— Chapter Ten —
Pon is learning about aeroplanes and sits bolt upright, clinging onto the armrest of a Boeing 737 on his way to Utapao airport, Thailand.
Pon had left Towhee’s bungalow, he and the small girl had taken a tuk-tuk to Phon Penh.
He had called Taksin en-route and explained what he had found out. Taksin had told him where Pattaya was, and explained that the quickest way to get there would be to fly, he was a little confused, and Taksin explained that his friend would collect him and take him to the airport and catch an aeroplane
“What’s an aeroplane?” enquired Pon.
Pon and the girl arrived in Phnom Penh; she then caught a night bus back to her village. She thanked the monk and the tears that she now wept, were tears of joy. Pon went to a hotel recommended by Taksin and paid five dollars from his bundle, courtesy of Mr. Andrew Towhee, he went to his room and meditated for several hours and then slept on the floor next to the large bed.
The logistics of getting Pon to Pattaya by plane was difficult. Taksin discussed at lengths with his friend how they could do this. Pon had no papers, but his friend assured him that there wouldn’t be much of a problem in Cambodia, but Taksin would have to arrange for his arrival in Utapao. Taksin could mobilise armies, he would therefore have no problem in dealing with immigration.
Pon was collected from his hotel at 14:00, his flight was due to leave at 15:30, he had changed back into his jeans and T-shirt, packed his belongings into his rucksack and had spent the morning meditating and staring at the photograph that he’d brought from Towhee’s bungalow. He thought about Towhee, he was the first white man he had ever seen and he’d decided that he did not like these foreigners. ‘These people are strange’ he thought, they did not act with honour or principle, maybe they were all the same, and he hoped that he would never meet another one. He found out he could remove the photo from the frame, this he did and then discarded the frame. He removed a small pen-like tool from his tool roll and spent the next few hours whittling one of his red coloured ornaments. He intended to add a small bird and because the fighter had taken his unfinished work, he would add it to one of his others to pass a few hours. Towhee’s phone had been constantly ringing since the early morning. Pon turned it off.
Taksin’s friend arrived at 14:00. He was dressed in a smart immigration uniform. He drove Pon to the airport, about a 20 minute drive and gave Pon two brown envelopes, with ‘Diplomatic Papers’ written across the front, one in Cambodian, and one in Thai, and officially stamped ‘Royal Thai Consulate.’
Phnom Penh International Airport is a small airport, and only a few aircraft took off or land there, Pon saw a plane land as they approached and he became a little scared.
“Don’t worry,” smiled Taksin’s friend, “safest and fastest way to travel.”
Pon looked up at the sun, which looked a bit low today and thought ‘I hope we don’t crash into it.’
They went into the airport and Taksin’s friend took Pon straight through to check-in where a Cambodian customs officer waited to greet them. Taksin’s friend gave Pon strict instructions that once he’d left the terminal, he should give the official one of the envelopes, and the other envelope was to be given to a Thai official when he left Utapao
Pon was taken through the airport and he and the official were just waved through at check-in. The official just nodded at the staff and went straight through the detectors, which rang as Pon went through. Pon had covered his sword with paper, but it was easily recognised as a sword. He went through the departure lounge and on to a small supply vehicle on the tarmac.
“Okay,” said the Cambodian, holding out his hand. Pon gave him the envelope written in Cambodian. The man hurriedly folded it and placed it in his pocket. Pon then sat on the little truck that drove to the waiting aeroplane. Nervously, Pon went up the small stairway and entered the fuselage. Pon was greeted by a smartly dressed Thai woman, who showed him to a seat at the rear of the plane. She could see Pon was anxious, so she reassured him by telling him that he had the safest seat on the plane.
“Aeroplanes never backed into mountains” she chuckled,
This bit of light-hearted banter didn’t help, and Pon was terrified. She buckled him into the seat, and he stared out of the window, not daring to move. He’d sat on the plane alone for about 30 minutes and then a large bus pulled up and the other passengers started filing onto the plane. Still nervous, he stared out of his window as the jet engines started up. The plane started to taxi down the runway. ‘This wasn’t too bad,’ thought Pon, as the plane hurtled down the runway and then suddenly went airborne. Pon was fluent in Thai, Cambodian, Burmese and ancient Siamese language and he was screaming in all four at the top of his voice, “STOP! STOP!”
The plane touched down 90 minutes later at Utapao airport, with Pon still clutching onto his armrest. The flight attendant closed the window blind, so he couldn’t see outside. That didn’t help, but at least he had stopped screaming. He felt a bump when they landed, which made him jump. He was just about to scream again, thinking they had hit the sun, when the flight attendant came and opened the blind.
“Look,” she said, “we have landed.”
An Immigration official got onto the plane, he and Pon remained there until the other passengers had disembarked, and led Pon off the plane and onto another small service vehicle that drove them the short distance to the small terminal. They stopped at the side of the terminal at a small hut. They entered through one door, went through a door opposite and straight outside to the front of the airport. Pon handed the man the other envelope. The man smiled and went back inside the office.
Pon sat down under a tree and removed the map that Taksin’s friend had given him of the Eastern seaboard. He noticed a straight road marked from Utapao to Sattahip and through to Pattaya. He had never read a map before, but a quick lesson in the airport car park by Taksin’s friend, he thought it looked easy, and he was right, but the road, which was only about an inch on the map, was in reality about 40kms. He decided to walk.