The Event

It wasn't a single event.  It was more of a series of events that led to a very interesting start to a trip to Myanmar.

The Set Up
It all started with an email long long ago.  Where we had decided to celebrate a birthday or two during the 1st full weekend in Bangkok.  Amazingly, plans held up and everyone went out on Friday.  The plan was dinner, rooftop bar, and a club.  I was busy booking my Indonesia trip so I decided to meet up with them at the club with two other stragglers (we went to Myanmar together).

When we got there, it was hopping and the locals were dressed to impress.  When we got to the front door, there was a large sign that read, "Foreigners, you must buy two beers (400 baht) for a single entrance or bottle service (1500+ baht) for entrance for 5 people."  Since there were three of us and the beers would work out to a similar price, we decided for bottle service.

Once inside we saw that it was very crowded.  We worked our way through the crowd and found a spot upstairs.  We waited about 20 minutes for our bottle to arrive.  NOTE: They CHARGE for Sprite and ICE.  It was about 100 baht each.  Anyway, we had fun and stayed till 1am.

We all took taxis home.  I decided to head to the airport right away considering I had a 730am flight.  There was no way I was going to wake up in 1 or 2 hours in my non sober state so I decided to go to the airport right away.  I asked the cab driver to wait for 20 minutes while I packed.  I threw everything into my bag, jumped into the cab and promptly passed out.

When I got to the airport it was about 4am.  I stumbled inside and saw that I had 3 hours to go.  There was NO way I was going to stay up for that long.  I sent a text message to my Myanmar travel partners and told them where I would be when they get here at 5:30am.  I took out my cable lock, attached my bags to myself and my chair and promptly passed out.

The Event
I jolted awake.  It was 5:45am.  It took me awhile to figure out where I was, what time it was, and what I needed it to be doing.  My head didn't feel too bad because I had the good sense to take some advil and drink some water b4 passing out.  I immediately texted my friends.  No reply. I call at 5:51am.

"It's 5:51?! Yea, we'll be right there."

He didn't sound tired but he definitely wasn't on the way to the airport.  His voice was one of sheer terror.  I knew they had till 6:45 to check in or they would be denied entry.  As long as they left quickly, they would get  here in time to make the flight.

I call them again at 6:04.  No answer. 6:12. No answer. 6:15. No answer. 6:16. No answer.  Now I am panicking.  If they don't make it, what do I do?  I don't know our agenda.  We are heading to a 3rd world country, how are we going to reach each other?  We don't have a hotel booked.

I decided do everything in my power to make it possible.  I got in line for them at the AirAsia counter.  I call 4 more times.  No answer.  They initially won't let me check in but the woman at the counter sees I'm freaking out and decides to help me out by checking them in for me.  She says that I should wait for them at Immigration because it will likely be a longer line. It's 635.  I get the 3 boarding passes and heard over to immigration 3, calling them 3 more times on my walk over.

7am. I see them! OMFG! They tell me that they were in such a rush that they dropped the phone because his pants were on inside out.  They were able to get ready in 5 mins, catch a cab in another 5 mins and get to the airport by 655.  We cut 20 people in line through immigration, both of them get held up in security, and we run to the gate.  Someone ends up throwing up during the run (remember, we r hung over with <2hrs of sleep).  We make it with 10 minutes to go at the gate.  WHEW!

Here's the kicker.  They checked in and starting waiting in immigration 1.  But someone told them to go to immigration 3 because it would be faster.  Well, it was longer but the important thing is that we would have missed each other.  BKK is a huge airport.  Our lines of communication were severed.  If they were never redirected, we would have had an entirely different story to tell.