Stories of the Middle Kingdom

Jungle Escape

It was the last night of my stay in the Thai jungle bungalow. I kept hearing noises in the night, animals no doubt slithering through my cabin on their way somewhere else. I turned on the light several times, but saw nothing.

Not that I was sleeping all that well anyway in this Tarzan-like place, but at 3 a.m., I was awakened by the unmistakeable sound of torrential tropical rain. In 2-1/2 hours, I had to meet my taxi at the gate of this jungly compound to take me to the airport. I hoped the rain would stop. Finally it did, replaced by the loud noise of croaking frogs. I have obnoxiously loud croaking frogs where I live in Bamboo Forest too, so that didn't freak me out too badly.

But then the frogs got quiet as the torrential rain started up again. My heart sank, giving new meaning to the term "tropical depression."

The deluge continued at 5:30 a.m. when I had to meet the taxi; it was still dark. I put on my dirty jeans, t-shirt, socks and tennis shoes. I awkwardly tried to balance a lightweight umbrella under my chin. I grabbed my carry-on bag in one hand and my big suitcase in the other. I descended the stairs of the bungalow into streams of deep, running water where there was a nice sidewalk visible just yesterday.

I waded through water that was nearly to my knees, completely soaking my tennis shoes, socks, and jeans (rolling them up didn't keep them dry). It would have been kinder to my shoes if I had gone barefoot, but I was not sure what kind of snakes and critters might be in the water, and I wasn't taking any chances.

Carrying the umbrella was a useless endeavor and hurt my chin. My t-shirt was wet, as was my hair. My biceps got a workout before it was all over, because I hed the heavy luggage at shoulder level (and above water level) until I was able to get out of it.

I got to my taxi, which is really a small pick-up truck with a cover on it, and rode in the back of it with my luggage and wet clothing to the airport, hydroplaning on the highway once or twice, spewing water on other cars in the dark as we passed.

I got to the airport late, but I still took the time to run into the bathroom, open my suitcases on the (luckily quite clean) floor, and changed to different socks, shoes, jeans and shirt. The travel clerks assigned me the last open seat on the plane. After customs and immigration, I got to the gate area and saw all the nicely-groomed international travelers who rode taxis that they boarded from the protective awnings of their 3, 4 or 5 star hotels. And I thought: Wouldn't those people have been appalled if they had seen me five minutes earlier? Honestly, they didn't have half as much fun as I did getting to the airport!