Bali to Bangkok, Part 1

When one dreams of travel one often imagines tranquility peace and relaxation. Or, perhaps adventure and excitement. The seamless transition from point A to point B. With the speed of modern air travel one is swept away effortlessly to a far off land. At times it is not always so. Sometimes things just don’t move along as smoothly as you had planned or imagined. Such was my transition from Bail to Bangkok. It all started when, after a lovely time on the Island of Bali, I decided to fly north to Phuket, Thailand.

Bali to Bangkok by Robert Varney

For the last several years, and up until this year, nonstop flights from Phuket to Bali and from Bali to Phuket were daily. I had not booked anything in advance because I was not certain just when I wished to leave Bali. My plan was to just secure the next flight whenever the nearest flight became available. I was not in a great rush. I had just spent two weeks in Bali and the outlying islands recovering from the horrors of jet jag. Plus I so prefer to enter Thailand in the small airport of Phuket rather than its international giant, as it services immigration for nearby countries and has less arrivals. At Suvarnabumi, the big international airport in Bangkok, immigration is a nightmare as it services all the major cities of the world. As a result tens of thousands of people arrive each day, day and night. Immigration alone often can take several hours standing in long lines, depending how many planes have recently arrived.

Continue reading...