More laps of luxury

Presenting the sleeping quarters and anything else that I’ve left out. Notice that the word ‘crap’ does not apply to places like this ?

One of our neighbours. I don't think he's a rice farmer

Our humble bedroom. It was much larger than this looks

Next to the bed is an I Pad like tablet device that controls ALL the villa’s lighting and and temperatures on both floors, and of course the motorised day and night curtains. Other small remotes work the Bose sound system, CD/DVDs, and  TVs

A study in the corner of the bedroom

There was a $20 charge for in room wifi, which was somewhat OK for places like this in 2006 but FF to the present, that’s ridiculous, but heck you’ve already run up a daily bill of $1000 or more…….get smart, go to the library or just forget about the outside world.

Part of the huge bathroom / dresser. Jaccuzzi # 2 is behind me

Throne # 2, also swathed with teak everywhere you look

While luxurious and opulent, all that teakwood including the vast ceilings does make one relax too easily and even brings on drowsiness, hence it’s good to venture out on to the sala, a small Thai style pavilion over looking the manicured resort padi fields. You might spot one of their 5 working buffalos. For history and culture buffs, there’s even a scheduled tour of the grounds by the resident librarian who is also a history and art major, whom we are still in touch with. She has moved on to greener pastures in Shanghai.

Walkway towards the sala on the 2nd floor

Housekeeping arrives on her bicycle

What was really impressive was that the GM of the place got around on an old Crocodile brand Thai made bicycle with GM on the number plates. So did the housekeepers. It would have been nice to get around in one of our folding bikes, I mean 60 acres is huge, but then again the golf carts were just a phone call away. I guess unnecessary sweating wasn’t an option here.

At the Spa

Even if you don't want to fork out US$180 for a massage, you'll be given a tour of the Spa's facilities

In 2008 we were invited to take a look at even more suites. Tempting as it was, we didn’t stay this time, mostly because, it was an invite ‘to preview’ and not to, well stay which means we would be presented with a 4 figure bill equivalent to that of a new small car. It was like venturing into a small town, no passe villas but blocks of ‘Colonial Villas’ some with views of their own gardens and lakes ! Take a look.

Year end office parties are so much better when a small tiny envelope carries the first prize to be savoured on a tropical isle. What a lovely start to 2011. Now which bikes shall we bring ?

We'll have to take a look at this place sometime this year. I wonder if they have a valet for one of my bicycles ?

In the lap of luxury

 

Yes, it's an early model, but it's still a limo, at the resort's reception

I don’t even know how to tag this place, I guess the word ‘kingdom’ comes to mind. In 2006 we were blessed to have entered this little Lanna kingdom unto itself. More importantly, after traveling rough and lugging backpacks around north Thailand, we checked into the very lush and exclusive Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi resort in Chiang Mai. It was huge, all 60 acres of it. The kind of place in which you don’t haggle over the room rates at reception, the staff are better dressed than you, and the, ahem , keys to the deluxe spa villa are attached to a huge heavy keychain made out of pure silver. As our room, ahem villa was quite a distance away, our backpacks and bodies were transported there by an electric golf cart. We’ll have to save the hose drawn carts for getting to dinner.

This is a library I could get used too. Between bouts of internet explorer and trolling the CD's and DVD shelves, the always smiling librarian will come by with coffee or tea and biscuits, and of course you specify the type of coffee or tea.

This was part of the furniture in our Villa # 7

Of course they put in a sauna room behind the kitchen

and a cosy potty so you don't have to climb upstairs

the coffee machine was locked and loaded

the ground floor living room which we passed by occasionally

the ground floor terrace and jaccuzi # 1 under the sala

Waiting outside Villa # 7 for our buggy

A large PDF map of the ‘Kingdom’ resort_map

 

Chiang Mai in the Rainy Season

Lush and green Chiang Mai, from Doi Suthep 600 m above

Yes it was wet, very wet. Thank God for a raincoat, mini mudguards and good brakes which made cycling less miserable. This (photo below) being the 2nd last day of a very short 5 days in Chiang Mai and Pai, I was getting used to the daily deluge come 5 pm. I had to count my blessings as there was usually semi sunny / cloudy skies with light drizzle in the earlier part of the day. Weather stats for August, the height of the rainy season was rain for 20 days (out of 30) and a 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms each day.

