Entry By : Eric
Country: Maldives (via Sri Lanka)
Subject: What a Difference a Day Makes!
Date: July 3 , 2006

Yesterday we awoke to our "you get what you pay for" room in the Atlanta Hotel. It was clean and comfortable, but it was a budget room in Thailand, complete with all the noise, smells and other great stimuli that are Bangkok.

Tonight we are laying on a HUGE bed in a luxurious octagon shaped room in the middle of the Indian Ocean where we have our own 'room boy' named Yameen.

Yes! A single day does make a difference:)

The events between then and now need to be shared since they are almost surreal. We spent our last day in Bangkok going to the weekend market. This is like the Portland Saturday Market x 10,000. There are over 18,000 legal vendors there and probably half again as many 'casual' vendors. You can buy anything from clothing for yourself to clothing for your hamster. We were hard pressed to come up with something that was not for sale there. It's where the average Bangkok resident does much of their bargain shopping. By now we had done enough to prop up Thailand's economy so we just went for the spectacle of it all.

When we went back to the Atlanta to collect our things, we checked emails one final time and saw that Kelly and Chris (two folks from our wild night in Chiang Mai) were already at the airport at a bar waiting for their flight. We quickly grabbed a cab and headed out.

We arrived at the airport, which is huge, and quickly changed into our 'traveling' clothes and headed for the Thai Airways check-in counter. This is where we received the first surprise of the night. Yes, Mr. Bressman, those are tickets are meant to get you and Mrs. Bressman to Sri Lanka, but they are 'open tickets' with no determined date on them! Now, I have had these tickets for almost a year and there is clearly a date on them, otherwise we wouldn't be leaving Thailand that's how much we loved it here. However, this apparently was only a suggestion of when they should be used. They were actually open-ended tickets and we were supposed to call the airlines well in advance to actually reserve the tickets, even though the date was printed on them. Thanks Kyle!:( It turned out there was room on the flight so we were able to get tickets. Yippee!!

With this near disaster behind us, we headed inside to find Kelly and Chris. To our surprise, and great disappointment, the bar they were at was outside the passport control area and we couldn't get back out. We managed to have the Airport Information staff call the bar and page them so we could let them know where we were.

At the end of it all, we never did connect with them and have that last drink together. We wish them both the best and if they are ever in Portland, they need to come have a beer or two with us! I'm sure we can rustle up all the ingredients necessary for a couple of buckets as well if that provides more inducement to travel to the Pacific Northwest.

We boarded our flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka knowing that when we arrive, we had a 10 hour layover. We had heard nightmare stories about his airport, and it has been in the news lately since there are terrorist rebels in Sri Lanka that have targeted the airport before. We really weren't looking forward to the next 12 hours of the trip -- this is an adventure right?

We arrived in Colombo a little after midnight and went to the transfer desk to check in for our flight later that morning. We were told that we couldn't do that until 7:30 in the morning. They told us we could leave the airport if we wanted, but we had heard stories about the hassles on the 'other side' of the security screening, so we decided it would be best just to find a quiet corner and try to get some sleep. As we were getting ready to walk away, the ticket agent asked if we would be interested in renting a 'day room'. He said they are available for $25 and we could sleep there if we wanted. We checked it out and it was like a hotel room right in the middle of the airport terminal. It was clean, air conditioned, had en suite facilities, and they even set up a wake-up call for us in the morning. We were livin' large!

The next morning, rested and showered, we headed back out to the check-in desk only to find out the flight was delayed for over an hour. Damn, we could have slept a little longer, but ... We decided to just hang around and read for a while. Sitting there, we noticed an unattended bag sitting on the floor. After a few minutes a guy walked up and sat down next to it. Within minutes, a security guard came over and asked him to open it so he could inspect it. Soon there were several guards and they tore through the pack. Finally, convinced this was an innocent mistake, they let the guy alone. Lesson learned: don't walk away from your bags in Sri Lanka! They take this stuff seriously.

Finally, we got on our flight to Male. This was our first time on Emirates Airlines and we highly recommend it. We had Business Class amenities in the Economy section. Great food and service! Too bad the flight was so short! We do have two more flights with them later, so we plan to enjoy them when the time comes.

We arrived in Male just before noon. As we were landing, we heard the captain announce something about not being able to bring alcohol into the Maldives. This was news to us, as we had purchased some Bombay Sapphire at the Duty Free shop before we left Bangkok. Well, we figured we would just bring it with us and play stupid if they saw it.

We went through Immigration OK, but Customs x-rays every bag and they saw the bottle in my backpack. I acted innocent and stupid and told the agent that I bought it at the Duty Free shop and that they hadn't told me I couldn't bring it in to the country. He nodded and said that yes this had happened before, but I still couldn't bring it in. I asked him what I should do and he told me it was no problem and that I just needed to go to the counter at the other side of the room. I wandered over and explained what had happened to the woman at the counter and she nodded and said "happens all the time. Here, fill this form out and you can pick up your bottle when you leave the country." Are you kidding me!? I was shocked. Now, this is a civilized place. Well, sort of. You can't bring alcohol in, but if you do, they will hold it and give it back to you when you leave. How cool is that?

After filling out the necessary forms and collecting a receipt, which will be guarded with all our other travel documents like passports and tickets, we headed out of the terminal to find out where we caught the boat to the island we are staying on. As we emerged, we were surrounded by dozens of folks with signs for all the different resorts. We didn't see ours, but we knew which counter to find them at. When we approached and asked about our boat, they told us we weren't going by boat, but by seaplane. This was not what we had reserved. The seaplane was much more expensive and we had reserved space on the boat instead. They said that we were on the plane and not to worry about it, so ... we didn't.

We arrived on the island about 1-1/2 hours later after dropping off another couple at a different island. Turns out because of our flight delay, the resort had changed us to the plane at no extra cost to be sure we didn't miss lunch. So how sweet is that? This was only the beginning of the decadence we were about to be introduced to. There is a staff person for just about everything we do. There is a marker on a table in the restaurant that locates our table for us. If we order wine or water, or whatever and don't finish it, the next time we come in, it will be waiting for us. We have the same waiter each time and he will learn what we like to drink and will be sure it is waiting for us at each meal. At the bar it was the same thing. A waiter will be assigned to us where ever we sit and will be sure our gin and tonics are never empty or warm.

For budget backpackers, nine months into a trip, this is almost too much to handle. We'll keep posting to let you know how this goes. Actually, there is one drawback. The posts will all come out after we leave. Seems internet access is somewhat rare and VERY expensive here. To the tune of $35 per hour! Yes, we will continue to enjoy the food, drink and hospitality, but as far as surfing goes, we'll stick to the waves in the deep blue water for that.

That's it for now. Until next time, keep living the dream!

Eric

 

 

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