I had no choice, the only thing I could do was rebook my flight and hope I wouldn’t get hit with a huge charge. Unfortunately I had problems with my international sim and had to battle with a temperamental pay phone to make the dreaded call. But who uses pay phones these day’s? I sure didn’t! The last time I had used one was two years before at a bus station when my phone died.  I had desperately needed to call my dad to get him to pick me up but I couldn’t get the damn thing to work, that was when a guy walked up to me and handed me 50c, “20c won’t do it” he said.  Apparently I hadn’t got any better at figuring out pay phones since; and after reading and following the instructions on the payphone at Bangkok Airport a million times, the phone just didn’t seem to want to let me discover my fate!

Eventually I got through to the China Eastern reservations hotline and explained my situation. I heard at sigh at the end of the phone line “Sorry, all the flights to Shanghai today are fully booked and the same flight tomorrow night is also fully booked” I didn’t think my blood pressure could rise anymore or my panic increase but at that moment it did! I couldn’t afford to stay in Bangkok…before the thought could really sink in she said “but there is availability on a Shanghai Airlines flight at midday tomorrow.” “YES, I’ll take that!” I quickly jumped in.  Ok, so it wasn’t ideal I’d have to stay another night in Bangkok but what was the worst that could happen, surely I couldn’t be struck with any more bad luck and if sleeping in the airport was to be my fate, well at this stage that didn’t feel so bad! And with the re-booking of my flight my luck was about to change.

The next minute the most comforting words I had heard all day came from the other end of the phoneline “You don’t have to pay” MUSIC TO MY EARS!  Miraculously as I had booked my Shanghai-Bangkok flights so close to spring festival, only the higher more flexible fares were available.  As a result even though I had missed my flight I was credited the cost of the ticket and so didn’t have to pay a cent on my new flights! YES no change fee, no rebooking fee, now all I needed to do was find the cheapest and most conveniently located hostel in Bangkok to spend the night and figure out the cheapest way to entertain myself over the next day.

I spent 100 precious baht to use the internet for 30 minutes, it seemed like the shortest and most expensive 30 minutes of my life! In that time I had to research and book my hostel, send an email to my Mum so she wouldn’t panic when she didn’t hear from me and research what to do in Bangkok.  So with that I booked a night at the Penpark Place in Pat Pong close to the sky train, got on the airport train and headed into the city with no plan whats so ever. But to be honest by this stage I didn’t care what I did as long as I wasn’t in an airport!

On the train I looked through the various brochures I’d picked up from the airport tourist information.  This was my third time in Bangkok, I’d already done the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Phra Kaew, two years before and Wat Arun just two weeks previous so that was the major touristy stuff already ticked off my Bangkok Bucket List, what would I do this time?  Then a listing caught my eye, ZOO!  The zoo had always brought a smile to my face as a child, maybe today it would be a perfect remedy for the last 24hrs trauma, maybe the zoo could cheer me up!

I was on a mission, a mission to go to Dusit Zoo and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure the rest of the day went right.  Having no clue how to get there I made sure I got very detailed information from the information desk at Phaya Thai Station.  With a map in hand, and a list of bus numbers I was going to turn this days experience on it’s head!

I followed the instructions I had been given to the very last detail, take the sky train to Victory Monument, head in the direction of the hospital and jump on the 28 bus.  Mission success, I managed to find the number 28 bus right where I was told it would be, the next challenge, figure out when to get off! Luckily the bus driver knew where I was going and told me when to get off. Phew, another drama avoided!

For just 100 baht I spent the afternoon strolling around the tropical gardens of Dusit Zoo, the same gardens that had once been a private royal garden. Birds were singing, excited school children were chatting as a soft cool breeze whispered through the trees. Finally I was feeling relaxed, finally I felt at ease, finally I was happy.

Enclosure after enclosure I would stop, smile and take a photo of yet another cute animal.  I gazed at the tigers laying lazily under the trees, at the hippos having a siesta in the algae green water, at deers frolicking around their enclosure while one very adorable sun bear captured my heart. This small, black, Malaysian Sun Bear waddled around the enclosure stopping seemingly just to pose for my pictures and to say hi. “Awwww he’s just so cute,” I couldn’t help but gush under my breath. I appreciated him posing for me, this adorable sun bear made my day!

