Thailand - Part 4

We were sad to leave Phuket but Bangkok was waiting. The airport was much busier, bigger and international than Phuket's touristy one.

Carli's dad had business in Bangkok later in the week so his Thai colleagues had offered to give us tours of Bangkok. And pick us up at the airport to take us to the hotel.

Last year there were riots in Bangkok and the increased security and number of checkpoints at the hotel were a lasting result. The staff were very polite about everything. The hotel was completely different from the tropical one in Phuket. I definitely felt like I was in a big city.

The business associates (BA's) took us to a dinner cruise that night. It was pouring rain and we had to run to the boat under one umbrella which would have been okay if we'd gone in a couple of groups. Amidst all the bustling everyone huddled under the one umbrella and we all ended up on the boat with at least one body part soaking wet. My back was completely wet. It was like I'd just had my hair washed.

The appetizers were great (lots of fruit) but the main course was not to my liking. I'm really picky about how seafood is prepared...

The river at night. It was really hard to get a non-blurry shot.

Towards the end of the cruise there was a Thai dance performance.

Ahh, fruit.

Since it was the Queen's birthday, and therefore Thai Mothers' Day, we got to see fireworks in her honor.

The next day two BA's, Boy and Mam (English nicknames), drove us an hour or so outside of the city to see the water market. I don't know how we would have managed to get there on our own so I was so grateful for everything they did for us. They were very nice people and their English was skills were great as well.

At the water market, vendors have stalls lined up next to the river and the BA's rented us a boat. We had someone paddle us around while we looked at the merchandise. It was like nothing I'd ever seen. Great experience. Plus, haggling with the vendors was fun.

We saw an elephant being led down the street as we drove to lunch. It was surprising and sad. I think in general they're not treated very well. This one was just walking though.

We had lunch here:

The decor was vintage-y in a really western way.

The BA's paid for everything. They also bought us lots of fruit at the water market- mangosteens, pomelos and things that looked like green lychees and kind of tasted like grapes. I was so happy to eat so much fruit. I think over the course of the trip I may have eaten my body weight in fruit... It's really expensive in Japan. I once saw a melon priced at 4000 yen. That's more than $40!

The next day we went to the palace with the BA, Opas, who picked us up from the airport. He also got us an English speaking guide to take us around. There were a lot of Buddhist references in the statues and artwork and our guide was able to explain all of the stories to us. Opas even said he learned some things. It is a beautiful palace.

The palace is heavily guarded.

Opas and I with the Lettrich family, posing like mythical castle guards.

Our guide told us that one of the Kings of Thailand wanted to see

Angkor Wat so he had a small scale replica built of it.

More silly posing...

A mural of one of the stories of Buddha.

Us and our lovely guide.

It was, however, really hot and we were dripping sweat by the end (ew, gross. I know). We went to lunch directly after and were feeling the intense dehydration. I was not feeling the least bit hungry. (We were still enjoying buffet breakfasts at the hotel minus the coconuts...).

After lunch we went to a museum which housed some really decadent and elaborate pieces made from gold and diamonds and beetle wings. Yes, beetle wings. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. I thought the collection was an extended period of time in the making but it turned out that they'd all ben made within the last 5-10 years. They were commissioned for the King and Queen's various royal anniversaries. While they seemed somewhat self-indulgent to us that didn't make them any less spectacular.

As for the rest of Bangkok, we wandered around and haggled some more for souvenirs, explored a mall and went to the 5th floor outdoor pool in our hotel. It's decorated to look like it's in a tropical setting and was fairly convincing except for the skyline of high rise buildings visible over the walls and the sound of cars and heavy traffic coming from below.

And then it was time for us to go home. The rain poured as we left for the airport. It seemed to mirror our feelings. We definitely did not want to go back to work.

We got some pomelo in the airport, trying to hold onto the vacation feeling but it already tasted blander than the fruit we'd had at the water market.

Well, at least I've got my pictures.

That's it for Thailand. What an adventure, huh? Now I'm off to Bali, Indonesia this coming week so I'll keep you posted on that!

Thailand- Part 3

Phuket

We landed in Phuket around 1am, just 4 hours later than we were originally supposed to get there. In disbelief, we deplaned, still too nervous to be happy. Once we were at the hotel, we would sigh with relief but after everything we'd gone through, every hoop we'd jumped through the trip from the gate to the hotel could be rife with other obstacles. We were too disillusioned to hope for the best.

