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Published: December 3rd 2008
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Casablanca was nothing like the movie! I was staying in the Medina Ancienne which was in reality down by the port. The Medina was quite small and nothing like Fes or Chefchaouen. The location was dodgy and the hotel had no heating (which I expected) but it did have and English movie channel which was the first time I had been able to watch English movies for months. I snuggled up in bed and watched back to back movies (yay!). The Hotel also had the best breakfast.
Whilst in Casablanca I heard about the siege at Bangkok airport. The first reports coming through suggested that the demonstrators were trying to interupt the return of the Thai PM from the APEC conference in Peru. Later reports tended to suggest that it was about more and that the demonstrators had taken over the airport and were demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister. I was supposed to be heading to Bangkok to meet up with Alison from the Overland trip and join my last trip through Thailand, Malaysian and Indonesia. I figured that I did not like Casablanca enough to be stuck there - I was better off at a hub location
like Dubai. I knew that the Dubai - Bangkok flight had been cancelled but I though that I still had to catch the Casablanca - Dubai flight. At Casablanca airport they told me that Bangkok was closed so I checked my luggage through to Dubai and caught that flight.
I arrived in at Dubai at 2.00am and went to talk to the Emirates staff. They told me that they could not help me as I was informed of the situation at Casablanca. Great! I moved across to the ticketing area and waitlisted on some flights to try to get into Thailand. The siege and shootings in Mumbai had just happened so people were trying to reticked out of Mumbai. They told me that I could waitlist and to come back at 7.00am. At 7.00 am the line was longer for people trying to sort out Thailand and Mumbai tickets. I was told that there was nothing and to come back at 11.00 am. Nothing at 11.00 am so come back at 2.00 pm. Nothing at 2.00 pm and the people at the airport were getting more frantic. At 2.00 pm they told me to come back at middnight. I
was going nuts. I figured that I was lucky to be safe - not in Mumbai or stuck in Bangkok airport but I was soooooo....... bored!
At middnight a waitlist for Melbourne came through. I was in the new terminal at Dubai. It has wifi but no internet cafe. I was keeping up on Thailand's situation via the internet on my phone. Things were looking as if they were not going to be fixed in a hurry in Bangkok so I decided to give up and head home. Once I made that decision I was both relieved that I was not going to be stuck any longer (I figured that if I waited too long I would get caught in the Xmas flights) and happy to be heading home.
I caught the flight at 3am and arrived home at 2.30am the following day (crossing a few times zones). From there I caught the first train and headed back to Mt Eliza.
The journey is over for now .... and I have grown. What a great trip but I am also loving being home. Thanks for following my journey and all the wonderful comments. Thanks to all of
you that contributed to making it a really fun time.
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