The afternoon had been more then fantastic, but after the morning I had anything would have been better! I spent the evening strolling around Pat Pong, eating my last delicious Bangkok meal before getting a stress free nights rest.  The next day everything went according to plan, I didn’t miss my flight, it arrived in Shanghai on time and I finally got home, though still without my bags!  Unfortunately my bags were still in Australia.  They arrived in Shanghai two days after me and boy was I relieved depite the trauma of spending 5 hours getting to Pudong Airport, trying to actually find where they had my bags and then getting back home!

Normally I dread unpacking my bags, it signifies the sad end of a trip, but this time I relished in it!!!

To say thanks for sticking with me and reading right through to the end of my dreadful Bangkok Stopover Nightmare, I have a treat for you!!! Below are the photos from Dusit Zoo and the adorable animals that brought a smile to my face and made my nightmare somewhat less of a nightmare.  I hope they bring a smile to your face too!!!

Related posts:

1. My Bangkok Stopover Nightmare!…Part 1
2. Khao Sok National Park
3. Travel Moment: Bangkoks Panda’s and Monks

Realising that it didn’t matter how much I stared at the bags and walked around the carousel the luggage wasn’t miraculously going to morph into mine.  My heart started to beat rapidly, my mind started racing as panic set in. WHERE WERE MY BAGS!!!  I anxiously walked over to the Bangkok Air Services Desk and told them that my bags were no where to be seen, “Are you sure they’re not there” the attendant asked.  What a stupid question!  Of course they weren’t there, I knew what my bags looked like, plus they were pretty distinct, a bright red backpack and a black suitcase with yellow pinstripes, hard to miss!

A few minutes later I got the dreaded bad news, while I had arrived in Bangkok my bags had decided to stay in Melbourne.  Some how connecting from the Canberra to Melbourne domestic flight they just never ended up on my international flight!  FANTASTIC! GRRRRR!  All I could do was fill in the paper work and hope my bags came in the next day.  With that over with I headed off to the airport hostel for hopefully a good nights rest!

But alas a good nights rest was not in the stars for me that night, kept awake by the worry of my lost bags and the loud sounds of the planes taking off and landing, by the morning I felt worse than I had the night before.  To add insult to an already un-ideal situation I had the sudden realisation just how much sh*t I was in.  One of my bags I had intended to be my international carry on but the twat at Canberra airport instead of just checking it through to Melbourne checked it all the way through to Bangkok.  Now that wouldn’t have been a problem If i hadn’t split my money like I always do between all three bags in the event that one was stolen, problem was I only had one of 3 bags and my Visa card was safely locked in the one still in Melbourne.  OH CRAP!  Here I was planning to spend a day at Ko Larn island about 3 hours from Bangkok, I was so desperate to go to the beach but alas I only had 1000 Baht on me and 200RMB for when I arrived back in Shanghai, on top of that I still had to pay the change fee for the flight I had changed a couple of weeks back.  Oh dear, it looked like I wouldn’t be making it to the beach after all.

I went back to the airport in hopes there would be some news on my bags, there was, and it wasn’t good.  My bags wouldn’t be arriving in Bangkok for a few days and by then I would already be in Shanghai.  Obviously there was no hope of rescuing my Visa card and extra money.  The only thing I could do was go pay the cancellation fee and hope I had enough left to at least spend the day not in the airport until my flight back to Shanghai that night.

"Airport of Smiles" I certainly wasn't smiling!!!

After walking around the check-in area forever trying to find the China Eastern rep who unhelpfully wasn’t at their help desk I finally found someone to pay the change fee.  Wondering what the damage was, the next thing she said was the last thing I expected or wanted to hear “Sorry Mam, you missed your flight.” WHAT THE!  SH*T!!! (This time I said it out loud) how did I miss my flight, it was tonight, how could I miss a flight before it had left!? “It left last night” she said, but how I was sure it was that night, that was the whole plan, to have a days stopover.  I stared at her in disbelief, clearly I looked shocked so she turned around the screen to show me.  Oh sh*t she was right, it had gone the night before.  Dammit in the confusion of re-booking my flight over the phone, when I said I wanted to leave on the night of the 16th at 2am It ended up being re-booked as departing at 2am on the 16th the night of the 15th. STUPID! I didn’t specify that 2am would actually be on the 17th, how could I have been so careless, why didn’t I double check, triple check.  I had no excuse for making such a stupid mistake, I was trained as a travel agent, I had booked connections countless times and never managed to screw up but for myself apparently I just couldn’t get it right! So there I was standing there with hardly any money, a flight to rebook and no clue what could go wrong next!

