Thailand Adventures Part 1-Getting There

We recently returned from our fabulous two week trip to Thailand. While there I wrote cryptic messages to my family on my ipod. I have never mastered texting and so the messages where more like telegrams.

GETTING THERE

Feb. 19
Howdy,
      We will all be in Thailand Feb 21-March 7. I wanted to give you a brief itinerary, so that you know where we are. We will also have email at almost every hotel. So if you haven't heard from us by the middle of March, start looking for us. ;)
Kwaj to Guam 21
Guam to Thailand via Japan 22
Bangkok 22-25
Overnight train to Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai and surrounding towns 26-29
Start driving south back to Bangkok
Lampang 1
Sukhothai 2
Ayuthaya 3
Bangkok 4-5
Thailand to Guam via Japan 6
Guam to Kwaj 7

      For those of you counting that is a total of EIGHT hotels, nine if you include the train ride, which I do. :) I might need a vacation after this vacation. I will definitely have to break my habit of setting up shop at each hotel. [insert Yoda voice] Learn how to live out of my bag, I must.

Feb. 22

Hard to write on my tiny iPod. Going great. Hotel is awesome. Room (house really) bigger than MA home. 2 bathrooms, 2 tubs, 3 tv, washer/dryer, full kitchen! Details when real computer. Look up Ascott Hotel in Bangkok, 2 bedrm executive. Really as beautiful as pics. Delicious free breakfast for all. All $200 night. Flight from Kwajalein to Guam brutal. Josiah vomit 8x. Flight attendant meanest EVER. Guam nice. Japan flight hard and nice same time. Only complaint is all beds like sleeping on bricks! Good thing massage everywhere and cheap. ILY

The flight out of Kwajalein to Guam is awful, because you have to make 3 stops (Kosrae, Pohnpei, & Chuuk). Thankfully, they let you stay on the airplane with children. However, they do this completely illogical safety check. At each stop, you empty out the overhead bin, then you remove everything from one side of the airplane. Then after they have done a sweep and deemed it safe, you repeat the process on the other side.
Each leg is only 1-2 hours and then you are on the ground for an hour. Normally, I'd be thrilled to have such short flights, but it made it so that even though Eva (1) was exhausted she never got a nap, because each time she would finally fall asleep, we'd start to descend and her ears would hurt or we'd land and they'd make us do that illogical side swap. Plus, it made it so that Josiah (6) was never able to recover from his motion sickness and not only did he vomit each ascent and descent, but he felt sick the entire day.
He ended up vomiting eight times on the flight. One of us was devoting our entire attention to him and the task of making sure vomit gets in the bag and nowhere else, which we managed and I assure you, is no small undertaking. Even with that ordeal, the children were fantastic. We have flown extensively with them and are usually complimented on how well they behave, so you can imagine my complete shock when I was reprimanded by one of the flight attendants. She had been in first class almost the whole time and hadn't even been around to see how good the children were during the flight.
About 3 hours into the flight, I had to take one of my children to the bathroom. When I got back to my seat a child asked for something in the overhead bin. It was my first time to go to the bathroom or get in the overhead bin and there were other passengers using the loo, as well. While getting my bag, the devil flight attendant, swooped up next to me seething with anger and barked, "Sit down! You all just do what you want." I was completely confused and caught off guard, because we hadn't been approached before saying we were doing anything wrong. When I realized the seat belt sign was on I sincerely said, "I'm sorry I forgot." She glared at me incredulously and angrily insisted, "You did not forget. You just do whatever you want." She was calling me a liar! I tried to explain the situation and that in trying to meet the needs of five kids, one of which is ill and vomiting, I did indeed just forget. I got two words in before she marched away. If I had repeatedly been disregarding their instructions, her behavior would have been more understandable, but since this was my first offense, I would expect a more gentle approach. Is it too much to ask to be treated with some courtesy and respect? I suppose compassion isn't her strong suit.
Thankfully, after 7 hours of torture we were able to have a nice night in Guam. We went to our first restaurant since summer of 2011. Note to self: Must learn how to make frittelle. Our flight the next day was late enough that the children were able to play for an hour at the hotel's water park, before our 4 hr flight to Japan.

View from Hotel in Guam

Isaac (12)

Caleb (9)

Josiah (6)

Rachel's (4) Attempt

Eva (1) watching them at the park

She also helped me unpack

Japan's airport was wonderful. They had playrooms for the children and the bathrooms were awesome. I love their fancy toilets. I never thought I'd use the word fancy in the same sentence as toilet, but yes, they were that good. We didn't have time to sit and eat a meal, which is a shame because their huge bowl of soup and noodles looked great. Instead, we grabbed some over-priced food to go. My chicken basil sandwich tasted less of basil and more of horseradish. I actually don't mind the stuff, so enjoyed it, just found it a little odd. The boys' hot dogs were so skinny, they could loop them into a circle. Not that it mattered much, because they were also slathered in horseradish and no surprise, weren't really a favorite. The kids choked down their hot dogs, because they were really hungry. Then to our delight, we were served a full meal. I know airplane food isn't the best, but it has been forever since we were served a complimentary meal. The kind with real silverware. It only gets better. Not only were the Japanese flight attendants some of the nicest I have ever experienced, but each seat had its own entertainment center. The airplane even had a camera so you could watch what was happening outside. The kid's faces were beaming in delight watching take-off from their monitor. The flight was almost perfection...Eva screamed/fussed for an hour or two before finally falling asleep, but considering no vomit was involved during the 7 hour flight, I don't think it could have gotten much better than that.

View from our hotel.

Not much traffic, because picture was taken on the weekend. We were only a 5 minute walk away from the sky train & there were plenty of taxis to be hailed.

Our hotel in Bangkok was amazing. We were greeted with a glass of fresh juice for everyone. There was a pool and a fabulous spa. Our "room" was possibly bigger than our house and was gorgeous. Each bathroom had a large, deep tub. The washer and dryer was great to have, however the average cycle time just for washing was 2+ hours! One day, it got stuck while we were sightseeing and it washed the clothes for ~7 hours.

The first thing we noticed about the people in Thailand is they are very gracious. Although we were in a big city, with lots of traffic, we never heard a horn honk. They also apparently love the color pink. This color is deemed worthy for chairs, shirts (men & women) and to Rachel's delight, even taxis! Not only was there an abundance of HOT pink taxis, but of motorcycles. Entire families, side saddle, riding holding a dog, holding a baby, you-name-it. The kids loved to watch them from our hotel room. The motorcycles would move their way up to the front at a red light and by the time it would turn green there would literally be ~50 motorcycles ready to take off. This would have been exciting to any child, but was more exciting since we live on an island with no traffic or cars.

Relaxing after 18 hours of flying