This post is a continuation of the story from My worst travel day ever!!! (part 1).  If you have not read it, please do so first.  For the first part of the story, click here.

Now the continuation of the story. . .

It had not been over 50 hours since I had last laid down.  I arrived in Rayong, Thailand at 12:30am.  At the Rayong “drop off” (bus station would be too generous of a description), there were several men looming in hopes of offering new arrivals various services.  I found a guy with a truck, pointed to the name of my final destination on the piece of paper I had, and we were off.

I was sitting in the passenger seat of a pick-up truck, tearing down dusty back roads in a place I had never been, with a guy I had never previously met.  He spoke a language of which I could only say “hello” in.  I was exhausted to the point of hallucinations (seriously).  The road was desolate.  The surrounding was pitch black.  To say I was a bit unsettled is an understatement.

At 1:00AM, we arrived at an ocean peer in the middle of nowhere.  This place defined the phrase, “middle of nowhere”.  No evidence of human life.  Just a few dilapidated boats tied down to a rusty docks.  The driver looked around in search of a boat owner.  He found and woke up a large, shirtless, Thai gentleman.  I pointed to my trusty piece of paper of where I needed to go.  We agreed upon a price, jumped aboard his junket boat, and set sail on the Gulf of Thailand.

At 2:00AM on Thursday, I finally arrived at Samet Island, Thailand, my desired destination.  My travels were finally over, or so I thought. . .

Samet Island, the place where we were to hold our week of meetings, looks tiny on a map.  Sitting in front of my computer in Atlanta, Georgia, I thought “no problem”.  However, at 2:00am in the middle of a week, it seemed like an ocean of darkness, a vortex of lostness.  As I stepped courageously into the vast darkness [Read more…]

I have lived, worked, and traveled overseas extensively for the past 13 years.  One of the legacies of life on the road is an abundance of travel stories, both good and bad.  This is my worst. . . so far.

I had been in Atlanta for a 10 day window for meetings.  Directly from there, I had to fly to a conference in Thailand.

My day started out in Atlanta on a Monday with an 8am meeting.  The day continued with a few more meetings, packing, and eating with my family.  My parents took me to the airport for a 10:10pm flight out of Atlanta.  It had been a quick and intense time in Atlanta since I only had 10 days (it was just enough time to get over jet lag, but then it starts over again when you get back on a plane for Asia).  In addition, it is always an emotional good-bye for me since I rarely know when I will be back home with family and friends.  Getting on the plane, I was already exhausted.

I laid over in Dallas for around two hours and departed from there at 2am Atlanta time.  No big deal so far.

The next leg of my trip was 14+ hours straight to Seoul, South Korea.  With only a few hours of sleep, I arrived in Seoul at 6am on a Wednesday.  I had a 10 HOUR LAYOVER, departing for Bangkok, Thailand at 4pm.  This one was brutal.

Have you ever spent 10 hours in the Seoul Airport International Terminal?  I would not recommend it.   I was told that the airport was a solid two hours outside of the city, so I felt I needed to stay put.  The chairs were steel, with a thin layer of rubber.  The terminal a flood of humanity relentlessly scurrying around from one flight to the next.  No sleep, but I did shave and wash my hair in a public airport bathroom.  Judging [Read more…]