If you’re looking for blue skies and getting a tan, you’re just 4 months too early or late. The best time to be in the Thai north  is between November and February. Little chance of rain with cool winter winds from neighbouring China bringing temperatures down to as low as 2 degs C in the mountains. In the valleys and cities like Chiang Mai, Thais and tourists alike will find the daily average of 20 deg C with deep blue skies most agreeable. Welcome to the north’s winter season.

Waiting out a rain storm at a cosy coffee shop where I was invited into. The Ping River will burst it’s banks with just another meter more of floodwaters

So why was I in the Thai north in the most inappropriate month of the year ?  Well the trip and expensive air fares were taken care of by Coleen’s relatives who had never been to the north, didn’t care if it was raining or not and most importantly were there for a slow paced vacation spiced up with a visit to Gems Gallery to hunt down some precious stones. What was I left to do ?  Update myself with the goings on in Chiang Mai (not much really, the roads were to put it mildly, very slick) and see whether the former hippy hangout mountain town of Pai in Mae Hong Son was worth a return visit. It was. No crowds thronging the streets and cars with Bangkok plates jamming up the roads for kms on end.  Resort rooms at half the going rate, sometimes less. Just rain and misty hillsides. A full sus mountain bike would be fun to have.

It’s better to use the green one during rush hour in a city with narrow one way streets and the rain just seconds away

Now with the Bike Friday tikit folded in the boot of the rental car, I could be ready to ride anytime. Well almost. The best times were early morning from 7- 9am when everyone else was slumbering and maybe after dinner in the dark, to ride off dinner in the cool hours of the night, in search of midnight munchies. Mike’s Burgers ! Yes, I know it’s a vicious circle. Eating and riding.

Thankfully there was only one episode when I got really drenched, riding back to the hotel after getting some goodies from a hard to find bike shop. I had forsaken the nice dry Toyota Vios for the tikit, but did not refuse my wife’s advice to pack my raincoat, very essential for keeping the camera dry. Anyway with the evening rush hour traffic building up, the tikit was the saner choice wet or dry. The bonus if you can call it that was, splashing through the quickly flooded streets of Chiang Mai in semi darkness, while everyone else were practising their clutch control in 10 kmp/h traffic.

What traffic?

This certain bike shop near Wat Gate and the Chiang Mai railway station across the Ping River is almost impossible to find. Not only was their map inaccurate, the shop front was a huge wooden house from eons ago fronted by a hardware / grocery shop. There was space for 4 pick ups and more in it. The bike goodies were at the back, visible only after the owner switched on the lights. It  was more like a store room / office in a forgotten corner of a massive warehouse. At 6 pm it looked like he was about to close and head out to dinner, but uncannily 2 other customers walked in after me and they bought a lot. We were led into another room where some more exotic (for Thailand) stuff like Brooks saddles and imported race clothing were kept. As usual I was given a further small discount from the already good prices, without even asking !

Earlier on, a kind passer by took one look at the map and decided to call the phone number printed on it, telling him to stand outside and wait for me, on the street I had cycled up and down 6 times. Somehow telling me (on a previous trip) that his shop was close to Dr Wong’s clinic on such and such a street just doesn’t cut it. I got some saddles, a road tyre, nearly extinct 8 speed cassettes  and cycling shorts  AND a lot of moisture afterwards.

If I hadn’t made dinner plans, it would have been fun splashing about a bit more in the streets that resembled shallow rivers at sunset.

Bike goodies laid out like a buffet spread, yum !

