Days 58 - 63 - Radisson Bangkok

The airport has been under siege from anti government supporters and despite the fact that there have been riot police outside the airport for days, nothing is happening for fear of bloodshed. Things have swung between peaceful protest to the brink of civil war and there have been grenades, bombs, shootings and attacks alongside gentle marches.The country is in absolute chaos and the tension is rising. Today there is a court case which could in effect dissolve parliament and put the country into military rule. Generally it's all a bit shit. Fortunately, I have not witnessed the clashes first hand and have stayed mainly in the hotel.

Over the last week, I have met loads of tourists from all over the world who are stuck here including one couple who were due to get married here and can't get their family into the country for the wedding. It's funny - the hotel is almost empty now and the only people left seem to be British. All the other countries ave sent in extra planes etc but not us! I was laughing as I read on the news that the embassy says it is in touch with all the British tourists - what a joke! I haven't heard from them and nor has anyone else I met!! You can't get through to them on the phone and the website tells you nothing. The Aussies seem to have the best deal at this hotel. The Australian Ambassador came here to reassure them and they all got out pretty quickly! Oh well. I had a full on meltdown over it all in the week. There were coach loads of people leaving the hotel (5 coaches one day) but none of the Brits seemed to be leaving! At the end of the day what can you do? After that, I just spent some time topping up my tan, soaking in the bath and laughing every time I got a call to say that my flight was delayed.

I eventually got a flight booked out of the military airport to Sydney and on to Christchurch for 02/12. I was not going to get excited till I got on the plane!!

Last night, Joey came over for a farewell dinner. There was a lounge singer with the cheesiest keyboard player/ crooner ever. He actually winked at me mid song! It took all my effort not to burst out laughing!! When I listened more closely I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The singer sang, and this is no word of a lie, Leaving on a Jet Plane, followed by The Green Green Grass of Home, followed by It's a Wonderful World. All the very weary, stranded tourist were all just staring at her, jaws dropped in amazement. It was quite possibly the funniest thing I have seen for a long time and when you add to that the fact that the big movie being repeated 3 times a day on the hotel's only movie channel is The Terminal, the mind boggles! You just can't make this up. Even Channel 5 would be told to tone down the ridiculousness of these events!

After dinner, we headed up to the Sky Lounge, a bar on the 24th floor of the hotel with amazing views over the city, for some drinks with a couple of the other stranded tourists. For the most art, the four of us were the only people in the bar and another Thai band played away. It didn't take long to get silly and events quickly progressed from watching the band to joining the band to kareoke. The hotel had unplugged all the christmas tree fairy lights off for the evening and I decided that this was just not christmassy so went and plugged them back in!! A great night was had by all.

This morning, however, was a completely different matter. Having not really had a drink for 2 months, my wine and several cocktails last night gave me the worst hangover I can remember. I woke up, grabbed neurofen and water and passed out again in pain. Not long after, I spoke to Amex (travel insurance) who advised that my flight to Sydney had, of course, been cancelled. Some idiot decided to cancel all Thai Airways flights booked from outside of Thailand so that they could get the stranded tourists out. What they failed to consider is that a lot of these flights were booked by travel insurance companies trying to get their customers out. Mine was booked from the Amex Sydney office and so was cancelled. Absolute genius!! He also mentioned the possibility of putting me on a bus or train to Phuket, about 15 hours away. On this hangover that would not have been fun! Fortunately is did not happen.

I now have a flight booked from the military airport to Phuket tomorrow, then Phuket to Singapore, overnight in Singapore and then Singapore to Christchurch, hopefully arriving in NZ on Friday morning in time for mine and Hope's birthday. Fingers crossed!!! The journey, if it comes off, will take 51 hours!!! Unbelievable!!

As I write this, a judge has just ruled that the political party that govern Thailand was guilty of voter fraud in the last election (basically they rigged it) and dissolved parliament, banning about 30 people including the PM from politics for 5 years. What they didn't do was announce what happens now! There is currently no government in Thailand!! I guess it will go to military rule!! What a trip!

I will come back and add some photos to this post later today so come back and take another look!

Thanks again for all your worried messages. Hopefully my next post will be from Singapore!

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