Getting to Thailand

I really don't even know how to begin sharing about our trip, so I guess I'll just start at the beginning.

It's weird to be sitting here on the other side of the trip - a trip we've been dreaming about and planning for over a year. Even though we had no idea what we would encounter, we had many expectations and hopes for this trip.

 But in all honesty, the trip was HARD. Traveling that far is hard and exhausting. Not only did our entire trip include 10 flights, we also spent a lot of time driving through Thailand and it felt like we were constantly on the go. It was also HOT...hot, hot, hot. The Thai language is nearly impossible to understand or imitate. There is nothing "cuddly" about nature in Thailand. Real Thai food is spicy (like burn your lips off spicy). You can't seem to drink enough water. Driving in Thailand is quite an adventure - no traffic laws to speak of. 

Anyway, we made it there and back and will remember this trip forever.

We woke up early Wednesday morning - March 19 - to catch our first flight. It was a short flight to Seattle, and then we had a 4 hour layover before the LONG (11 hour) flight to Tokyo. We were all a little anxious about that flight, but it was a new plane with plenty of room and great service. We all had personal tv screens and each watched several movies. They fed us twice, and before we knew it we were in Japan. We had a 3 hour layover, so we walked the airport and grabbed some sushi and tempura.

One of the gift shops had an origami display and I really liked this "garden".

Then we had another long flight (7 hours) to Bangkok and it was on United - not nearly as nice as All Nippon. Thankfully, we were all very tired and slept the majority of the flight. 

We arrived in Bangkok at midnight and headed to the nearby hotel for the night. We had a little bit of time to look around the hotel in the morning before catching yet another flight to Chiang Mai.

All our flights within Thailand were with Bangkok Airways...although the staff and airline agents were super friendly, the flights were unpredictable - 3 out of 4 ended up being delayed. They had nice lounges for their travelers (something you don't see with American airlines unless you pay a lot more), and they served a meal even on a one hour flight. But they transported you by bus to and from each plane, so you were completely at their mercy when it came to catching your next flight. You couldn't get off the plane and run - you had to load a shuttle and then wait for every single person to get off the plane. 

There was quite a bit of smog in Chiang Mai and we ended up being delayed over an hour. I was very frustrated because my phone (despite calling Verizon before we left) was not able to make calls so I couldn't call Compassion and let them know we'd be late meeting up with Orm. And despite several attempts to figure out the public phone, I felt defeated and was worried we'd end up missing Orm altogether. Finally I asked a complete stranger if I could use their phone to make an in-country call. I got a hold of the Compassion translator and made new plans to meet them all at the airport. 

View (our translator), a Compassion staff worker who traveled with Orm, Orm, and the rest of us. Apparantly Orm's mom couldn't travel with Orm to meet us. 

Below is the same group, only with our friend Karen Eubank instead of View. (I'm sure that's now how you spell his name, but that's how it's pronounced so I'm going with it....)

I'll write more about our time with Orm in the next post.