Traveling Adventures

We have returned home from our winter break to sunny Thailand.  I think it is excellent to take a few weeks every year when you are sick to death of being cold and throw on your t-shirt and shorts and go sit in the sunshine in 80 degree weather!!  That is what we did.

Getting there was a bit of a challenge.  Rob had some meetings that the kids and I weren't involved in so he left us for the  sunshine about 5 days early.  This left the kids and I traveling alone.  No worries, I have big kids who pull luggage and are EXCELLENT travelers. 

The night before we left I washed dishes and finished everything but cleaning my house, we weren't to leave until 2pm the next day so all I had to do was clean and pack a small bag, Rob had taken all our clothes in the big suitcases so I wouldn't have to carry the heavy load. (what a great guy!)  About 7:45 on the morning we were to leave, I get a phone call from my sweet mother -in-law telling me the airline had just called her and my afternoon flight had been cancelled, but there were still seats on the noon plane, the last one to leave our city.  What choice did I have?  I called the airline and by the time I got through and confirmed the seats, it  was 8:30.  I live an hour and a half from the airport and of course needed to be at the airport early which gave us exactly 1 hour to leave the house, and be gone for 2 weeks.  My brother promised he would clean up for me, which he did, we showered, grabbed our bags and headed out the door. We made it to the airport just in time and made our flight.

Then....instead of having an hour layover....we had 8 hours.  We had been told there was a new Starbucks that had just opened in this airport. So everyone agreed we could sit in there, drink coffee, eat a donut and hang out til our flight. PROBLEM.  The airport attendant told me it was in the international terminal, which was great, because we were flying internationally, but he was wrong. It was in the domestic terminal.  So, we went through immigration, and were then stuck in a small international terminal where all we could do was pay $5 for water and wait for HOURS with no food/dinner!!!   We hadn't eaten breakfast because we rushed out the door and hadn't eaten dinner becasue there was no place to eat.  Finally we boarded the plane and made it to Bangkok.  At 11pm we checked into our hotel, bought some snacks in the convenient store of the hotel and headed up to our room.  If only my story ended there....

Our room key said 712A.  Upon arrival of the 7th floor, I scan the doors and spot 712.  I slide my key in the door and get a red light. Slide it again, red light. I try the handle and the door opens.  We all 3 start heading in the room when we see a suitcase and a man in the bed.  Whoops!  We backpeddle very quickly trying not to wake up the person sleeping in the room.  That was when I see 712A right next door.  We all laugh and finally get to sleep.

Day 2: Our next leg of the trip was a train.  I bought train tickets online and was supposed to pick them up at the airport. PROBLEM: the tickets were on the airport complex, not actually inside the airport.  No one mentioned that on the website where I bought the tickets.  And sadly, I don't speak Thai.  I must admit, however, living in a foreign country teaches you to perfect and hone your Charades skills, so I finally found out how to get where I was going, it just involved 2 different buses and a public transportation center.  Again, on this day, being the good mom I am, there was no breakfast. Hudson scavenged some Ritz crackers for us at the hotel convenient store, but we were fading fast.  After a long ordeal I finally retrieved my train tickets and we had some time to kill, making our way through Bangkok until the train left.

The highlight of the day was the mall we found which had a Sizzler (we love Sizzler's salad buffet!) and a Cold Stone Creamery.  Since it was 2pm and we were famished we enjoyed both places!  And then we picked up some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast the next morning.  It was quite a treat for us!

At 7pm we arrived at the train station to board our train, which was to leave at 7:30.  We piled on the train and found our car mostly empty, which is nice! However, 5 minutes before the train was to leave a group of high school girls on a field trip with their school piled in our car. We had an extra bed in our room (every room in the car has 2 bunk beds) but we don't think any of them wanted to stay with us, so the 3 of us had our room to ourselves. YEA!!  7:30 rolled around and our train didn't leave. 8:00pm, still at the station. 8:30, yep, still there.  I wished so much that I could speak to those around me, but alas I have spent 3 years learning a different language, and was left to be in the dark for those hours.  Finally at 9:00pm the train rolls out of the station, only to go 5 minutes forward, putter to a stop, then go backwards into the station again.  We sat there for another hour before finally leaving for good.  We ended up on the train for 16 hours....which was fine while we slept, but not fine for hours 13-16  while Hudson was ready to get up and run around!! 

After quite a long 2 days...we finally arrived at our destination and found Rob who was waiting for us, a little worried about where we were and why we hadn't arrived on time.  Despite it all.....seeing the sunshine and feeling the warmth was worth every minute of those 2 days!