FEB 27 2014 BY ROBERT 

Bali to Bangkok continues (Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)…

I quickly take up my bags, scurry out of the office, down the stairs, cross the lines of people, find counter number K14 walk up, and present my ticket. I ask the attendant if I can get on standby, she looks at the computer and says, “Yes, please check your bag here and you have 15 minutes to get to gate B6 before boarding.” Off I went in a dead run. Security check. Off with the shoes, belt, watch, cell phone… next they will ask to remove the fillings in your teeth. Scanned and screened, I recapture all my stuff and resume my fast pace to B6. As luck would have it, it is another seeming mile away.

Travel Bali to Bangkok, Part 4 from Robert’s Xplorer Journal

Running between horizontal escalators past the boutique shops selling bags and watches and duty-free items I go. Alas, panting and out of breath I arrive just as they are announcing my boarding number and I slide into the plane and find my seat. I try to rest and gather my wits during the 1 ½ hour flight. We land. I disembark, gather the bags, find a taxi stand, buy a ticket to Karon Beach, wait forever for the taxi, jump in paying too much as this is not a time to try to bargain (it’s now close to midnight), and sit back in the cab gathering my breath once again. What is often as much as a two-hour ride is cut in half due to the absence of any traffic at this hour; the streets are wide open and we make record time.

I have my hopes up that I can get a room at a little undiscovered place in the back of a restaurant just across from the beach. I have stayed there many times, and have always found a room even in high season. There is also another branch of this hotel up above town on the way in. My plan is to stop there first and ask of any available rooms in the beach-side place. If so I will go ahead, if not, I will try to grab a room there up on the hill away from the beach. As by now I am running out of energy fast and have little time or patience left. We find the hotel, I stop and ask about rooms at the beach place and the late night attendant says to me, “Yes, they have room.” Great, so now all my tensions receded and I feel as if all the work and energy spent has indeed paid off.

Travel Bali to Bangkok, Part 4 from Robert’s Xplorer Journal

I relax in the certainty that soon I will be tucked in and fast asleep. I had eaten very little and was running off caffeine all day and night. I had the crawling discomfort of a hunted man. Now all that was slipping away in the knowledge of the success ahead. I was smiling inside and began to relax at last. I guide the taxi man to the little alley way that leads to the side area entrance to the hidden treasure of my favorite place. We stop the car I get out walk up to the night manager who knows me from last year; greet him with “I am here for a room, happy to see you again.” To which he says, “Sorry we have no rooms, all booked, high season Russian, Russian booking everything now. Everything booking booking now many many Russia.” Thailand has become the winter destination of half the Russian population; they constitute 95% of the entire foreign tourists now in Thailand. I say, “But, but, the guy at your other place telling me you have room here?” My eyes were falling shut despite the caffeine overdose that has driven me this far. “Can you call the man at your other place on the hill and see if he has room for me?” The night manager says, “Let me talk to my boss and see if we can help you.” “OK,” I say.

I was at the end of my energetic rope. A moment passes and he returns and says, “OK, we can have a room for you.” I follow him across the little ally and up some stairs down a long hall leading to several doors. He takes a key, opens one of the doors and shows me what I can only assume is an unoccupied maids quarters. The price was far greater than what it was worth, but given the situation, I took it. I got to lie down after a shower and get to sleep after 2:00 A.M.

Travel Bali to Bangkok, Part 4 from Robert’s Xplorer Journal

To my chagrin I awoke at 7:00 A.M. and could not go back to sleep. I begin to hate myself for being so cavalier about being able to surmount all the negative odds that were stacked against me right from the first decision to even leave Bali at this time of the tourist crush. Self-flagellation begins in earnest. What was I thinking? Enough of that, I had to find another room, one that would serve me for the time I had intended to stay here.

After coffee and breakfast, I was soon to secure a lovely place up above a small shop and a little bar, with a balcony looking out to the beach. It was very clean, big king size bed snow-white sheets, separate bathroom with enclosed tub and shower. Desk, closet space, private keyed entrance at night. A little pricy, but after all I had been through, I was ready for a little codling. I checked in, went over and checked out of the hovel I had stayed in the night before and put away my bags. Now I was set for the stay. I wandered about a bit, but soon realized just how much all the stress and lack of sleep had taken it’s toll on me, and thought it best if I just had an early dinner and retired to my new room with its big soft bed and just sleep it all off.