It turns out we could have. The line through immigration took a while (especially when the man in charge of our line disappeared for a moment) but we made it through. Our bags were some of the last to come out but none were missing.

As we entered the arrivals lobby our ears were assaulted by the calls of taxi drivers trying to catch the last, possibly stranded, crowd of people emerging from the airport. Fortunately, the hotel had sent someone to pick us up. In a silver BMW. With chilled bottles of water. If we hadn't be so humbled by the events of the day we might have smirked and even laughed at the poor people climbing into taxis. But we didn't dare. We just collapsed with relief and chugged the water.

On the way to the hotel the driver called the front desk so that they could ask Carli's mom if everything was satisfactory. "Beyond satisfactory!" "Soooo great!" "Wonderful!" we all gushed.

As we neared the hotel, we saw candles floating in a pond and the most glorious front desk I've ever seen. The second the car stopped someone opened our doors, had our luggage on a rack and were ushering us to a golf cart as we followed in a daze. We took a round about way to the rooms that probably took as much time as it would have to walk. When the woman opened the door to our room we barely held it together. She took our names and information whil e we gawked at the plush beds with tons of down pillows, the flat screen TV that I don't think we turned on once, the wraparound couch and the coffee table with, oh my! a bowl of fruit! A bowl of fruit with fruit we'd never even seen. And silverware. Nice, heavy, sturdy silverware. Not the cheap silverware from the 100 yen store that the school bought for my apartment. And cloth napkins! With a really high thread count, not the thin, ratty napkins... well, you get the idea.

The green apple was the only fruit I recognized

but those furry little things are the rambutans.

I might have eaten a pound of those over the whole trip...

The woman had her information, wished us a good night and took her leave. As soon as the door we silently screamed, jumped up and down and stamped our feet like kids or like some adults in cheesy rom-com movies. And we hadn't even seen the bathroom! We of course checked that out once we stopped silent screaming. Huge!

Rainfall showerhead!

Biiiig bathtub.

After we both had a shower under the rainfall showerhead we snuggled into our robes and tried the fruit. Some of it was hard to eat (not sure if we knew which parts were edible or not) but we really liked the rambutans. Soon our adrenaline rush had worn off and we decided to head to bed. Literally head to bed. Not head to futon on the floor. I took a running start and launched myself into bed and landed on some of the plushest pillows my head has ever rested on.

My bed was the one on the right. Can you see the indentation

from where I launched myself onto it?

It was an unbelievable day. A real rollercoaster ride but not the thrilling kind. The under construction kind with no visible end, so you're not sure when you'll get off and how high up you'll be when it stops. Unimaginably grateful for having made it to Phuket only 4 hours behind schedule we took some time to sing Aerosmiths' "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" to fully capture our feelings at the moment just before we drifted off to sleep.

***

The next day Carli's mom burst in at 8am. Usually I'm dead to the world at that time but she went on and on about what a beautiful day it was and I was curious to see Thailand in the actual sunlight. Plus she'd opened up our curtains and the sun was kind of hard to block out. I went out on the balcony, camera in hand, to see what kind of view we had. Here it is:

As you can see, my camera lens got fogged up in the humidity.

We then went down to breakfast where I drank out of a coconut,

Yes indeed, that is a coconut.

and had so much delicious food I was practically full for the rest of the day.

Let's see, what do we have here... Dragonfruit smoothie,

eggs benedict, crepe, plate of watermelon and dragon fruit, plate

of bacon and potatoes... Mmmm... Just looking at this

picture is turning me into a drooling Homer Simpson.

Next stop, the pool. Correction, Infinity Pool. Next to the beach. We laid out here the whole day and then went to a place called Kindee's for dinner where they coincidentally (or not?) played Aerosmith's "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing."

So beautiful. And look at the color of that ocean!

The next day we had our elephant excursion. We got to see how rice is harvested and learned about the different uses of coconut.

Husking rice.

We snatched up that coconut half. The water/milk was quite refreshing.

I also rode a water buffalo.

Well, he didn't actually go anywhere so I guess

I just sat on a water buffalo. They are big.

The baby elephants had a little show.

Definitely don't look like babies to me!