With just about 6 kms to ride across town, I carefully kept my camera in a ziplock bag under my rain jacket and went out into a heavy drizzle. My shopping in 2 white bags was dangling from the handlebars and I blended in with the evening market crowds jamming up the already crowded streets. I barely rode for 2 kms before the skies really opened up and visibility went down to a few car lengths. Just in time I turned into a small coffee shop, dripping water all over a nice sheltered wooden deck as a resident cat gave me the evil eye as in ‘I was here first, go away!’

A nice young woman came out and sort of gestured me into the airconditioned shop. Dripping wet as I was I declined and mentioned that I’ll keep kitty company outside. She smiled, went in and brought out a small towel. I am planning a return visit in better weather

Bikes from a bygone era

* Chiang Mai  has a couple of pro bike shops with the latest and the ‘bestest’ from around the world, with prices to match and where cyclists congregate to check each other’s bikes out. I generally try to avoid these, as there are dozens of such shops back home, but it was fun to find one in a hip neighbourhood of  fancy spas, pubs and bars in Nimanhaemin Soi 13.  You never know when you’ll need some help in case of a bike malfunction.

Who knows what you'll find in the narrow streets of Chiang Mai's old town

Cutesy at the Sunday Walking Street

*If you’re really interested in this back of a warehouse bike shop, just show up on Sunday mornings @ 8 am @ Thapae Gate for their Chiang Mai Cycling Club Sunday rides. The enterprising owner of  ’Lek Bikes’ will have a pick up full of bike accessories ready for sale on site. Just ask him to redo his map !

‘Carry-ing Me’ again

Pacific Cycles in Taiwan has this amazing mini folding bike that’s folds in to a super compact package of just about 8 kgs. A recent trip to Phuket and Phangnga province in South Thailand was a good chance to try out the red pocket rocket in the cooler hours of the day while my wife, Coleen, lazed about in the resort room where cycling was furthest from her mind. It was her birthday trip anyways, so vegetating was excusable.

We had used a couple of these bikes in Thailand before, mostly in the cooler months of December and January in the northern provinces, and I knew that to be without some form of two wheeled transport, getting around after returning the rental car was going to be a tad tedious.

Me? I had to pedal as much as I could just to work off all the buffet meals that came with the rooms. Another excuse was that I suddenly became much more mobile pedalling over 8 inch wheels, be it in a congested Thai town or along lonely beach side roads. With a max cruising speed of no more than 30 kmp/h, the Carry Me was vital in covering more ground with my cameras strapped on the shoulder.

This is getting to be a good habit. Folding bike in the boot of a rental car while on vacation

The fact that I managed to rent a very new Toyota Vios at a low season rate of just Thb 900 (from Thb 1300) right from the Phuket airport car rental counters, was icing on the cake. Apparently I was their first customer that day at 2 pm, and was happily given the big discount. Yup, renting a car to transport a bicycle (and honeymoon couple) made sense. We made it to Khao Lak 80 kms north of Phuket island in good time, found the Baan Krating Resort   on a forested hillside overlooking the Andaman Sea. This place was also giving discounts and ‘free’ dinners’ and breakfasts during their ‘green season’ a nicer term for rainy monsoon season. We were blessed with perfect weather, and the heavy showers came only in the night, when we were thankfully not driving or cycling.

Luckily for us, we were told that it rained all week before we arrived, making everything lush and green.  Khao Lak’s 10 kms of sandy beaches bore the brunt of the Dec 2004 tsunami which claimed thousands of lives in Thailand. This was the stretch where unidentified bodies were gathered and kept in containers, some unrefridgerated. A Thai friend positively does not want to visit this place where so many perished. Almost 6 years on, I noticed that all the development in this coast must be brand new. Heck there’s a deserted McDonald’s even in Baan Niang village, all of 1 km long, which I confess had me buying a cheeseburger for a late night munch to go with Eurosports live coverage of the 2010 Tour de France!

