Thursday 22 May 2003
Bangkok, Thailand
A bit of a change in plans
Right... a few MAJOR changes here...
Today I was throwing around several ideas about what to do next.. go to the Islands, or go North again until my time runs out here. I was seriously thinking about continuing on to Myanmar now that Im feeling much better (and less tired) after my few days rest in Bangkok. It all depended on what the situation was with respect to changing my ticket from Hong Kong (if I would be able to extend my ticket departure date by another 2 weeks for free I would have ventured off to Burma).
If possible I wanted to change my ticket from Hong Kong to Singapore (rather than forfeit the ticket and head from Bangkok to Sydney directly which would mean I throw away 200 euros worth of ticket) since Singapore seems to have less of a SARS threat (plus it has electronics bargains to boot!).
When I finally reached Quantas, I was told that it IS possible to change my ticket from Hong Kong to Singapore for FREE (unlike what the idiots in Trailfinders told the Quantas office when I checked in Hanoi). The only snag is that the offer lasts until the end of May.. after May Id have to pay the penalty for changing my ticket (about another 35 euros). Therefore if I wanted to head to Singapore without having to pay another penny Id have to leave before 31st May.
I thought about this long and hard... I also had to make sure that Australia would let me into the country if I arrived in from Singapore (without having to put me in SARS quarantine). So I took a few hours to have lunch and contact the embassy. Thankfully the embassy said that arrival from Singapore into Sydney will be no problem. PHEW! I also read on the WHO website that Singapore have all cases under control so it should be safe enough there.
Eventually, I thought "Well its been long enough.. time to call it quits before I become totally pennyless and exhausted from over-travelling!". So Ive decided to head off to Singapore on the 26th and stay there until the 30th of this month! This should be long enough time to find some groovy electronics deals while Im there...
Later today I went to the cinema AGAIN and saw X-Men 2. Not quite as breathtaking as the Matrix 2, but again a great movie in an excellent cinema (although some nutty Thai teenager was chatting away on her mobile through about half the movie... grrrr!)