Day 172 – Thailand

March 26, 2010 – Koh Chang to Bangkok, Thailand

We wake up to the sound of rain beating down on our tin roof.

We’ve been in SE Asia for almost 6 months now and up to this point, we’ve experienced maybe 4 days of rain in total. And when I say “days” I mean a couple of hours late in the afternoon when we’re typically siesta-ing anyway. So you can imagine our surprise when we stare out our door and see the sidewalk flooded and buckets of water pouring off our balcony.

Neither of us feels like getting our packs or ourselves wet, especially considering we have a long journey back to Bangkok today. So instead, we try to wait it out.

Well, as most of you know Eric and I are not always the most patient people when we have a plan in mind, so we only last about half an hour before we decide “to hell with it – let’s brave the rain”.

We wade through what used to be the street but is now presently a river and make our way to the main road to catch a sawngthaew to the port. After some major negotiations with the driver we’re able to keep our bags with us – he was insisting we put them on the tarpless roof, while we were content to balance them on our laps… it’s a long story – ask us about it over a drink, your treat.

We make the ferry just in time and our journey back to Bangkok is relatively painless, unless you count the bus not stopping until we’re half an hour outside of Bangkok at which point the driver decides to take his break at the designated over-priced restaurant, the extra 3 hours it takes us to drive through the city because the “red shirt protesters” are blocking most of the major roads and the bus driver not stopping at the advertised destination of Khao San Road because he wants to drop us off in front of the hotel he gets a kickback for bringing tourists to.

Other than this, the ride was fine.

We finally show up to our guesthouse and thankfully they haven’t given away our room, despite us being over 2 hours late. The owner remembered us from previous stays and made sure to save it for us… she’s an angel.

We drop off our bags and head to one of our favourite food stalls for dumplings and dumpling soup.

Ahhh, happiness is….