Day 1 as a refugee

Ok, so here follows the details of my previous post:

Evacuation day started with being startled awake by a random Thai woman letting herself into the 3rd floor apartment we were temporarily staying in. As it turns out, the apartment is hers that she uses in times of flood. So we hurriedly shower and get dressed and start moving our things to my friend Katie's apartment on the 5th floor.

After a bit of a breather we are called by the landlord who tells us that an army truck has arrived. We hurriedly grab our things and rush downstairs only to be told that the truck has left. We then load our things onto a styrofoam raft and wade through the (by then thigh-high) floodwater to the end of our street where we are to wait for another truck.

After about 2hrs of waiting one of the Thais flags down a doublecab bakkie with a Thai family in it who agree to take us to where we can get a taxi to Bangkok. Finding a taxi proves to be almost impossible so this kind-hearted family of good samaritans takes us all the way to the outskirts of the city.

As we get out of the bakkie our pet squirrel, Momo, suddenly starts to seize and vomit and, before we can even react, drops dead in his cage. Unsure of what to do next, we hail a cab and load the cage with the dead squirrel and our other belongings in and ask the driver to take us to Khao San (the backpackers district on the outskirts of the city).

200B and about 45mins later we arrive in Khao San and plonk ourselves down at the nearest restaurant where we are met by Sam and his Thai girlfriend, Tankwa. After having our first meal of the day (which is dinner as it's already early evening by then) Tankwa shows us to the hotel they are staying at and upon arrival gets one of the cleaning ladies to discreetly dispose of our little dead friend.

800B in credit card debt later and we've booked a room for the night where we proceed to dump our things, take a shower and pass out.
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-----Original Message-----
From: charnefowler@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:25:06
To: Email to blog<charnefowler.landofsmiles@blogger.com>
Reply-To: charnefowler@gmail.com
Subject: My life as a refugee

A rude awakening, wading through thigh-high floodwaters, a 2hr wait, a 2hr bakkie ride, a dead squirrel, a 200B taxi ride and some credit card debt later and we're finally safely ensconced in a hotel in Khao San road.

Details to follow once I've worked up the energy...
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