My eventful trip home!

Not a nice start:

My departure from the Bangkok Golf Resort came a bit suddenly, because of the curfew;  After 20.00 hrs it was not allowed for people to move anywhere around Bangkok, so I heard, and therefore my dep was already at 19.00 hrs instead of 23.30 as planned.  Later I learned that tourists on the way to or from the airport were an exception with valid passports and tickets, but at the time nobody really knew anything.

So I got to the airport very early, it was chock full of people wandering around.  Checked the monitor for my China Airlines flight to Amsterdam:  CANCELLED!! OMG!  Icelandic ashes in the atmosphere again...  There was no staff for the airline anywhere, I tried a couple of phone numbers but to no avail.

What to do?

I had no place to go as a large japanese group had colonized my hotel as I was leaving and because of the curfew there were virtually no taxis anywhere.  I called my husband and let him know the situation, then I called my contact for China Airlines in Norway:  He had no idea that the flight had been cancelled.  I did not want to spend the next 30 hours at the airport, so I went outside, had a cigarette and weighed all the possibilities in my mind.

Blue and white to the rescue...

I knew there was a Finnair flight departing at 00.20 hrs and as I was at the airport before eight o'clock, I decided to try my luck.  Went to their ticketing counter and luckily for me there were seats available in the plane, for 750 Euros one way trip.  But I could only get the seat as far as Helsinki, as the domestic flight to Jyvaskyla (my home town) was very full and the ticket all the way there would have cost me much more.  So I called my husband and asked him to organize the ticket from Helsinki to home, via my workplace (travel agency).

My colleague booked the flight but she thought it was expensive so she didn't print the ticket out, thinking I could decide in Helsinki what to do.  Well, the Finnair flight was over an hour late, so when I got to Helsinki I had to let arrival counter know that I was in a hurry for the 07.35 plane and leave my luggage behind, to be sent forward on the next plane.
BUT:  As I went to Finncom Airlines check in desk, they only had the reservation and no ticket number - and I had only 20 minutes to get in the plane...  So I didn't have time to actually go to their ticketing office, buy the ticket, come back to the check in, go through the formalities and then board the plane...

Now I was sooooooo tired and pissed off...

So I marched back to arrivals service counter and picked up my luggage, begging their pardon for bothering them unnecessarily.  Then I thought I would go to the toilet and change my travelling clothes, after buying a bus ticket home (300 km north of Helsinki).  Then I noticed that my suitcase had been broken...  Oh no!  Obviously it had got stuck somewhere as the canvas had been burned away and the wheels were all broken and loose...

No help:  Back to the arrivals counter for the third time to do property irregulation report (PIR).  I had to call the staff from a phone outside again, as the arrivals counter was before the customs, so they had to come and take me in the back way every time...  Finally I got some documents so that I can have the luggage repaired at home. 

Then it was too late to change my clothes as the bus was due to leave in 10 minutes, at 08.35 hrs.  I went to the dedicated bus stop and waited, many buses passed but none had Jyväskylä written in front.  I had asked a few of the bus drivers where they were heading but was in no luck.  Finally a very courteous bus driver on his way to Tampere told me I should have boarded a bus going to the eastern border of Finland and changed buses somewhere along a motorway...  I had no idea that I should board a bus going in the wrong direction!

OMG again! 

My bus finally arrived at 10.00 hrs, I had to change buses at Lahti town.  The driver was so nice, he kept my luggage (all 30 kilos) in the bus for the 40 minutes that I had to wait for my new bus and brought the luggage to the correct place 5 minutes before the bus departure.  Chivalry is not dead!  So I had a nice cold beer, sitting in the sunshine at Lahti bus station before the final leg of my very eventful journey home!

I will write some of my best memories here later...