Week 9 and 10 Thailand and Auckland

Theres a lot or freedom when you travel alone and I took full advantage of that freedom when I decided to hop the next overnight train to Bangkok, shuffle via Bangkoks sky trains to the right bus station and take the first available bus to Ko Samet. Having successfully orchestrated a 24 hour dash to the nearest beach I relaxed the next three days. Ko Samet wasn't that busy when I was there party because it was the beginning of the rainy season. Although it rained the day before I came I managed to avoid any downpours while on the island, thus I have managed to only have one day of rain while on a beach and even that was only because I left one day late for food poisoning.

When I arrived back in Bangkok I did my best to get to a guest house on Koe San road with out a cab or a Tuk Tuk. I took the sky train as far as I could then planned on getting a bus the rest of the way. Unforunitly after getting off the sky train it started to rain and I could only stand waiting with my backpack for half an hour until my resolve broke and I shelled out the 60 baht for a cab. I spent the last two days in Thailand writing blogs, sizing my suite, picking up tickets and eating Thai food. My last major meal was at a street vendor it was spicy and hot seafood soap and had large prawns, squid and crab.

My flight to Auckland connecting through Hong Kong was scheduled to depart at 11:30 however the clossest shuttle I could arrange left 6am. On the way to the airport we had a brief delay with a police officer (only a 200baht bribe from the driver) we got to the airport at about 8:30am when I checked in they put me on the first available flight which was at9:30am. The flight was really good (best airline I've been on so far - Cathey Pacific). They were very friendly and the planes had personal TV's with a good selection of movies and tv shows to choose from. The connecting flight was only a 2 and a half hour flight.

Hong Kong International airport is the nicest airport I've been too.Its huge, and not crowded. It has free internet, reclined chairs for sleeping or relaxing and many other services within the international termanel. My only complaint is that besides lounges they only have one restaurant and its prices are comparable to Canadian prices (so from where I've just been its pretty expensive). The wait over was 7 hours (good practice for my flight home. I spent most of the time relaxing in one of those reclined chairs (a luxury I'll miss on my 8 hour wait in Bangkok going home) and read a book. I sat next to a Air Canada jet bound for Toronto.

I was a little surprised to find myself on an Airbus to Auckland (I beleave it was a 340). Upon arrival to Auckland I made my way through customs. I was a little surprised how many questions were asked (having previously never been asked a question going through customs. There also seemed to be a lot of people looking at my passport (about 5 in total). Just before going through the last check I was told to go for inspection. I was seated next to a metal table and waited as they checked my passport (a process that took about 20 minutes). As I sat I watched as about 5 other people had there baggage search. From the luck of the draw I was the only white person picked for a baggage search. I was given a brochure about baggage searches and it said that customs officials were trained to find possible offenders. I guess I looked like I was smuggling drugs! I was a little annoyed that I could not contact Mary Ann and Ward (my Aunt and Uncle) as contact out (even by a third person or intercom) was not allowed. It took about an hour took search my bags and answer a few dozen questions. It was a fairly thorow search but I was a little surprised how they only glanced at my first aid kit but made sure to check all the pages in my books.