I also got to chat with a French family in the next 2 bungalows who were on vacation for a whole month in the Thai south. In these parts the dreaded tsunami subject always came up, but this time my neighbour told a tale of a relative who simply did not return from Thailand as she was never ever found. On a happier note our neighbour’s 2 young kids were overjoyed when they discovered McDonald’s in town, never mind the 1 hour walk it took to get there from Baan Krating. The right motivation can do wonders.

The deserted beach at Thai Meaung, south of Khao Lak

The next day, we took off on a drive to Takua Pa, a derelict tin mining town some 30 kms away. It was deja vu, as I had cycled all the same roads just 3 months ago on the Phuket to Penang ride. I guess I am the only one who has surveyed a route by bicycle first before attempting a drive on the same roads ha ha. The Carry Me was brought out of it’s card board coffin 24 hrs after landing and I had a blast rolling down hill to town, all 2 kms of it, down through highway # 4 which leads to Bangkok  some 700 kms north. Coming back up hill was easy. A kind lady in a silver Toyota Vios who looked alarmingly similar to Coleen gave me a lift.

Unlike 1st world Singapore good ol’ Thailand has lanes for 2 wheelers

Low season Khao Lak was a bit of a let down, some restaurants and eateries seemed mothballed and those that were open had their staff sitting on the sidewalks. Hmmm. We were sceptical of the freshness of their food. At times like these it would be best to go local, but alas,  birthday celebrations meant a fancier eatery which as I guessed, had average food to go with nice candlelight and checked tablecloths. Thankfully the location of our hillside bungalow and crashing waves with distant twinkling lights from faraway beach resorts made up for a lackluster dinner. Those and a couple of Magnums (ice cream)  And the two cutesy resident resort kittys purring outside our door, which entertained me to no end, but got Coleen on edge each time I stepped out.

Happy is a man whose wife buys him a car with space cash to boot ! Let’s wory about the bank loan part later…..

We spent the remaining 4 days in Phuket’s old town, walking a lot, when the Carry Me was not in use, then getting our brains numbed by too much trolling of the Central Festival Mall and some Factory Outlet Mall which would not look lout of place in suburban America. The Central Mall was good though for some gourmet coffee, an afternoon movie at the SFX theatres, what ever that is, and the massage find of the decade, so Coleen says. It’s the Happy Massage place on the 2nd floor if you must know. We went there twice. All other forms of relaxation met out expectations at www.daraphuket.com, billed as a hip business hotel, just on the fringe of Phuket town yet strategically close to the malls, and the bus to the airport.

It’s also a very close 2 kms to town, riding among startled school kids and locals when they do a double take after seeing an adult pedalling on 8 inch wheels, with takeaway popiah (spring rolls) on the handlebar, heading back to the hotel.

Just aim high boys

Small wheel gathering in Phuket’s Chinatown

James Bomd has his gadgets, I have my Carry Me @ www.daraphuket.com

TDF 2010 every night !

Massage in a corner of the Central Mall @ Thb 200/hour. Forget the tourist beaches, and their expensive massages from scantily clad masseurs……

Before breakfast I head out for a short ride and get sidetracked by Thb 10 spring rolls in Chinatown

Then I just have to stop at some rustic bike shop which has bike parts from decades ago……

Voila ! A made in Thailand Roongreung leather saddle on steroids. Eat your heart out Mr Brooks !

If it breaks down, you can use the red one

Waiting for the airport bus with a lot of baggage

After 3 days, I had explored most of Phuket town, found some quirky souvenirs, got quite a few nice shots, burned up enough calories and entertained some locals all at the same time.  Mission accomplished.  Amd Coleen had a ‘restful’ birthday.

A million thanks goes out to Alvin Lee, folding bike benefactor and sometimes owner of the red rocket that terrorized the streets of old Phuket town. Please address any grieviences/lawsuits to him

Vang Vieng: Civilzation at last

Sunday November 16, 2008, 20 km (12 miles) – Total so far: 491 km (305 miles)

We loved Vang Vieng the minute we got our rooms. The usual mod cons. Mod with a big TV, cool AC, huge balcony to dry our laundry, and a powerful hot shower in a big bathroom. Didn’t get too conned at 120000 kip or $15.

