Heading to the airport bar when your flight gets delayed isn’t a bad choice. Going on a 43-day bender, leading to multiple arrests and a missing person report is, at best, a questionable choice.
Uthai Waenbarb, a 36-year-old Thai chef, made that decision after his flight home got delayed five days. He had been working in a Hungarian restaurant and the setback occurred at the stopover flight in Moscow.
Upon news of the delay, old mate hit the airport bar which he was soon kicked out of. Ever the fighter, and owner of a 30-day visa to stay in the country, Uthai decided to bend through his troubles.
He slept on the street, was arrested here and there and eventually found work as a garbage collector so he could ‘save money for a flight home’. Through all this, he was still drinking and says he doesn’t remember a lick of it.
“I was so upset after being told by the airline to wait five days that I decided to drink,” he said of his adventure, as reported by The Mirror. “After that, I cannot remember anything but losing my passport.”
Uthai was eventually found in Khimi City, around 27km from his first-beer starting point of Moscow Airport. Two locals who found him wandering the streets guided him to the local Thai embassy.
“I have no idea how I went to Khimki,” he admitted. “I just remember I was arrested by police a couple of times.”
According to his family, who filed a missing person report around a week into his bender, he did not speak any Russian and barely any English, so it’s quite a miracle he’s still alive.
“We were so worried because we checked and knew he had taken the flight from Hungary but not the flight in Moscow,” his sister-in-law said. “He can't speak Russian, Hungarian and only a little English. I don't know how he survived.''
Around six weeks after the delayed flight, Uthai made it home, into the loving arms of his family.
Godspeed sir, godspeed.
