Escape from Bangkok
A race against the elements
Have you ever really not wanted to be somewhere? Don’t get me wrong, I love Bangkok. But after having spent four months living on a quiet island in the south of Thailand I was finding the big city rather overwhelming. That day had started with me arriving in Ekkamai, Bangkok’s eastern bus station, after a week on the coast.
All there was for me to do now was to get across the city to the Mochit bus terminal. Easy enough given the amazingly convenient sky train system that links the busy city.
When I left the coast that morning an especially ominous-looking storm had been building to the south. Lightning spidered out across the blackened sky as a wall of rain clouds moved in. The storm crept its way inland arriving in the city about the same time as I did. For anyone who has never seen a tropical rainstorm in Bangkok it is truly something to behold.
Roads turn to rivers. Rats burst out of whatever places they are hiding in. Parking lots become lakes. This can all happen in a matter of minutes. These storms are incredible to watch but horrendous to get caught out in.
I left Ekkamai and entered the skytrain as the storm raged on all around me. I was safe from the elements where I was so I watched the carnage from the cover of the skytrain platform. My train arrived and I spent the next forty minutes crammed inside with several hundred others as we weaved our way through Bangkok. Once I had traversed the city I headed out to catch a connecting bus to the Mochit bus terminal. This is when things started to go sideways.
Because of the weather, traffic was gridlocked. The bus I was on only moved fifty metres in twenty minutes. It was three kilometers to the bus station. The rain had turned to a light drizzle, so I convinced myself I could get there under my own power. Armed with Google maps I exited the bus, cinched down the straps on my pack, and started running. I only got lost once. Google maps isn’t perfect, ‘yet’.
I navigated the maze of busy streets as the rain started to pick up again. Only slowly at first, then the hissing of millions of tiny raindrops filling the sky grew louder. I looked at my phone, 900 meters to go. I picked up the pace trying to outrun what was coming. At the end of a long straight, I rounded a corner and saw the lights of the bus terminal.
The only thing between me and it was a parking lot full of ankle-deep water. I stopped at the edge of the newly formed lake looking for an alternative. There was none. In that moment an atmospheric river was unleashed from the sky. I sprinted for the lights of the terminal with all abandon. I must have looked like a Jesus lizard as I raced across the water towards the shelter of the bus station.
I burst into the bus terminal as if having just finished a race. I was soaked. My only concern was for my laptop which somehow seems to survive. I was able to relax now, I had made it. I bought a ticket for Koh Samui and a bag of snacks for the trip. It was a twelve-hour bus ride south through the night. Fortunately, I had a seat to myself allowing me to stretch out after another stressful, yet memorable day of travel.
At six AM the following morning I was dropped off at the ferry terminal in Don Sak. Walking through the parking lot in the morning sun I felt lighter, and calmer, knowing I would soon be home. It was a ninety-minute trip across the water to the island of Koh Samui. As the ferry chugged its way over the ocean, part of me wished I had never left. I missed my peaceful island existence more than I could have imagined. When the ferry docked later that morning I took a moment to re-appreciate my sleepy island paradise, knowing I was now home.
