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How we got out of Thailand

As some of you know, my wife and I were recently in Thailand.  We were, in fact, there while People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) closed down the airports in Bangkok.  Once that happen, we (a long with 349,998 people) were pretty screwed getting back home.  The following is a rough account of what we went through to get home.  It is a bit long, but enjoy it anyway.

By way of an introduction, the following is a map of roughly where we were and where we went.

Tuesday, November 25th – The Fun Begins

PAD takes over the main airport in Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi, as well the older Don Meung airport.  They have a bit of a throw-down with the cabbies at the airport.  This involves golf clubs, sticks, and whatever else everyone get their hands on.  They demand to know when the Prime Minister is returning to Thailand, which turns out to be Wednesday.  I figure that the PM will come back to Thailand and work things out with PAD.  Oh so wrong was I.

I cannot begin to imagine what it was like for the people at the airport waiting to fly out.  Truly terrifying.  But then again, PAD people were dressed rather festively and they did set up a bunch of food stalls.  It might have been fun… for about 5 seconds.

Wednesday, November 26th – What, me worry?

So the Thai Prime Minister returns to Thailand, but instead of flying back to Bangkok where the welcome committee was stationed, he flew to an air force base near Chiang Mai.  We had seen this base a week prior.  The PM states he will not dissolve the government and he called on PAD to leave the airports.  Stop or I’ll say stop again!

Hoping that this would resolve itself, we did nothing to prepare for what was coming.

Continue reading How we got out of Thailand

UA 537 ORD – SNA 5:54pm EST

We are an hour or so or more out of Chicago, flying over a square state. We are follwing a river that used to be much bigger. I happen to look down and see a small town whose epicenter is the intersection of a major dirt road, a minor dirt road, and a this river. You can tell a lot about a way a town (a people, a nation) grew up by flying over it. This town clearly was a river town. The majority of buildings were on the river-side of the minor road, which runs east west. It is a bend in the river. Boats (probably flat bottomed) headed west and hit this bend. The major road (running north south) probably hits a major city. So the boats hits the bend, stops for a bit, offloads some cargo which heads south, and the boat heads on from there. (I think the sqaure state in question is Colorado… more on that in a bit.)

So from above you see a sort of history. Cultural archeology at 30,000 feet.

(The second Brigett Jones movies is playing and is horribly distracting and all too horrible visually.)

If you can see a history from above, can you see a sort-of future from below? Is the future really below us? We always equate below with the past. That which is buried is the past. It is the past but might very well represent a sort-of future. (Sure the history repeasts itself lesson is still not learned. But this might be more than that.) Eventually, sand will blow over our roads. Our freeways buried under rough ground. Those planned development viruses squished under hundreds of feet of worm droppings and dried alien skin. Kinda takes the urgency out of cleaning the apartment…

The Rockies really do throw up quiet a barrier heading west. Amazing that anyone on foot, ox, cart, etc got to the Pacific.