Then we rode our own elephant. Her name was "Pumpkin" in Thai.

Isn't she sweet?

Later we had a dinner cruise.

We took a bus ride down to the end of the pier

where the boat was waiting. Would have been a long walk.

Another fabulous day complete.

On a different day we went on a sea canoe excursion with John Gray's Sea Canoes. We got to take the canoes through caves into the lagoons that were in the center of islands.

The lagoons were actually very big.

Can't even tell we're INSIDE OF AN ISLAND.

Our guide went by the name of Golf and he snapped

lots of pictures of us. He is also responsible for

the orchid in my hair.

We also saw these fish called "mudfish." They swim in water and kind of waddle on the sand. I thought they were cute.

Later our guide made us a kratong. We floated it in one of the lagoons after nightfall and light candles. You're suppose to make a wish and if the kratong floats out to sea it will come true and if it comes back to you it won't. I think those rules apply if you do it from shore. Not sure what will happen if you do it when you're in a canoe... Anyway it was a great little side trip. The lagoons were so quiet. They reminded me of the Zelda game for GameCube, "Windwaker" where you have to play a song and the wind lifts you up and carries you to the inside of an island. I know nerdy but I totally thought of that inside the lagoon. We even saw a couple of monkeys on the cliffs but they were tiny dots because they were so far away.

You can't see the base but it's made out of banana tree trunk.

I really liked the smell.

Other than the light from our kratongs, it was pitch black.

Although if you splashed the water you could see phosphorescent plankton!

Also, I'm pretty sure I touched the top of a jellyfish ... and almost drowned Carli in the process of trying to get away. Ahem, sorry Carli.

Phuket was absolutely amazing. One of the best, if not the best tropical place I've ever visited. We were sad to leave but next was Bangkok. So we hopped on a flight and headed that way.

Stay tuned for the fourth and final update where we board a different kind of canoe and tackle the water markets of Bangkok. And more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I guess Thanksgiving has come and gone. However, I wanted to let you all know that unlike last year I did not end up eating curry and rice to celebrate the wonderful food-filled holiday. My friends and I went to Okayama to visit our friend, Branda, who had managed to secure two roast chickens from a Peruvian bar/club/restaurant. I thought they tasted a little bit like El Pollo Loco but they were comforting nonetheless and we never could have baked a turkey without a real oven. That is, if we could have even found one...

I baked two pumpkin pies before going to Okayama. From scratch! How about that? We also made green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, broccoli, stuffing, and mac and cheese. We bought canned cranberry sauce. Some of Branda's friends came too so we had about ten people in her apartment. One of my friends, Hillary, had her mom send her festive paper plates. We had cheese plates and rolls before (and after) and drank lots of red wine and ate delicious food. It was the next best thing to actually being home for a real Thanksgiving.

Branda even found a poinsettia!

Mmmmm…. Yummy, yummy cheese! And there's the wine I was talking about.

P.S. The Thailand saga will continue soon….

Thailand- Part 2

We landed in China and were quite surprised to see that the sun was shining and the ground was dry save for maybe a puddle. Seriously, like one puddle. Maybe.

We were directed over to the transfer desk and after waiting in line for who knows how long they told us our flight had already departed.

Yeah... we knew. We needed a new flight.

Well, we couldn't get one at the transfer desk. We had to go to the airline counter.

So we went through Chinese immigration (btw, the girls @ Hiroshima airport said they'd forward our bags to Bangkok because they'd already assured us that we'd make it there) sans luggage and found chaos at the airline counters. I forget how long we were actually at each counter but I know we were in Shanghai for around another 6 hours.

We got in line and heard about how so many other people couldn't leave for days because the flights were full. Not exactly bolstered with confidence we approached the counter... only to find that the next flight apparently wasn't till Tuesday night (it was Sunday).

No.

Uh, uh yes. The next flight was was Tues-

No, they promised us we'd make it to Bangkok. We're getting on a flight today.

We were told to go to the supervisor desk. So off we go to the supervisor desk where they confirmed the next flight was, in fact, Tuesday.

Well, what about a waiting list?

Oh yes, we could be put on one of those and we'd have to check back an hour before departure time.

And our bags...?

Well, they'd obviously missed the flight too so they were waiting for us downstairs. We were also invited to check out their partner airline because we could possibly get on one of their flights.