Contrary to what you can read about VV, with it’s profusion of backpacker bars and for want of a better term, tourist ghetto, simply stay at the edge of town and all will be well. Head into town for sustenance, massage and internet and cycle out once you’re done.

Even though Laos is a land locked country, many visitors in the Justin or Britney age group seemed to be dressed for the beach, trolling the streets in bermudas and bikinis. Most are harmless, some are loud, some are loud and drunk, and very few are sexy.

C'mon Rachel, it's your turn to find the internet cafe

Older tourists in the know, mostly the Samsonite toting crowd avoid VV like the plague. They fly over the mountains. What’s interesting is that most Thais seem to take Lao travel in their stride, coming to see what the fuss is all about and enjoying themselves without any preconceived notions. So what’s VV’s claim to fame? The Nam Song river paralleling the town. Play Tarzan and Jane, swing from a rope and splash into the river, kayak down it, rent a tube and float down it, stop at a riverside bar and share a bucket of booze with total strangers. Then there’s also all the magical stuff that you can puff…..

Business is so good during the high season, Vientiane and even Thai locals are fighting for a share of the tourist pie. Our guesthouse is adding a new wing, the neighbour’s is almost completed and older ones are being remodeled. Laos seems like a country under perpetual construction.

If you like lightning and flash floods, come in July and August. It happens every year and the huts get rebuilt after that.

There are caves to be explored too on the other bank, but the miles of off road trails there are enough to occupy our afternoon jaunt into the countryside.

We bump into Maarten and Katrien on a dusty trail and they seem happier than yesterday. They did the tourist thing and went to a swimming hole called the Blue Lagoon where the water is really blue. That was on my to do list too, but we got side tracked by too much photography and some bathing beauties by the bridge. Tomorrow, LHT 3 disappears into the sunset.

Pai to Mae Malai

Sunday May 2, 2004, 95 km (59 miles) – Total so far: 386 km (240 miles)

We seem to have hit the northern Thai mango showers season. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango_showers

Sudden, heavy rains with strong winds that start in the late afternoon and die out as fast as they started. No complains really as these rains bring a breath of fresh air each day and also less dusty roads to cycle on. Our first one was in Chiang Dao in the dead of night, and now a couple of times in Pai. As we sat sipping hot tea after a great two hour massage, another storm hit. Rushing to close the windows in the living room at the massage place, I realised that the new windows had no panes. It’s in places like these that remodelling a home carries on when the kitty has some money. Just like the lady who closed her sundry store and phoned a neighbour, then directed us to a bedroom above for our massages.

After two thoroughly relaxing days, we reluctantly left Pai down the 1095 to Mae Malai, the town with great tim sum. That was as much a driving force at the mumber of down hills that awaited us today. We followed a quieter parallel road for abut 15 kms before it rejoined the 1095 at Pai’s hot springs. There are a number here in the valley, but probably best experienced in the year end Thai ‘winter’ and not May’s sizzling 35 degrees C. That’s like steaming a previously boiled lobster, in an oven. Overkill. By now we were used to the heat and humidity, or was it the massages that made the 95 km ride not too daunting? Paul was all smiles, mostly because we knew where we were going. It’ll be a long time coming before following me on another, ‘the trail across the mountains looks interesting’ kind of ride. Ah, humbug to former roadies with no sense of adventure.

We check into the Mae Tang Hotel in Mae Malai. Mae Tang is actually farmland some 30 kms north of Mae Malai where tourists are brought on elephant rides and rafting trips, so if you ask for the Mae Tang Hotel without emphasizing ‘hotel’ you might just be sleeping with some elephants. The lady owner here is used to touring cyclists and there’s even a bike rack of sorts in the lobby. Plonk in the front wheel and lock. The restaurant has some really pretty staff, seemingly more interested in comparing make up and hairstyles, than showing us a menu. It was empty at dinner time, so you have to ask yourself why? Their menu’s pricey and there’s tons of street food outside, that’s why.

