The journey home had some scares along the way.
Our flight path was from London to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and then onto Bangkok. In Bangkok we had to switch airports to catch a smaller plane to Mae Sot. {This has only be available for the last little while, and it is so wonderful! At the end of a long journey, a one hour plane ride is so much better than a 9 hour bus trip!}
When we got off the plane in Sri Lanka, we could tell something was up. There were large crowds in the airport, at 2am, in a way you know isn’t right: you can tell they are late and waiting and tired.
We then look at the screens to see that two flights have been delayed: both on their way to Bangkok.
We found some internet and started searching. We learned that some bombs had gone off that morning in Bangkok; we read that 45 countries have posted travel warnings for Thailand. We received this advice:
– don’t travel to Thailand (too late to heed that)
– don’t wear red or yellow (Stephen had on a red shirt)
– carry enough money with you for a week (we had about $40)
– when traveling, leave about four hours early to the airport (we had a 3 hour layover between flights, which included an hour taxi between airports)
We also found that our flight had a “Rescheduled” notice next to it.
Oh, wonderful.
We took a seat and waited to see how things played out, not sure what we could do differently from here. Stephen switched his tshirt, and we booked it through the Bangkok airport to get through immigration and into a taxi.
We made our way through some eerily quiet parts of Bangkok, and arrived in time. We made our way out of Bangkok and into the quiet little town of Mae Sot, thankful for the uneventful journey!
For those of you curious about the political situation in Mae Sot, I can assure you that there is no reason to be alarmed. Before we left, there were some protests downtown every night–but “protests” involved about 20 people waving Thai flags and “downtown” isn’t at all what you’re imagining. It looked more like a parade or memorial service. They did upgrade to a bull horn for a few days.
And now, Stephen drove by last night to find just one man standing on the side of the road, next to a big screen television playing footage of the protests in Bangkok. With that being the nature of protests in Mae Sot, we aren’t worried yet, even as we watch Thailand declare a state of emergency in Bangkok. We’re thankful to have been home for 36 hours!