Posts tagged 'Airports'

The next stop in my whirlwind tour of the northern parts of Guatemala was the Rio Dulce. I got a bus (an actual comfortable coach style bus with reclining seats and everything), that left an hour late at Flores, but still somehow got me to Rio Dulce early. I didn't think this was possible in Guatemala so it was a very welcome surprise!

My first day in Thailand I flew into Koh Saumi and got a minibus transfer to Chaweng beach. After looking at a few places that seems pretty average for the price, and generally remembering how nasty Chaweng was, I found some free wifi and looked up some places on Trip Advisor and decided to head to Lamai beach and try a few places there.

After having a few taxi's try and ask for ludicrous amounts for the trip to the first place on my list, claiming that the place I wanted to go was way past Lamai, I finally got a motorbike taxi who would take me for a reasonable price... until one of the asshole taxi drivers came over and told him that the place I wanted to go to wasn't in Lamai. But what I do know, I'm just a stupid foreigner who's got the address here stating it's in Lamai, and Google maps showing me it's there. In the end he agreed to take me for 50% more then we'd originally agreed, and I was fed up screwing around so I accepted.

I'm jumping out of order for a bit for a quick story about the joys of security theater in Indian airports.

I get dropped off at the airport by a taxi and head towards the door in which I can see signs pointing to departures and arrivals. I go to enter and the security guy on the door, holding what I think was an MP-5 machine gun, wants to see ticket and passport. Having only booked my ticket online hours earlier and having no printer I had no ticket to show him. He says I can show him on my phone, I pull up Trip-It and show him the flight details and confirmation number but he's not happy because there's no name listed so he sends me around to the ticket desk to get a ticket printed. After trying the next two entrances in the direction he gestured I realise the desks are basically just invisible slots in the glass front of the building.

There's a guy in there on his phone, but he doesn't look over when I say nameste, nor when I knock on the window. A rather stressed out looking Indian man comes over and tries as well but the guy inside completely ignores both of us. Nice to know it's not just because I'm a foreigner.

I spent my entire last night in Melbourne with my mind racing, completely unable to sleep. I think I nearly feel asleep for a bit at around 5am, and then was woken not long after by a notification on my phone lighting up the room.

By 6:30am when I planned to get up I'd completely given up hope of getting any sleep and got up and made myself a coffee, then zipped up my bag fully packed.