December 17th 2003
I finally got home on December 17th at around 3am Philippine time after having left New York at 12 noon on the 15th, a time warp and a half ago. so I had about a good 8 hours before trucking back to the airport for another 4 hours of flying to Bangkok to meet the 'rents.
My grumpy brother had picked me up from the airport, tossed my backpack into the car and handed me my airline tickets for 8 hours later. it was very Alias-esque, only instead of a hunky agent Vaughn, i had my pesky younger brother doing the drop-off.
I got home-- checked email, showered and then stayed awake the rest of the 8 hours scanning cable tv channels (see what having no cable can do to you?).
My flight to Bangkok was via Hong Kong so I had 2 hours to kill there before boarding. My Cebu - Hong Kong flight was predictably delayed, or maybe it was just my being up for how many days straight that warped my time table for me. The two Hong Kong airport hours were spent scanning bookshelves at Watson's. I ended up getting into a conversation with a German backpacker on his way to Bangkok too. It seems Bangkok is to Germans as Rio is to French (beat that analogy, SATs! ) He was on his way south of Thailand to visit a friend and was worried about how he would make it to the train station after getting to Bangkok at 10 pm. He seemed overwhelmed, poor boy, and kept commenting on how calm I was considering I was alone. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was more a sleep-deprived haze then anything.
I saw him again at the custom's line in Bangkok. I had slept through the entire flight and had missed out on those damn ticket thingies (the cards you hand over to immigration) causing me to double back-- line up and ask for it feigning stupidity and then line up again to hand it over, filled. Backpacker boy caught up with me on my doubling back, all excited saying he had found someone to share a cab with to the train station . I wished him luck and was off to haggle with a taxi myself to bring me to Forum Park Hotel, where the 'rents were.
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