Couldn't they call and ask?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was impossible.

Right...

So we collected our bags and made the 15 minute trek to the other terminal where they told us their flights were full but that the next one was Monday night. We decided to see if we could get a refund for our other tickets. So we went back to the supervisor desk and they said we could but it'd be better to see if we could get on the flight leaving tonight.

Still another two hours to go.

What were our chances?

They couldn't say. It was hard to tell plus it depended on how many people didn't show up.

How many flights were leaving that night?

Three.

Any to Phuket?

No.

Could we get on a waiting list for all of the flights?

Oh, we wanted to do that? Yes, we could.

We decided to check the flight times and saw that our airline had plenty of other flights going to Thailand. Some even going to Phuket! Liars! So we wrote down the flight numbers and times.

We headed back to the supervisor's desk, again, and confronted them with our evidence of other flights.

Ah, those are with the partner airline.

Well, could we be wait-listed for those too?

Yes, but not at that flight counter.

Why not? Their name was on the flight.

Well, yes, but it wasn't their flight.

If it's under their name how could it not be their flight?

Ahem, to be wait-listed for those flights we'd have to go to the other terminal again.

Feeling an odd combination of hope and exhaustion we hurried back to the other terminal and spoke to the same man who told us to ask for a refund. He directed us to their supervisor's desk.

The woman at that desk was working her a$$ off. The first person we saw who actually looked like they cared. She was making phone calls left and right, trying to help multiple, disgruntled people at a time.

Unfortunately, due to all of the chaos, the line system was abandoned and we were constantly being looked over.

Carli's mom tore some of them a new one and we got ourselves the waiting list to Bangkok and Phuket (finally something positive)! We were just hoping to get to Bangkok. We were prepared to spend a night there then head to Phuket in the morning.

We hastily put our names down and felt our hopes rising.

She told us our odds were pretty good but we'd have to wait until an hour before the flight left which meant about one hour left of nervous nail biting, frantic pacing and frequent glances at the clock. We knew we were on the waiting list for Bangkok but oh! if we could get on the flight to Phuket...

After we waited the hour we went back up to the counter. She told us she still didn't know about the flight to Bangkok, we told her we actually would prefer to go to Phuket.

Oh... well we could definitely get on the flight. Score!! She started punching in information and it seemed to good to be true.

When the woman next to her said that if there were seats on the Bangkok flight we would have to take those since that was our original destination. NOOOOOOOOOOOO, we were so close.

But Phuket was our final destination! I pulled out our certificates of delay and our confirmation for the original Phuket flight. We were supposed to change airlines in Bangkok but because our flight to Shanghai was delayed, as evidenced by this paper, we missed our flight to Bangkok and our flight to Phuket was supposed to leave in about 5 minutes and we were obviously going to miss that. Please, we just wanted to go to Phuket.

To have that possibility dangled in front of us and then so suddenly dashed aside... I think she saw how desperate we were. She made several phone calls and finally, with a smile, handed us our boarding passes. We could have hugged her. Instead, we gave her some cookies from Hiroshima, which stunned her, and thanked her profusely.

But we had to hurry because boarding was in 15 minutes and we still had to go through security which had quite the line.

We had all of our documents ready to hand in as we looked at our watches ever five seconds and the line was moving sooo slowly. 15 minutes later all 3 of us were through security. We literally ran to the gate, got on the bus and grinned at everyone as we made our way to our seats in disbelief.

None of us had ever been so happy to eat airline food and chicken with rice had never tasted so good.

Oddly, the "full" flight that we had managed to get on had enough seats so that we all were next to one another and five out of six of the back rows were completely empty. The next flight is on Tuesday, my foot.

Stay tuned for the next installment where we actually make it to Thailand!

Thailand - Part 1

Well, this part doesn't actually take place in Thailand. Allow me to explain: Although Thailand was a very enjoyable trip, getting there was no easy feat. This entry will cover the Hiroshima leg of the journey.

I went to Thailand with Carli and her family (thanks for letting me tag along, Kim and Jeff!) for summer vacation. A couple of days before we left, Carli said there was supposed to be a typhoon in China (where we had a layover) but we couldn't find anything about it on the weather channel and the airline never mentioned anything so we were not terribly concerned.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 9:20am and since the airport is a 45 minute bus ride away we were up bright and early. We arrived at the airport with time to spare, headed to the check in counter, and heard that there was in fact a typhoon in China and if we would please "wait" to hear more details.

