to kill in Bangkok. I booked that flight. And I was on my way to the malls again. Having been in Bangkok so many times, being in Bangkok without a reason was like being in your own city with nothing to do. Yes, it was that boring for me and I was bored walking around or just staying in my hotel room. Though the city itself was peaceful and felt like nothing worrisome was happening, it was a different story at the airport day after day I was there. It got worse and worse as the police was powerless to evict the people who started to sleep, eat and just kill time in the airport. There was clearly a stand-off between a suspiciously 'powerful' group of rioters and a totally upsetting useless and powerless government. Everyday in those 3 days was irritating and frustrating. And there was this annoying feeling of helplessness that was slowly eating me up. It didn't help that I kept thinking to myself - I should have been in Paris right this very minute. I was a ball of emotions ready to implode. Thursday came and still there was no certainty that the airport would resume flights. For the last time, I created options that would 1) take me out of Bangkok to somewhere 2) where I can take a flight to HK then to Paris. But to no avail. All the flights from HK to Paris were already booked. My only recourse was to fly out of Bangkok from somewhere or else I would start pulling my hair. I was lucky enough to book the last seat out of Thailand to go to KL on Saturday. But I had to take a car from Bangkok to Phuket to take that flight, which was just about 10 hours of continuous driving. I booked the flight and the car immediately. I just wanted to get out of Bangkok period. I woke up at 2 am on Saturday because my land trip to Phuket leaves at 4 am. It was the longest drive of my life. 10 hours of wasted time, doing nothing. 10 hours of thinking time, making me feel more irritated about what just happened and how it ruined my vacation. Reaching Phuket by dusk was the first source of joy for me because it meant escape from this misery I was put into. Phuket Airport was just a mad chaos. If you're wondering how the fall of Saigon would have looked like, you just needed to be inside Phuket Airport. There were bee lines everywhere with no semblance of order. Everyone's nerves was testy as the slightest annoyance would strike a fight between passengers. I was able to find my airline counter, checked in and was surprised to find out that I couldn't check in all the way to Manila. This meant that I had to go through Malaysian immigration in KL to get my bags and check in again to Manila. The catch - I only had 30 minutes to do it all. I was hopeful that I would make it even if my plane arrived 15 minutes late. I was still hopeful in the plane until I alighted and went through immigration. All hope was lost when my luggage was the last on the carousel. But still I made a mad dash to the check in counter of my flight to Manila. I made it to the counter but didn't make it to my flight. There, right in front of the counter, in front of the ground crew, I just lost it. I broke down, feeling the whole weight of my experience crushing me to pieces. Picking myself up was the hardest thing to do. But I had to. I was in KL, with no KL money, no hotel, no flight at 2 in the morning. It took every ounce of what's left of my energy to find an ATM, drag my luggage to the Malaysian Airlines counter and try my luck to book a flight back to Manila. The earliest flight was the last business class seat at 10 in the morning. There was no other flight. The next flight was on Dec. 2. It was still November 30. I bit the bullet and bought myself a ticket home. I have never felt so physically and emotionally exhausted in recent years. But there I was running on empty, now trying to find the nearest hotel to lay my dizzy head on. All hotels were fully booked. I told myself, that's it. I have had enough. My vacation has really turned into a nightmare. My friends felt I was just being overly dramatic. I guess you would have to be there from day one for you to understand what I had gone through. These were my last thoughts as I slept briefly in the airport lying on the cold floor hugging my luggage the best I could. 6 am came and I went straight to the business class lounge of MAS. I took a shower, had something to eat, bundled seats together and tried to catch a short shut eye. I was sleeping lightly when I felt someone put a blanket on me. It totally wakened my senses. This simple, unassuming and perhaps perfunctory simple gesture was the nicest thing anybody has done for me throughout this whole experience. My eyes swelled as I snugged inside the blanket, because I began to feel safe and protected from all the bad luck that has happened; and that in a few hours I would be home safe and my ordeal would be over. Yet, inside this warm blanket, I knew that I didn't have to wait anymore.