I could tell the China Eastern girl felt sorry for me, she looked at me in the way you pity an abandoned puppy.  She informed me that to rebook I’d have to call the reservations hot line on a payphone, she didn’t know how much I would be charged or if I’d lost all the money on the ticket, could I even afford to leave Bangkok!?  All I knew was this stopover was turning into my worst nightmare and all I wanted to do was be back in Shanghai in my own bed and venting my frustrations to my best friends.

…to be continued…

…Ok it’s cruel to leave you hanging! Read the conclusion here in Part 2!

Related posts:

1. My Bangkok Stopover Nightmare!…Part 2
2. Travel Moment: Bangkoks Panda’s and Monks
3. South East Asia

Khao Sok National Park from On UR Way Travel on Vimeo.

When I went to Thailand in July 2009 I absolutely fell in love with the country as indeed I think most people do!  Although I loved everywhere I went for its own unique quirks my absolute favorite place was Khao Sok National Park in Southern Thailand.

After having spend a fantastic yet tiring week in the chaos and noise of Bangkok, escaping into the quite seclusion of the lush Thai jungle was a welcome relief.  The region is absolutely stunning, completely breathtaking.  It was so humbling to be completely surrounded by nature, to hear the birds calling, to hear the rustle of monkeys in the trees and to shower with a gecko!

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Where is it and how do I get there?

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Khao Sok National Park is located in the South of Thailand a few hours from Krabi and Phuket.  If you are coming from Bangkok I would recommend going on the overnight train to Surat Thani Railway Station. From the station you will have at least an hours journey to get to the accommodation located near the national park.  Most resorts and guesthouses have a transfer service that will pick you up from the railway station.

If you have never taken an overnight train in Thailand don’t expect too much, they are very basic. Prepare yourself for using a squat toilet while the train is bumping along the tracks and make sure to hold on to the rails for dear life the last thing you want is spillage! I would definitely recommend getting a sleeper carriage ticket, it won’t be the best nights sleep you ever had but it is reasonably comfortable and trust me you really don’t want to try and sleep in the chairs!!!

If you are in Krabi or Phuket you can take a public bus or organise a private transfer.  The journey takes a few hours and goes through some absolutely spectacular countryside.

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What Can I Do?

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Trekking

Khao Sok National Park and surrounds are a nature lovers paradise!  If you love trekking then there are lots of great spots for hiking from short treks of just a few hours to much longer challenging treks for people a lot fitter than me. I would definitely recommend doing an Elephant Trek though the jungle. It’s a pretty amazing feeling being perched up on this massive majestic beast strolling through the jungle, unless you get a mischievous elephant like I did who gravitated to walking off the path and in the river!

Tubing

Tubing down the Klong Sok river was just awesome, even when managed to drop my camera in the Water (it’s waterproof luckily) and get stuck in the reeds.  It’s great fun cruising down the river then racing over the rapids only to get to the end and want to do it all over again!

Lake Tour

The Cheow Larn Lake Tour was my favourite activity the whole time I was there.  The lake in fact is a huge man made dam, in some places you can even see the tops of what were once trees looming above the surface of the water.  The lake is dotted with floating villages made mostly out of Bamboo, it was really an amazing sight to see whole communities living on the water.  If you do take a tour it is highly likely that you will stop at one of these villages for lunch and the food is just delicious, especially the freshly caught fish straight form the lake.  If you have a few hours to spend in a village then give kayaking a go or take a dip in the ever inviting cool waters.

One of the stops on the lake tour was a visit to the Nam Talu Cave.  To get to the cave we had to trek through the jungle to get to another  village on another part of the lake.  Once there, we group took a bamboo raft across the lake to the entrance of the cave.  The cave isn’t huge and out of all the caves I’ve visited many of which were in Australia I didn’t really rate this one as being a really spectacular.  The best part was the trek to get there.

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Where to Stay?

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Most of the accommodation is located outside of the national park.  I stayed at a lovely resort called Morning Mist which was located about an hour from the Cheow Larn Lake but was in a centralized area with a few restaurants and a convenience store.  The resort had excellent facilities for the price staring at 550 Thai baht a night.  The rooms were nice each with a porch and a hammock or chair to enjoy the lush surrounds.  The restaurant had quite a good variety of food although they tended to make the food visually such a work of art that it took forever to come out!

If you do want to stay in the national park you can stay in a hut at one of the floating villages on the Cheow Larn Lake.  The rooms are very small and basic made out of bamboo with only sleeping mats.  There is no formal bathroom but there is a very basic squat toilet.  They have a kitchen where you can order a delicious array of Thai Dishes.

