I Hate it When She's Right 11.04.10

On traveling days sometimes timing is everything. Well, let’s admit it, in life timing is everything. I was SO SURE that I knew which ferry we were supposed to get on this morning. The whole ordeal had, as usual, begun roughly. We were packed and ready on schedule, waiting for the 10 am taxi to the port town on Koh Phanang. Except, ooops!, they had canceled the 10am taxi. We didn’t understand that ‘10 AM Daily Taxi – wait here’ carried an option. So I quickly sprung into action (that is like bre’r wolf pullin’ on the old tar baby in my current energy state – you could hear the gears grind). Miraculously, within a few minutes I had secured a ride from a local for less than the Hotel taxi (yay!). Meanwhile Soph – by not lifting a toe, had arranged a cheaper ride yet from one of the staff (boo!). But I had actually contracted mine so up the road we staggered to meet it – full packs 35 degree heat, 100% humidity (boo!). The truck was air conditioned (yay!) but she was doing a laundry run and pulled into a few places to pick up or drop off – threatening to make us miss the ferry through lateness. (boo!)

When we got to the ferry dock there was no signage, no information about which ferry and where among a few wharfs, one was to meet it. There were about 150 tourists milling about. A large ferry slid into the next wharf and unloaded its manifest but no one moved from our little pen of people so I ASSUMED (that’s called a setup) that it was not ours. Sophie wanted me to check but I swept my arm around, ‘Do you think everyone here is wrong?’ You’ll have guessed the punchline. Several minutes later they raised the huge iron door and were just casting off when a lady I showed my ticket to pointed to the boat, now spewing gouts of black smoke and revving its engines, churning up the harbour surface. ‘Run fast!’ she urged. I whistled, shouted and waved my scrawny white arms,probably looking, from those lofty decks like some pallid insect scuttling across the wharf. There was an exchange of shouts – In Thai of course – I couldn’t tell if they were saying ‘Hurry up, get going. they’re almost here!’ or ‘Wait for the stupid Farang,’ A stevedore smiled benignly at us, nodding, and the Friendly Giant drawbridge dropped to receive us (yay! We win!)

Disaster narrowly averted but Sophie is staring at me through sceptical eyes, critical that I didn’t heed her suggestion. And, the really hard part; she’s right, dammit.

Of course the real punchline is ‘Be careful what you wish for’, because one thing always leads to another, and so the next 24 hours were less amusing than gruelling.