Joachim's Travel Blog
Monday, February 16, 2004
Catastrophe, or Laziness Only Gets you So Far
Two days ago, on the 15th of February, I decided to get my act together and work out my travel plans from Koh Tao to Saigon. The first of my three flights home left there on the 20th and I wanted to leave a few extra days in case the boat wasn't running due to weather. I was being cautious and conscientious. I remembered I hadn't checked what time of day my flight left, so I pulled out my plane tickets, which had been in the bottom of my bag for a month or so since Bangkok. That's when I found out my first flight didn't leave on the 20th, it had already left the day before, on the 14th. Shit.
So you miss your flight - no biggie, just reschedule a little, right? Except it was Sunday, so I had to wait until the next day to try to reschedule, and then I couldn't contact Hawaiian Airlines because they were asleep so I had no way of knowing whether I'd be stranded in Hawaii, and then I have no energy after living on a tropical island for a month and no willpower after working in the software industry for ten years. So I gave up. Today I'm hearing I might have been able to change the date on my ticket even after I missed the flight, but that's not what the travel agency lady was saying. Then again, she didn't like me. Hm. Well luckily for me I am a rich American and a flight to San Francisco from Bangkok only costs $400. So I just sauntered over to the ATM, pulled out a sheaf of 1000 Bhat bills and got a new ticket. Maybe I'll get some money back when I get home.
The good news is, since honestly I'm kind of sick of traveling (that happens to you after you lay on a beach for a few weeks), now I get to go straight home, or whatever San Francisco is, without any annoying stops in countries I don't really want to see that much after all, like Hong Kong. They're not a country any more but you get the idea. So on the 23rd of February, the same day as I leave here, I will turn up once again on American soil, and my trip, or at least its foreign component, will be over.
