Late passengers, unite!

Despite having left our hotel at noon and having allotted ourselves 7 hours to make a 4.5 hour journey, we were running late.  Our ferry arrived to pick us up an hour later than scheduled, then took an additional hour in transit and the offload and loading time of passengers from ferry to bus was chaotic and took forever.

By the time we finally climbed aboard the bus that was to take us the final 40-minute leg of the trip to the airport, we figure ourselves to be scheduled to arrive 10 minutes too late for check-in.  However, we remained optimistic.  The British woman with the big hair, on the other hand, did not.

Already on the bus, Big Hair was yelling at the bus-ferry coordinator that the delay was ridiculous (which it was), that she had a flight to catch at 7:45pm (which we did as well), and that leaving at 6:45pm for a 40-minute ride was not going to get her there in time to check-in (which was technically correct, but again, we were optimistic). We calmly informed her that we were in the same position as she was, along with another passenger on the same bus (we'd become friends during our wait for the ferry).  Excitedly, Big Hair exclaimed that we should jump off the bus (that was still parked) and hire a taxi to speed us to the airport together.  Not only did we advise against it (our luggage had been stowed somewhere in the bowels of the bus already) and optimistically share our outlook with her, but the bus-ferry coordinator hopped aboard to tell her she'd make it "okay okay" and announced the bus' departure.

We were stuck.  And although we didn't admit it, Big Hair's frustration and panic had had its effect of wavering our outlook.  However, her volume alone had a secondary effect.

Thai travellers on the bus with us began to pull out their phones and tablets to try to help.  Our airline was called to see if anything could be done about our delay.  While Big Hair and the other passenger on our flight were checked in on an iPad.  With the local help we found on board, we discovered that while nothing could be done to accommodate our delay, our flight had been delayed anyway and it was now just a matter of checking our luggage in time.

When the airport finally rose into sight, all of us on the same flight got up and prepared to make a dash for the airline counter.  When the bus pulled in and stopped, all of the Thai passengers also rose from their seats--but kept the aisles clear to let us off first...AND they cheered us on and wished us well.

We flew through the doors and the initial x-ray scans and made it to the check-in counter...in time!  Big Hair was relieved (it actually wasn't until then that we learned her name) and we told ourselves we'd known it the whole time.

While the fact that we'd made it in time for our flight hadn't surprised us, the amazing help and hospitality we'd received from local Thai strangers absolutely wowed us.  Not only had they gone out of their way to use their own personal airtimes and data, they all courteously let us run off the bus first to catch our departure.  Sure it was very little in the grand scheme of things, but it really is the little things that count.