Pai: yes, migrate

Last night, we pretended to be too tired and decided to sleep just after our bedding arrived at 8. We had to, if we wanted any real sleep further on into the night. What would the guys at a camp like this do to fill up their long nights? Two words, booze / women. We were invited for both. Hence the act to be tired and sleepy. We had a pretty good excuse. Cycling from Piang Luang most of the day. It wasn’t easy, lying flat on a floor, for 3 to 4 hours while a party was going on just beyond the walls of our room, while not really feeling sleepy at all. The guys must have packed it in sometime between 1 or 3 am. Next on the programme? The Muang Noi Border Patrol Snoring World Championships. Really sleepy now but kept awake by the ruckus above on the second floor.

What gives ? Only one guy is in uniform, the rigid one

Like a real army camp, MSG gave us about 30 minutes to pack up and follow their Unimog to Pai at 0730 hrs. What? There goes our leisurely morning, to eat, crap, take some photos (but not the camp proper) And what about the remaining 33 kms, downhill to Pai? No, no and no. Pulling us aside, he asked, “Do you want to die, today?” We took that as, take the free ride, as the road conditions will be just as bad as the day before. We must have looked like death yesterday, then. In all probability, he felt responsible for our safety, even after our departure from the camp. He looked like he had the worst hangover and couldn’t wait for everyone else to leave him to some quiet time.

As a slight consolation I must add that we did enjoy the ride on the unimog, interacting with some of the guys and finding out what goes on in camp after dark. OK not all the female company last night were 100 % female. They just looked like it in make up and heels. Yup pretending to sleep was a good idea after all. Life in camp, maintaining the border, took up 20 straight days a month, with the remaining 10 days for R and R in the towns of Pai or Mae Hong Son. To save money, the single guys would stay in other camps or their headquarters in the larger towns, while the married men returned to their homes. Today was Day No. 21 and there were many smiling faces on our truck, at times coming to a standstill, finding it’s way in first gear, down some very steep switch backs, on the bone dry road to Pai.

The daily 'bus' up the mountain

After we got off the truck at Pai’s bus station, I figured a token sum of 500 baht or about $12 to be given to the Captain for their hospitality last night. He flatly refused it and gestured that it was ‘thank you the Thai army’ Now we really felt bad and thankful at the same time. I knew what to do. We got a six pack of beer, some fruit and snacks at the market and put it all down on the driver’s seat while the rest of them were taking a break at a coffee shop. While we were cycling off later, they overtook us, the driver honking and thanking us, open beer can in hand. Though he didn’t as much as speak 10 words to us, we figured that he was the one who also bought two bottles of water and two cans of Coke, (his bunk was on the ground floor, where we slept) leaving them by our panniers last night. Amazing. Even more so is another of Paul’s random thoughts. Something that I’ll remember in my old age. “Do you think that they share their women too?”

From the Pai pictures, you can tell that we did more eating than cycling. It’s a small cross roads town, hemmed in by mountains, on the 1095, part of the Mae Hong Son loop, a winding mountain road boasting a couple of thousand hairpin bends. These days the loop and sleepy towns along the way is one very well beaten and ridden path in the Thai north. What’s interesting are the other thousands of off road trails within and around the loop. I once harbored thoughts of living here for a few months, but I’ll probably miss my wife and some of my bicycles, and in that order please. Mrs Paul will also blame me for being a bad influence. Interestingly enough Pai translates as ‘migrate, or ‘go’ from the Shan Burmese language, right across the border.

Over the last decade, Pai has bagged the gold medal for being the most touristy town in Mae Hong Son province. Another Chris sums it up pretty well, if not very detailed, www.allaboutpai.com Sacrifice your lunch hour and read on.

