A NIGHTMARE JOURNEY HOME

Last night it took me two and a half hours to get home - a total nightmare. Remember I only live about 9 kms from the office. It was down to a combination of three factors I think. Number one was rain - actually the first major rain storm we have had for a few weeks. The second fact was the it was the last day of the month - pay day for most Thai people. (Meaning they can afford to take taxis). Lastly, and least significant although it did play a part was a Black Eyed Peas concert in town.
I left work a 6.05pm as usual and, because it was already raining Tanya and I had decided to meet on the road where I work. Previous experience had told us that it is easier to get a taxi here when it's raining. In 30 minutes I think we managed to hail about four taxi, none of which wanted to go 'Thonburi' side of the river. We gave up and moved to another location, outside one of the major hotels. No luck there so Tanya suggested we take a bus and get off close to one of the main railway stations. By now is was getting on for 7pm and we'd barely done a couple of miles. We got off the bus and no taxis in sight. We waited, but gave up that idea at about 7.30pm and jumped on another VERY crowded bus - the idea was to get close to the river so we could take a ferry to 'Thonburi' side. That bus made its way through a packed Chinatown and, at about 8.10pm we got off close to Tanya's old university at Thammasat. We'd travelled about five miles by now but not exactly in the right direction.
We wait a few minutes to see if any taxis would turn up but they didn't, so we took the two minute ferry crossing to Wang Lang, where we jumped into the first taxi that came along. The traffic was even bad on Thonburi side and I eventually got home at about 8.35pm - very exhausted and hot.
A trip like that is not for the feinthearted. Just so you know the two bus trips were 8 baht each, the ferry was 3 baht and I think the taxi came to about 60 in the end - all in all just a bit more than one pound.