And then the day finally arrived. After months of waiting and what I would like to call months of extensive research and preparation, 14th october finally arrived. Million of times, I had checked the ticket to make sure 14th october is the date ;). We were traveling to Bangkok. Three of us. Everything was going according to the plan. Cleared all the formalities at the airport. Waited to board flight. Posed some photos in front of the boeing before climbing in. Settled into our seats. When we looked at each other, there was a sense of achievement already in our eyes.
Captain of the flight announced that the flight duration will be of 3 hours and 40 minutes and we will cruise at the height of 37000 feet. Our excitement level reached way beyond that height. After some safety instructions by the flight crew and some speed gaining in the run way, we were floating into the sky. The meal there was awesome (we had forgotten to order vegetarian meal while buying ticket, and did so 3 days before the flight). In no time, more than 3 hours had already passed and captain again came up with another announcement. “We have begun our descent to Suvarnabhumi Airport”. We grew impatient. Gradually, the carefully planned urbanization of Bangkok was taking shape. In exactly the estimated time, we landed into Bangkok, the land of smiles(As the people of thailand like to call it, but we later found it out to be on the contrary. More on this later ;) ).
After clearing the arrivals formalities at the airport, collecting the baggages, exchanging thai baht for dollars, and activating travelers sim card, we were out on the streets of bangkok. No one was picking us up. We were all by ourselves. For the taste of adventure in the unknown land, we had decided not to visit in travel package where some one would pick you up, say what should you do next, what places to visit and all. We wanted to find it out by ourselves. So there we were. Outside the airport. The adventure had begun. As far as my research suggested, free airport shuttle service would take us to the Transport centre. From there we can go to any part of the city. Based on this point, we hopped into one of the bus not knowing where it would take us.
Our plan was to depart for Phuket the same night by bus. We already had booking for the hotel in Phuket. The bus for Phuket was supposed to depart from Southern Bus Terminal. So we were supposed to go there from Transport centre. Thankfully, the airport shuttle dropped us at the Transport centre. And it didn’t charge us as well. So my research was helping us so far. But only up to the transport centre.
At the transport centre, I asked one of the guy, “Bus to Southern Bus terminal?”
“No have”, he replied. "No have" is the thai way of telling they don’t have what you are asking for.
Why?
Its already late in the evening and its 60 km far. He didn’t say that exactly but we inferred it from his broken english.
Our plan was to pay 35 baht each from there to reach the southern bus terminal. But it was failing. We hadn’t thought about what to do next and another guy appeared.
Taxi?
Ok, Taxi was not in our plan but who cares as long as we reach Southern bus terminal.
How much, I said?
1000 baht.
I was not comfortable with thai currency yet, so I converted it into NRS in my head. It was Nrs 3000. Whole lot of money.
We had to reach there anyhow to catch a bus to phuket, so we tried to negotiate the price. But he seemed non negotiable. His lack of proper english was also creating a problem. We said, we can’t pay that much amount and he went away. We were running out of options. Bina and Supun both said, we have no other option but to take a taxi. So we called that guy and again asked to lower the price a bit. But he remained adamant. We had called him this time, so he sensed our desperation. After letting him know we won’t pay 1000 baht, he suggested us a way in his broken english.
I take you to agency. Give me 600 baht. U take bus from agency.
At first, we didn’t understand what he was trying to tell. But after some effort, we decrypted his message. We thought this could be a good idea. It won’t be much problem if we buy ticket at the bus terminal or from agency. Plus agency will take care of our trip to phuket. So we accepted his deal and hopped in his taxi. It was already 6 and we were getting late. If we miss the last bus to Phuket we had no plan B for that.
After getting in taxi, we remembered we had to inform back home that we arrived safely at Bangkok. For some reason, travelers sim couldn’t connect and I left a message at facebook. After about 1 hour of drive we arrived at the agency. The people there offered us free drinking water(Free drinking water is a great deal in Thailand. You won’t find it in any hotels or restaurants). We asked them to arrange 3 bus tickets to Phuket.
Its already late for that. They told us.
It struck us like a lightening. No bus to Phuket means we won’t reach there tomorrow and we had no any arrangement to stay in Bangkok that night.
We requested them to arrange it anyhow. They told, “Ok, 1500 baht each and we’ll try.” Again, my research told it costs around 600 baht and they are asking 900 baht more. I was not prepared to pay that amount. But Bina and Supun were ready to oblige. Also, our taxi driver was advocating us from the side of agency. He had to secure his commission, I thought. With heavy heart, I made them our last offer.
1000 baht each.
A lady made a phone call somewhere. After the call, she said , “No luck. I can’t even arrange it for 1500 baht now. Bus has already departed.”
What???
We were shell shocked. Our plan crumbling into pieces. Mind unable to think what next. We came out of the agency and kept on drinking water agency had offered us. At least our taxi driver was there. In that foreign land, we had no idea where to spend that night. My other two companions suggested that we should look for a hotel. I didn’t know what to say. After a short bout of heavy breathing, I told them lets take a risk. I had read that last bus to phuket leaves at around 9 and its about 7:15. So we will go there and check it out by ourselves. Taxi driver told that there won’t be any buses as per the agency and there are no hotels around bus terminal as well. So we have to return back to the city. But I was ready to take the risk and asked him to take us there. He agreed at another 300 baht.
We hadn’t ate anything since that wonderful meal in the flight and our stomach was craving for something like that. At around 7:50, we reached the southern bus terminal and got out of taxi.
“Can you wait for some time so that if we don’t find any bus we’ll take your taxi and return to the city?” I asked to the taxi driver.
He said,”Ok. I’ll wait for 10 minutes”.
So we carried our bags and crossed the street. As we were entering the bus terminal, the driver called us and said, “Bye, bye. There is still a bus for Phuket.” That was the sweetest thing I’ve heard in ages.
A woman approached us and said follow me. Ecstatic we, followed her like a child follows his mother.
[PS: We bought a ticket for 618 baht each and it would depart at 9:30. We got about one hour to look for food. A great sigh of relief when we boarded our bus and it started its journey to Phuket.]
