Twelve-hour stopover: the ferret and the coconut
Posted Thursday, October 16, 2008, 10:57 PM by Lonely Planet
Returning recently from a jaunt in Europe I was faced with a 12-hour stopover in Bangkok. Yes, it sounds like crap, and it was.
Hopping off the KLM tumbrel cart I had been strapped to for 13 hours, I slid through customs like a ghost - my head felt like someone had lined it with newspaper and replaced my brain with a ferret.
I had grand plans of hanging out at the airport. I figured that Suvarnabhumi in all its shiny newness must have something to entertain a weary wanderer for half a day. How wrong I was. My dreams of showers and cinemas, libraries and lounges were as false as the eyelashes of the local kathoey. My mother lives in rural New South Wales and Moruya airport has more to offer than Bangkok's; at least you can feed the bloody kookaburra. There was nothing to do but drag my feet around, politely declining offers of luxury cabs. The place was a boring temple to international dullness.
My aimlessness soon turned to the feverish rage of the overtired; the clock seemed frozen, the Bangkok Post was devoid of the usual lurid Thai crime stories, and the security guards were getting irritating. Broken, I realised that my only hope was to get the hell away. First I wolfed down a bowl of spicy soup and a fresh coconut, which improved my outlook no end, then I headed to the taxis.
A smiling man from Issan was my saviour, and some 45 minutes later I was loafing about the marble floors of the MBK, one of the world's greatest small-business hives. Like a happy drone, I wandered about for hours, while around me the shopkeepers slurped soup. When the ferret in my head started to squeak I knew it was time to head back to the airport and check-in. Early.
'12-hour stopover' joins 'we need to run more tests' and 'it's not you, it's me' as a phrase I never want to hear again.
- Larry O'Leary
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4 Comments:
I love this blog post, Larry. Funny and true, yet not cliche. You should have headed to Khao San Road for some proper backpacker action! Drink a beer, sit & chill ... Or watch some stupid movie in MBK? I watched "27 dresses" there, it was the only thing they had in English at the time. And even THAT was a cultural experience since I had to stand up with the others before the movie and pay respect to the Thai King while they played the anthem. :o)
I have an 8 hour stopover in Oslo coming up next month. It's not you, it's me ... :o)
the phrase "its not you its me" is like the one people usually do when their breaking up into a relationship and using it with such kind of a problem is hilarious aside from having a bad experience "twelve-hour stopover" jeeze that is soooo not funny...
I flew into Suvarnabhumi right after it opened and it is really an interesting airport...very futuristic. I didn't see much there either, however I did get there pretty late at night and didn't hang around. I also visited MBK while I was in Bangkok and it is pretty impressive as well...
I hate the stopovers that are long enough to be brutal, but too short to get out of the airport. I visited MBK last year. It was nuts.
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