Part 10
Day 4
I woke up early again, to try to catch a sunrise over the Mekong, but there was still a bit of cloud cover, and sunrise was not a patch on the first morning – a bit of a yellowy mess.
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The long journey home
Originally, I had planned this day as a quick trip out to Ban Non Sombun to say goodbye, before travelling back to Roi Et airport. In hindsight, the daily drive to and from Ban Non Sombun was becoming a bit of a pain – a long way to drive, with very little for me to do at the other end. The critical factor today was returning the hire car for 14:00hrs (flight was 17:35hrs). The lady who I picked the car up from had said 13:00hrs, but the paperwork clearly stated 14:00hrs.
Breakfast was a very leisurely affair, followed by packing – we didn’t have to leave the hotel until 11:15. I just sat on the balcony, enjoying the view whilst waiting.
The drive back to the airport was a completely new route because we weren’t routing through Ban Non Sombun, but still quite straightforward. However, using my phone as a Satnav, the car hire company became a pain in the butt – constantly phoning to get their car back from 13:00 onwards. The rental agreement clearly showed return time as 14:00hrs. Of course, because I was driving, I kept rejecting their calls, which I think was worrying them a bit.
I arrived at the airport at 13:40 (20 minutes to spare), and the local car hire rep was on me immediately, just as the office phoned again. I simply handed him the phone, and let him talk to the office.
The little car, a Honda City 1.0 had been returned with a full tank of petrol. It had performed very well for the 1,500Kms I had driven it. It was now time to get my cash deposit (3,000฿) back. The assistant said he had no money, he was going to have to owe it to me (well, that was a red rag to a bull). He very soon learnt that owing me the money was not an option. He explained the airport ATM was out of order (something I checked later, and he was telling the truth), and he’d have to drive in to Roi Et to draw money from a cash point. Fortunately, it was 3.5 hours before our flight was due to depart, so I agreed (I’m not really sure what other options I had). If I’d booked the earlier flight, I’d have had to forego my deposit. He was gone about an hour, but he returned with my cash.
We had 3 hours to kill at Roi Et airport, not helped by the fact the incoming flight had been delayed. We passed the time watching the very active local flying school taking off, doing circuits and landing again. An activity that is slightly more exciting than watching paint dry.
Our plane eventually arrived, and my wife received Rolls Royce service again, being wheeled out to board the plane (even ahead of the monks who were demoted to second priority). Then a lovely steward rushed down the steps to help her board the plane. Of course, as her nominated lackey, I was allowed to follow 6 steps behind. The same steward helped her down the steps at Don Mueang Airport as well, where there was another little helper to help her on to the bus service, including evicting a lady from the disabled seat i.e. as a disabled passenger, we sit on the plane until everybody else has disembarked. The waiting buses were packed solid, but the little helper was excellent.
The bus seemed to take us on an airport tour, but when we eventually arrived at the terminal building, there was another little helper waiting with a wheelchair ready to take us to our taxi pick-up via baggage collection. If you declare somebody as disabled when you book a flight, Air Asia (at least) do certainly go that extra mile, which my wife always rewards with a generous tip (the disabled service is totally free of charge).
Bliss Taxis were as efficient as ever – I found my name on the board, told the guy (at least, I think it was a guy, but TIT), and our ride was there within 10 minutes.
As we left the airport, instead of turning onto the main road, the taxi turned back into the airport. We were on roads I’d never been on before. We were driving home inside the airport perimeter, which went a long way past the cargo terminal, etc., but we were missing the mayhem on the road outside the airport. I didn’t even realise we were allowed in that part of the airport. Well actually we weren’t. We eventually came to an exit gate, where the taxi driver was stopped, and given a bollocking. We were on territory that we should not be on. He was fined 15฿ before he was allowed to leave the airport.
The drive home was fairly routine – being late, the main carriageway was closed between Bangkok until we were way past Samut Sakhon for safety reasons. This was just as well, because the next morning’s news was full of another bridge collapsing on to the main carriageway again – just a couple of hours after we had passed through. Only 6 members of the workforce were killed this time – no passing cars hit by the falling bridge. We arrived home at 22:45.
To be continued…………………………………….
