Going to Thai one on...attack of the relapse

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W3H5

W3H5

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Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Made my way down stairs and had a cup, and looking up, I noticed I was late.

Going to Thai one on......

Part I.

Aside from Beatles lyrics, today I'm doing one of them travelling things. Man, I hate travelling which is probably why I've been stuck in the same place for the last 3 years!

Anyhow, last minute checks complete and all kind of charges and stuff prepared and ready to go, I marched into town to grab a taxi, but not before buying myself a pastry from Starbucks.

Taxi driver was illiterate, just my luck, so when I showed him the paper that said "International airport terminal" he just looked confused. Using my best Chinese I managed to tell him "airport departures" but still had to rely on a call from Mrs Shem to tell him exactly where to go.

Upon arrival at CQ airport I found myself a bag of nerves and almost had a panic attack. A quick Prozac and a beer put and end to that.

After finding a restaurant with wi-fi and getting stitched up £3 for a tiny can of beer I settled down to wait for my 2:00pm boarding call. It's now 12. That's a lot of money potentially spent on beer if I stay here, but the way I see it, I'm paying for the wi-fi more than anything, the beer is free if I look at it like that. :sly:

Updates to follow when I reach Hong Kong this afternoon.

Over and out.
 
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They sell bags of nerves in China? Is that like Chinese tortilla chips? What's the brand called? Dendritos? Why would you buy that?
 
Omnis
They sell bags of nerves in China? Is that like Chinese tortilla chips? What's the brand called? Dendritos? Why would you buy that?
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Yeah, I bought two for the price of one! C'mon people, I'm trying to get over my fear of crowded places here! Bag of nerves = exactly 25.5 years living with bipolar disorder.

I've no fear of flying, it's all the check points and guards that put me on edge.

So, thanks for the confidence boost, Omnis....;)

terminator363
^LOL

I laughed really hard when you said the taxi driver was illiterate.
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This is China, only half the people here can actually read characters. I would have been better off showing him a picture of a plane leaving a runway, might have made more sense!



Anyhow, Part II


I'm in the departures lounge. Found another place to get a beer. Paying for wi-fi again at the cost of £3 a time. I'm slightly drunk now, so well within my own comfort zone. This is how I go about things.

Flight's delayed, they didn't say until when but it doesn't matter. My baggage is checked through to Bangkok.

I met a couple about half and hour ago, couldn't find where I was meant to be so I asked the white guy. He's Canadian and also on the same flight but his wife's ticket was in the wrong name so they had to call the ticket company. Thank god that weren't me. I'd have given up and gone home there and then.

So....£30 down from expensive airport beer. Got hardly anything left for my actual holiday, looks like it'll be a working holiday to cover my bar bills. (Mrs Shem's dad said I could help him around the farm and he'd pay me in beer and cigarettes. Why didn't I find this job sooner!?)
 
"Sir, you look suspicious. Do you have any explosives in your bags or hair?"
"Do jaegerbombs count?"
 
"Sir, we have reason to believe you're carrying drugs."

"I swear they're all in my system, officer, there's no way I'm selling my own supply of prozac!"

God. *facepalm* I'm using monitored, unprotected airport internet. Going to the bathroom now to take more pills for my nerves. Be back in Hong Kong.
 
:lol:

Being drunk might not be the best way to sort out the hurdles that come with flying internationally either....

China to Hong Kong is only about a 3hour flight?
 
W3HS
Taxi driver was illiterate, just my luck, so when I showed him the paper that said "International airport terminal" he just looked confused. Using my best Chinese I managed to tell him "airport departures" but still had to rely on a call from Mrs Shem to tell him exactly where to go.
Click to expand...

W3HS
This is China, only half the people here can actually read characters. I would have been better off showing him a picture of a plane leaving a runway, might have made more sense!
Click to expand...

Couldn't you just have extended both arms to 90 degrees and circled the cab blowing some sort of airplane noise out of your mouth?

Anyway just thought I'd check in on your progress since Fyz's brolly thread seems to be stealing all your thunder. Keep us up to date on your travels mate. 👍

Cheers Shaun.
 
gundalini
Couldn't you just have extended both arms to 90 degrees and circled the cab blowing some sort of airplane noise out of your mouth?

Anyway just thought I'd check in on your progress since Fyz's brolly thread seems to be stealing all your thunder. Keep us up to date on your travels mate. 👍

Cheers Shaun.
Click to expand...