Wait? For how long?

The woman at the counter didn't know. She said maybe the flight would leave late or maybe it would be cancelled. We just needed to wait.

Wait. Uh-huh.

We told them that our final destination that day was Phuket and wanted to know if we would arrive on time. They checked the computer and said we were going to Bangkok.

Yes, we knew, with that airline but we had another flight booked to Phuket from Bangkok.

Ah, well, we would probably miss that flight but when they knew our boarding time they could give us a "certificate of delay" to show the other airline. Hopefully, after seeing that they would change our flight free of charge.

Uh-huh... So when could we get that?

Not right then because they didn't know our departure time.

Oh, that's right. Plus the flight still could have been cancelled. We asked if they had any idea when we would be able to leave.

They hoped around 2 (it was about 8:30 when we were speaking to them) because the airport in Shanghai was closed.

So we wanted to know if we would make it to Bangkok that night.

Yes.

Could they get us onto another flight out of Shanghai since we'd obviously miss the one we had?

No, no, no, no, no. That would have to be done at Shanghai.

But it was the same airline?

Sorry, impossible.

Right...

Any chance we could have just been rerouted?

Rerouted? They looked at us like we were crazy. (I say "they" because the supervisor had showed up a while back when our questions looked like they might make the girl who was originally helping us, cry).

The supervisor disappeared for a moment to see if we could be rerouted after laughing again at the idea. (Seriously, it was like they couldn't wrap their heads around the prospect of keeping the starting point and destination the same but changing the way to get there).

She returned to say that with our tickets it was impossible and we would just have to wait.

Wait. Right, back to that again.

We sat down to wait. I checked my email and oh? There were two emails from the airline saying, what's that? there was inclement weather in Shanghai and our flight time would be changed. How nice of them to send the email after I'd already left for the airport.

So we waited and waited and waited.

Finally, they made an announcement that we would leave at 2:15. Just five hours later than scheduled. We headed through security and to the gate. But hey, what about the certificates of delay? I went up to the boarding counter and asked the woman there about them.

What? She didn't know what I was talking about.

I explained the situation to her and told her the ladies at the front told us once they knew the departure time for our flight they would give us proof that we had been delayed. As if the fact that there was typhoon in the city we were supposed to land it wasn't enough.

Still clueless, she called the front and Ohhhhhh! There, it clicked. She put down the phone and ran away to fetch our proof on paper. When she returned, she had the three pieces of paper and apologized as she handed them to us. She hadn't understood what I was talking about.

So we boarded the plane and were off to China. Oh, and the plane departed after 2:15 but when you've been waiting for 5+ hours what's another 20 minutes?

Right?

....

right?

I wish I could say the adventure stopped in Shanghai and reason restored itself but this was not the case. Stay tune for part 2 where we still don't actually make it to Thailand....

Mom Visits Me in Japan

During June my mom came and visited me here. We went to Tokyo, Kobe and Miyajima. My mom also went to Kyoto and Osaka by herself (way to go, Mom)! We had a great time. We went to Tokyo Disneyland, had Kobe beef, and climbed to the top of the Mt. Misen at Miyajima. We even caused a little incident on the shinkansen (bullet train) when my mom put lemon into her diet coke and it fizzed up. She had trouble putting the cap back on and I tried to help but instead I knocked it off. The soda sprayed on the window like at a car wash. There was a small puddle of soda on the floor that one of the staff members cleaned up with paper towels later. We were laughing so hard but none of the Japanese people on the train batted an eye. It was like they hadn't even noticed!

Evidence.

Some custard momiji on Miyajima.

Random statue of Elvis in Kobe.

We ate at a buffet in Kobe and they had my favorite- crab!

Me and Mom outside of a shrine in Tokyo.

We had traditional tea at a garden too.

The world, lit up, at DisneySea.

We got little Duffy and ShellieMae (DisneySea bears) teacups with dinner.

We ate at the Cape Cod Cook-Off. Apparently.

Outside the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride. Twas fun!

We got some nice treats at the Tokasan festival in Hiroshima.

That's all for now. See you in the next post!