For those of you who remember the incredible and harrowing tale of traveling acrobatics we did in 2017, I wanted to provide a run down for those who don’t so you know you can all ask yourselves- why on earth are we going back?!?
At the time we were living in Cincinnati, OH and had booked a 5 day trip to Bangkok and Phuket Thailand flying out of Chicago O’Hare. After reading this update, you will understand why we will never fly the budget airline China Eastern Air again!. The drive from Cincinnati to Chicago is around 4 hours and we made the uneventful journey; parked the car in long term; and checked in for our flight several hours ahead of schedule. Not going into too great of detail here, but 10 hours later (many many unexplained flight delays), we were on the plane and headed for Shanghai, China. The plan was to connect in Shanghai to Bangkok and catch our tour group as scheduled… even the best laid plans are completely screwed up by budget airline and airport employees. The 10 hour delay ultimately resulted in us missing our connection to Bangkok. As we knew that would happen in Chicago after hearing of the delays, we confronted the employees about re-routing us or booking us a new connecting flight- to which we were told “They will take care of you when you land in Shanghai”. Have you ever just had someone outright lie to your face yet you just had to sit there and take it?
Several hundred angry travelers flying to Shanghai, all going to miss their connections… perfect storm right? We landed in China in the wee hours of the morning and not quite ready to take on the problems ahead. Obviously we had missed our connection, but instead of trying to get us on the next flight to Bangkok, they insisted we wait 12 hours and take that flight which would have missed all of our tours in Bangkok and our connection down to Phuket that day. Our request was then that they put us on the next flight directly to Phuket and we would forgo the tours on the first day. Arguments ensued… I almost had a physical altercation with a luggage handler about taking MY own bags with me as they were directed to route them to Bangkok (where we would no longer be). After limited patience had run out, we were able to convince them to rebook us to Phuket and as a “bonus” they would put us up in a “hotel” in Shanghai until our flight that morning. I used the quotation marks around hotel because I am not quite sure of the star ratings system there or what you could use for NEGATIVE Stars…
Disgusting hotel and very bad opinion of China… we make it back to the airport and on our way to Phuket arriving around 2 AM the next day and knowing we had a tour to get up for at 6 AM. Dead on our feet we check into our AirBNB and tell ourselves to just lay down for a nap as we were not going to get any quality sleep.
6 AM arrives and we make it on the bus to the Elephant sanctuary. Honestly the experience that we had there feeding; playing with; and bathing the elephants almost completely made up for the previous 48 hours of insanity. They are incredibly intelligent and we learned so much about the things that they know or sense. Also in Thailand, they don’t have the “stupidity clause” like Americans do. You don’t sign 50 waivers to get into a mud pond and play with these huge creatures, they just assume you aren’t an idiot and won’t go underneath them.. no waivers necessary.
That started our journey of 2 days in Phuket- riding scooters; getting massages; eating amazing food. Then we headed back to Bangkok in what I like to call “The littlest leg room” airline in existence… so small on this commercial jet that my knees hitting the seat in front of me would not allow my feet to touch the ground.
In Bangkok we have a lovely hotel room and spend the day touring temples. The king has just died recently and the country is still in mourning. Temples are very formal so as a woman remember to cover up your shoulders and down to your knees or else they will provide you clothing to do so. It’s the hottest place in existence IMO because the humidity was overpowering and the shade was limited. That evening we connected with a friend from Matts high school days, Matt, who now owns and teaches at an English school over there with his lovely Thai wife Dom. Great food, especially when you have a Thai native ordering for you and ended the night on the top of a sky scraper at a roof top bar…. sufficed to say they don’t have a “stupidity clause” either… you lean too far over the side and they won’t recognize what’s left at the bottom when they find you…
Ok so that is now 3 days (compared to the 5 we were supposed to have) and its time to go back to the airport. It’s never a good thing when you arrive at the airport and they say “Ponkey party of two? Who is the Ponkey party?”…. The plan was to fly back from Bangkok to Shanghai and then Chicago… again best laid plans… instead we get told the flight is full. They are going to put us up in a hotel in Bangkok by the airport and bring us back for our flight in a few hours but we aren’t going to Shanghai… we are headed to Dubai and then to Chicago…. oh but it’s ok because they will make sure we are in seats with extra leg room… HAHAHAHHAHAH! The things you believe on little sleep.
First flight from Thailand to Dubai is about 10 hours and yes, they did put us in a bulk head row so we did have some additional room. In Dubai, that was no longer the case. The flight we were told was “full” so they squeezed us in in the back row, in the middle of a 4 person section (so neither Ponkey nor I can get out without asking someone to move). This flight is 14 hours…. and I got to stand up maybe 3 times. The size of my ankles upon arriving in Chicago was similar to those of the elephants we had just seen 3 days prior!
Oh and yes, we did have to drive the 4 hours home to Cincinnati after that… so with all that behind us, why are we going back? HA! Because Thailand is beautiful, mysterious and full of kind amazing people who want you to understand and love their country as much as they do. We have managed to make smarter decisions this time and booking travel for 2.5 weeks to ensure the “planes, trains, and automobiles” type journey doesn’t affect our plans like last time. All that to say… we can’t wait to see what this trip holds for us! Time for some more Ponkey adventures!
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