I see what you did there.

Anyways, good luck on the trip Shem 👍 Was this instead of the driving rig?
 
Small_Fryz
China to Hong Kong is only about a 3hour flight?
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And the waiting. That's what gets me the most.

Part III.

I'm in HK, drunk as a skunk, I don't know any other way to travel. I've spent the whole evening saying "hello?" to random people in the hope that they speak English and I can have a beer with them.

It's now 7pm and the airport is really empty. I'm about the only one here which makes me even more on edge!

I bought a bottle of Grey Goose (miniature) to help me settle down but I still have a 3 hour wait for my flight. Don't know what to do other than spend all of my holiday money on booze. Half way down already. :(
Anyways, good luck on the trip Shem Was this instead of the driving rig?
Click to expand...

Yes, yes it was. I'm starting to regret not buying a DFGT now. But at least I'm drunk and not surrounded by morons.....in fact.....I'm not surrounded by anyone. :scared:
 
HK isnt a bad airport to be in though. I've spent a few hours there a few times and its pretty neat.
 
Yeah, HK was quite nice, just BLOODY MASSIVE at times and its shockingly easy to get lost if you're not used to airports.

Hm, seems like Shem needs a friend there.... I hope the wife will be ok with the spending!

Well, could have a book to read or a Nintendo DS to while away the time? I don't mind waiting too much at airports with a good book or just walking around for a spell, its always interesting how other people react in airports.

Although, I was hungover once on a plane. NOT A GOOD IDEA.
 
Submerged
Although, I was hungover once on a plane. NOT A GOOD IDEA.
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Due to the pressurized cabin I found it easier to get drunk, so as soon as I felt myself coming down or if I had a hangover from earlier I just had a few more.

Hair of the dog!
 
Well, my situation was this:

I'm in Melbourne for a massive competition and only had one night to celebrate before getting on the plane. This is deeply unfair to me at the time. So, I decided I would be at the end of competition party in this nightclub and stay awake all night while drinking three drinks at the same time (a shot, a spirit mixer and an alcopops). Five times I drank this, I think.

I hadn't quite realised my mistake of being amazingly drunk until I wandered into the biggest casino in Melbourne and got lost. This was 5am. Somehow managed to find the exit and walked all the way back to my hotel, getting lost three times (walked the opposite direction) and got back at eight am. Flight leaves at 4pm.

Staggered onto the team bus at whatever time, no alcohol but lots of water.

Get on the plane, four hours into the flight and BAM! Slept straight for eight hours. Felt so bad afterwards.....!
 
Drink always makes the journey more... civilised. Although once I thought it was a great idea to drink an entire bottle of Merlot and a few ports whilst watching movies on a flight back from the States. Of course I didn't take into account I'd only have time for 1 hours sleep. Ho hum. I blame the overly enthusiastic BA air hostesses looking all cute and plying me with drink...
 
Thai-ing one on Part IIVXI.

In the words of Submerged – “you may need a comfy chair!” ;)

Captains blog. Thai date: Around lunch time. Status: Hungover

I’ve decided to do an experiment and do the whole 2 weeks on a budget. Partly because I think it’ll make me appreciate Thailand’s finer things like the mountains and lakes which don’t cost a thing to view, partly because, like the irresponsible man-child I am, I blew 80% of my funds on airport beer & vodka which is extortionately expensive.

My last report came from CQ airport, if I remember rightly. T’was there I began boozing it up on my pledge to myself that I’ll never fly sober, a little because of nerves, more because it’s easier to consume airplane food when drunk.. :yuck:

I waited for hours for my flight in CQ where I bumped into a Canadian guy and his wife, leaving also for Bangkok via Hong Kong. I had a nice chat with them until they had issues with the wife’s ticket and so I left them to it.

On the plane I made the most of having to rather attractive students sitting next to me to practice my Chinese. One spoke fairly good English and the other was just plain sexy. 4 more cans of Tsingtao courtesy of dragon air. Yum.

Got to Hong Kong where I had a 4 hour wait for my Bangkok flight. Let’s get to it then.

I found duty free where I dutifully freed my pocket of some cash in exchange for 200 cigarettes and 8 miniatures of Grey Goose vodka.