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Related posts:

1. Photo Glimpse: Chieow Laan Lake
2. My Bangkok Stopover Nightmare!…Part 2
3. Hangzhou’s West Lake

South East Asia is an incredibly beautiful region to travel in but in some places it is extremely chaotic and claustrophobic.  The region has gone through many hardships in recent history and although the countries are developing at an overwhelming pace there is still a large number of poor people, and petty crime isn’t uncommon.  As long as you travel with an open heart and open mind travelling South East Asia is joy with surprises around every corner.  It’s a place you will want to go back to again and again.

Above: Crossing the road in Bangkok

Shopping

South East Asia is a fantastic place for shopping with beautifully made handicrafts, cheap electronics and other goods. The region is also well known for its trade in knockoff designer goods.  The trick with shopping is Bargain, Bargain, Bargain and Bargain Hard!!!  Bargaining is a huge part of the culture if you wish to buy anything you are expected to bargain.  Don’t worry bargaining can be fun, the trick is to be assertive and keep your sense of humour.  Ask the price, then halve it, u will generally meet somewhere in the middle.  Don’t be afraid to walk away if it is not the price your after, often they will come after you and give u the price you want, if not there will most likely be a stall selling the same thing nearby.

Transport

Typically Asia can be a difficult place to get around independently outside of the major cities due to many countries still developing and as a result lack transport infrastructure and efficient public transport systems.  That said it’s not impossible and if you don’t mind erratic schedules, sharing with the locals and hard mattresses on overnight trains then travelling is not so bad.  Now days there are quite a few budget airlines servicing the region making it cheap and quick to travel from place to place.

By Air…

Tiger Aiways offer cheap fares on flights to Asia departing from Perth as well as cheap fares on flights within Asia.  There hub city is Singapore.

Jet Star have cheap flights departing Australia to Asia as well as a huge range of flights within Asia.

Air Asia have flights departing from Australia to Kuala Lumpur (KL) from the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth. They have a huge network of flights within Asia departing from KL.

By Land…

State Railway of Thailand is a great way to get around the country. For long travelling days or overnight trips you can get a sleeper car.

KTM Malaysian Railways rail network will take you all over Malaysia and on to Singapore.

Tours

Spotlight on Intrepid Travel 
Intrepid Travel offer small group off the beaten track tours all over Asia.  What’s unique about these tours over traditional coach tours is that you take local transport such as public buses and overnight trains where you get the opportunity to mingle in the with locals.  Intrepid use expert local tour guides who  give you a unique insight into culture and local life. 

Intrepid have a new touring option called Urban Adventures, these are short tours from half a day to a few days that give you a unique local insight into a city or destination.  They are a great way to get your bearings in a new place and really learn about the local life and culture.

Tips

• Take only small amounts of clothing and buy most of your clothes over there, not only are the clothes cheap but they are also more appropriate for the humid climate.
• Many part of South East Asia including Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim countries, it is polite to dress modestly covering up your shoulders and wear bottoms that go bellow the knee.  This dress code also needs to be followed if you are planning on visiting any temples whether they are Buddhists, Muslim or Hindu.
• Be patient.  DO NOT GET ANGRY!!!  South East Asia runs in its own time, it’s not uncommon for food to take a long time to come out from a restaurant and sometimes it may not even be what you ordered and on top of that the language barrier can be quite a challenge.  Take a deep breath, try and resolve the problem calmly.  South East Asian’s are very friendly people and they often don’t understand why the crazy westerner is shouting at them.
• Be aware of scams, it’s a good idea to ask about common tourist scams at the nearest tourist information centre, they will have great tips and advice to avoid getting scammed.  Trust your gut, if you feel like your getting scammed or something seems too good to be true then it probably is.

More Info.

• Travel Fish is a fantastic site to find out info on South East Asia and to plan your trip.  The site  has great travel tips and advice, comprehensive information on destinations and provides independent reviews on accommodation and services.
• Backpacker South East Asia is a free magazine that has fantastic stories and travel inspiration for Backpacking SE Asia.  The magazine can be picked up at hostels, information centres and other tourism institutions throughout Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.  It is also available for download off the website.
• For comprehensive information from an expat on travelling Chiang Mai and Thailand check out Visit Chiang Mai Online.

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Related posts:

1. Penang Hill Malaysia Truly Asia TV
2. Khao Sok National Park
3. Photo Glimpse: Kek Lok Si Temple