Well, here I am in Bangkok. I have come to a country that I know only three things about: 1. They were never colonised by a European nation which explains that they don’t play cricket. 2. Their flag is a tricolour like the bloody French Flag. 3. Thailand means “land of the free,” but not the free lunch, which means you have to pay for things. I have always reckoned that people travel so they do not learn anything. For most people travel is a party experience where they hang out with other people who have also put their lives on hold. This trip has its genesis in an invitation of a mate of mine to come to his house warming party, north of Chang Mai. The highlight will be a session of ploughing with a bullock, but that will come later. What have I observed from the Bangkok airport? Unlike our recent US trip on Qantas, the flight left on time, arrived a tad early so allowing plenty of time to get to our flight up north. We had to walk off the plane onto the tarmac and jump onto a bus. I love getting out onto the tarmac. I love the smell of “kero.” It brings back child memories of a tractor, a Twin- City tractor, we had up on the farm as when I was a little boy. It also recalls the times we would travel down to Tullamarine Airport to see relatives off on a plane flight. When I was a kid a flight to Sydney by a relative was a big family event. We would all head out to see them off on a jet airplane. Travel, today, is a mundane thing I am not a little boy anymore and as I got onto the bus a defining moment of my life occurred. A young Indian chap offered me his seat and I took it. Now I was carrying two bottles of wine (Wynn’s Black Label Cab and a Taylor’s Jaraman) and a heavy back pack. My left shoulder is buggered which means I cannot raise my left arm above my head so grabbing the overhead strap on the bus was going to.. Hang on, this is rationalization. Just face here Phil. You are an old bugger. The airport is huge (there are twenty jets stretching out into the distance on one side of this gate) and no one speaks Spanish which was the dominate language in all US airports. In the international section I could see no Thais. It took me a while to realise Thais people would be in the domestic part of the airport. There is a solid bank of low, heavy, ominous looking clouds. The bloody weather in Melbourne has been so awful I will crack a wobbly if…. We flew up to Chiang Mai and was met by a driver from the hotel. Claire and I went out for tea with Allen’s family: Colin McDonald, Pauline Hanson, Gorden Rourke, John Howard, Meryl Streep and ten others. I had their names memorised by the end of the night. Rogina organised the whole thing. Claire and I just tagged along. The food was quite good and we sat outside. We had an enjoyable first day.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 00:18:24 +0000
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