If you’ve ever been in a smoking room at an airport you’ll know how tense it is with a room full of people who don’t know each other. I had to do something about that. By this point I’m pretty drunk so I start offering out smokes to people and get chatting with an Irish las who was rather tasty, a chap from Istanbul, a German guy who got excited when I mentioned the 24h of ‘Ring and a pair of pikeys who were off to make their fortune in Aus. After people came and went the room became like a bar, people were all chatty and they were smiling. “My work there is complete”, I thought. Another bloke from Devon came in a we got chatting, as I really like the West Country. He was going surfing in Aus and was also suffering the MD. Stupidly we traded some pills with each other and washed them down with the vodka. :dunce: I’d clearly forgot my mum telling me not to take sweets from strangers. Good pills though (anti-anxiety).

On the plane to Bangkok I got chatting to some more people from Taiwan and some other places. A beef dinner came around and I nabbed 3 tins of San Miguel. Thank you Cathy Pacific. 👍
They also had a games controlled built into the head rest by the TV so I played Battleship and Texas Hold’em while rocking out to Sabbath for the majority of the trip.

Arrived at Bangkok and was blasted by the heat and humidity. It must have been 30 degrees. In February!

A few more beers and a sleep on my baggage while I waited 8 hours for my final flight, 8:15am to Chaing Mai. Fun. :grumpy:

It wasn’t a good sleep and it wasn’t a nice flight either, Air Asia seats aren’t made for anyone 6ft or taller (Dion, you might be fine, you're about 2ft4. aren't you? ;)). They even tried to charge me for a beer but due to the hangover kicking I declined. If it was free I may not have.

So, Chaing Mai is just as pretty as I remember and just as warm, a lovely 20ish. Mrs Shem was waiting for me at the airport on her moped so we set off back to auntie’s house. I say house, it’s more of a camp site but I love it here. It’s so……..me. You’ll see what I mean when my phone has some juice and I can get snaps.

Over and out.

Sleep time now.

EDIT: Some pics from the journey. Boring ones but......shut up and look at them!

The one from the airplane window is to make Neal, Boiltheocean and a few other from the biking thread see what kind of mountains I'm going to try and ride, just to make them jelous. I hope it works. :sly:

Me in the loo.

Picture 001 by SideshowShem, on Flickr

Drunker.....

Picture 002 by SideshowShem, on Flickr

Drunker..... (The game/TV thing in the chair = coolness)

Picture 004 by SideshowShem, on Flickr

Le lunch + Heineken...

Picture 003 by SideshowShem, on Flickr

The monster of Bangkok!

Picture 006 by SideshowShem, on Flickr

I intend to ride those farground mountains...

Picture 007 by SideshowShem, on Flickr
 
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Haha Shem. Happy travels.

Good job you didn't go to Bangkok. Not sure whether it would have corrupted you or the other way round. :sly:

And thanks for reminding me about airport smoking rooms. I'm stopping off at Dubai on my way to Japan and decided to check if I could smoke there. I can now rest easy :D
 
W3HS
Air Asia seats aren’t made for anyone 6ft or taller (Dion, you might be fine, you're about 2ft4. aren't you? ;)).
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I think he's technically hand luggage. :dopey:

Nice little write up and, if you don't mind me saying, you look a bit knackered.

And yes, sometimes you forget who you're chatting to and the innocent expression "Oh, I've been testing out new rubber and hitting the 'Ring pretty hard this week" needs some explanation.

Looks quaint where you are. Was the cat nice - cooked all the way through I hope!

When do you meet up with the missus?
 
Ah, looks like the simple life that does.

Sometimes I wonder whether it would be best to go to the simple life of just being with people and doing a traditional lifestyle rather than having all the modern technology that in fact, makes us seem to consider to be social recluses....
 
W3HS
a pair of pikeys who were off to make their fortune in Aus.
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Oi!! don't let them come here!! :ouch:
W3HS
Air Asia seats aren’t made for anyone 6ft or taller (Dion, you might be fine, you're about 2ft4. aren't you? ;)).
Click to expand...
:grumpy:

axletramp
I think he's technically hand luggage. :dopey:
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:grumpy: :grumpy:

I'm 5'6!!!

Nice write up Shem!!! Place looks nice :D, have fun mate!! I've not been to Thailand before, but my mate tells me that everything is super cheap, so even with 20% of your budget left, you can probably still live like a king!.
 

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