Like a kid in a candy store

Slightly Lost in the Thai North

Chiang Mai: First things first

Mountain Biking in ‘Sensitive Border Areas’

431 km (268 miles) over 11 days from April 27, 2004 to May 7, 2004

Tuesday April 27, 2004, 10 km (6 miles) – Total so far: 10 km (6 miles)

This ‘latest’ journal recounts an unforgettable off road trip to Thailand in 2004. There were many other trips, with many other people, on many fancy bikes, but those don’t count. Except for dates and distances from a notebook, every word is from my memory. Pictures do help too, a lot in fact.

My super fit buddy, Paul and I attempt an anti clockwise loop of sorts out of Chiang Mai in north Thailand, in mid May, the hottest month of the year. The ride is a mix of highways, secondary roads, fire roads, jungle trails and backtracking some 20 kms after we got lost. Other than that, Thailand always seems like a good place to pedal a bike, any kind of bike. If you have a dozen bikes, that’s a dozen trips in the bag.

The journal title’s a slight misnomer as I’ve lost my way once, well maybe twice, OK half a dozen times while cycling a spider web of off road trails in the Thai north. Thankfully I did not lose my way cycling solo, although losing your way with 8 other cycling friends, of whom 4 had conflicting GPS waypoints, and differing navigation skills, read personalities, made getting lost alone look quite tempting.

An hour of this seems like 60 minutes when suffering with friends

On this trip out of Chaing Mai, we were lost for about half a day in the mountains close to the Burmese border. A few hours pushing a loaded mountain bike in a ‘sensiitve border area’ according to our maps, doesn’t seem too daunting, but with a host of other compounded factors to make that day longer and more tiresome than it was, we would always recall the mountain village of Muang Noi with fond ‘will we ever get out of this jungle’ type memories. A true test of dehydration and friendship, amongst other things like patience, I guess. It began right at the airport…..

We get to Changi Airport in Singapore bright and early, 0630 hrs early one May morning. We smirk as we squint at an endless stream of car headlights heading the opposite way into the downtown business district. During the van ride to the airport, I ask Paul twice, twice as to whether he has all his documents, ie money, passport and air tickets. Yes and yes. We had bought a US$200 airfare and 3 night hotel stay deal from a travel agent.

At the Silk Air check in counter, voila, money and passport yes, ticket, um no, zilch. It was in his desk drawer at home. Mrs Paul who’s on her way to shopping, maybe work, chuckles over the phone and says. ‘That’s quite normal !’ I feel my blood pressure rising in leaps and bounds and we haven’t even started cycling yet.

Amazingly the airline could not do a print out of the ticket from their system. We are ‘in their system’ after all. It can do so for $25 only if you’ve say, through sheer bad luck or stupidity, lost it. And this can only be only at their downtown office which will open at 0900 hrs, 40 minutes after our flight takes off.

Buying a whole new ticket, with the same name, dates and route is strangely possible at the airport check in. What if the flight was full? I ask. Then you couldn’t really buy another ticket. That would be unfair to Paul who hasn’t ‘arrived’ at the airport yet, presumably with his ticket, according to the computer, although there is the real Paul, in the flesh, here and now frustratingly trying to check in! Wouldn’t someone be alarmed if there’s a passenger with absolutely similar names and flight data in the system? I guess not. Not at 7.30 in the morning.

After 45 minutes of Plan Bs and stand offs, mostly groveling with a bunch of ‘Sorry Sir, no ticket, no boarding pass’ airline staff, Paul whips out his master card and buys the same ticket for US$650. Cool.

I thought it was a stylish kind of move, and quite expensive if the promised refund did not materialize 3 months down the road.

From this incident on, I vowed never to fly with a paper ticket in hand and thus do my part in saving the airline industry a supposed US$5 million a year in printing and issuing paper tickets. Or maybe vow never to travel with a certain Paul, but then again, what are friends for, if not to disagree and even plan the next year’s northern Laos trip. As the wife would say, “Hmmm, shooting yourself in the foot again?”

Speaking of foot relief…..