Bye Bye Bangkok!

GERALD IS OUT!!!!

Good news indeed, huh! Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't! That Bangkok Sheraton is BRUTAL!!!

Here's the latest, written from Changi Airport:


"The Phuket Airport was packed with people trying to get out and it took us 1 1/2hrs to get our ticket. Big cheers and clapping erupted as we landed in Singapore.

I never got to see the epelants. Sorry to hear about the Hong Konger getting killed. I suppose with 1/4 million tourists trapped in Thailand, someone will get hurt.

Now hanging around Changi waiting for my connecting flight. Have been trying the perfumes. Smell like a cheap whore. Boy, I am almost turning myself on!"


OK, now that he's OK - groan-ably so - this is now all about me. I'm meant to be off to Vientiane in Laos next week and my flight goes through Bangkok. Airlines now say they will cancel or change flights with no loss or penalty provided we do it this week.

Dilemma! I really, really want to see Vientiane! Have for ages. If I cancel this ticket, I may not get another opportunity to go ... so do I chance on Bangkok sorting itself out this weekend? Gerald says it will take 72 hours after the end of the siege to get the Suvawhatever Airport ready to take planes again ... so things will have to be over by tomorrow if I'm to use this ticket.

OK, that's my decision. I will wait until tomorrow before deciding. Tres Scarlet O'Hara, oui?

And if I cancel? Well, Keith has long wanted to see Taipei and I've longed to see the Museum there - the one that houses all China's greatest treasures; the objects smuggled out of the Mainland to ensure they escaped destruction by the Taliban ... oh, sorry, I meant the Maoist Cultural Revolutionaries. Sorry about that. Easy mistake to make. When all is said and done, it's the same thing, really!

Yes, Taiwan is looking increasingly good. Everyone says "But you can't go for ten days. It's the type of place where you've seen and done all there is to see and do in three days. You'll be so bored." But I reckon we'd have to spend at least two days at the Museum, and I also want to go out into the countryside to see for myself the folks who they reckon are the Proto-Polynesians.

As you know, from my post on my theory about the Origins of the Polynesians, I argue that the "Express Train from Formosa Theory" is a crock and that these folk are simply an off-shoot; a couple of migrating canoe-loads of the peoples who were actually being bred up down in the Molucca Islands in Indonesia! So, since this is a passion-area of mine, I have long wanted to really check out that "Formosa" culture and decide just how much credence there is to this official theory .. even though, yeah, yeah, I already know there isn't even the tiniest smidgeon! And who says I'm narrow-minded!!!

OK, it is now decided. We were talking about going to Taipei for Chinese New Year but Paul, our travel agent, gravely told us to not even think about it; that Taipei is crazy over Chinese New Year and, besides, everything shuts down ...

... so we will simply swop the plans around: Taipei for Christmas, and Vientiane for Chinese New Year! Yee ha!