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Published: April 22nd 2009
vancouver
a statue in the vancouver airport... greetings from thailand...
i departed calgary on friday night with a connection through vancouver... so the plane is taking off in calgary and as soon as it leaves the runway, the cockpit door flies open and i can see out the front window of the plane from my seat... after a few seconds the flight attendant pulls a little curtain closed, way to go air canada...
in vancouver they thought they saw a pocket knife in my carry-on so they emptied it and rescanned it to no avail... then i am stopped by a customs agent who wants to chat about how much money i have, almost missed my plane, but did not... then after a 12hr flight i arrive in taipei and for some reason am not allowed to leave the airport, therefore no smoking as they no longer have smoking rooms inside the airport... i must admit i was jonesin' for a smoke, then i see three men head to the end of the concourse and disappear behind some potted plants and a minute later, can see smoke wafting out of the plants... well i raced over to join these three vietnamese men for a puff... not
durian...
the monster fruit on the cart are durian, the sign, something else... the smartest thing but i served it's purpose... there were also two little boys in the taipei airport that were so much like my little brothers, jasper and tali, the small one was even wearing a spiderman costume...
flight to bangkok was uneventful but when i stepped off the plane i had to throw up at the first bathroom i could find, mostly motion sickness i believe...got into town early afternoon and returned to my favorite little guesthouse... unfortunately they have refurbished their dorm into a double room and the cheapest room they have is a fan room for 300B($10cdn), worth it for a few days... i am a ways out of the main tourist centre of bangkok so i appreciate how many fewer tourists there are around and how we are in the middle of daily thai life... there is another little boy at my guesthouse who has a new zealand father, a swedish mother and are on their way to emigrate to sweden, again reminds me of my little brothers (you two hold such a huge place in my heart and for that i thank-you...
have not done too much the first few days as i
tuk-tuk...
the requisite photo of a bangkok tuk-tuk... have been way under the weather, mostly constant nausea... i think i got some heatstroke the first day here, doesn't take long when you go from a canadian winter to 37c in the shade... as a travelmate himself put it, 'i'm sure my fingernails were sweating'... due to this i have had a tough time eating which is hard when you are in a place where the food is so different, so spicy, and so good...
i depart bangkok april 22 on a night bus to surat thani in the south and from there i will hop a night ferry to ko pha-ngan island which, as i hear, is probably attracts more backpackers than any other place in thailand, go figure... a chance to meet some people, spin some styx and some fire, and to just chill in my hammock for days on end... so until next time...
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Beverley
non-member comment
Safe travels
Glad to hear you made it in one piece. I wonder if your airport incidents had anything to do with our trip to the border. Take care and have a good journey.