Day 1

After 24 hours of travel (IAD-NRT-BKK), we have arrived in Bangkok. I wish I could say it all went smoothly, but that wouldn't make for a very good story.

We started our adventure the night before we left when Jeff "misplaced" his passport. After frantically searching every bag and item in the house, we had just about decided it was locked up in storage when we thought to search the washing machine. There they were - 24 soaking wet pages. A towel and several minutes of blow drying returned the passport to almost new. Hopefully the authorities won't notice the smeared signature on Jeff's Visa when we get to India.

The next phase of the adventure began at Washington Dulles when the counter agent told us that we could not enter Thailand and stay there for three months without having a visa. We had planned to get a visa on arrival, and  never once planned to stay in Thailand for our entire trip. There was no convincing the counter agent of this without a "purchased" itinerary. So we called in reinforcements. Our favorite Asian saved the day by looking up a flight number that would have us depart Bangkok on December 1. Then all we had to do was swear up and down that we had actually purchased the tickets. I will note, that Thailand does not require a departure itinerary upon arrival. This was all United playing the CYA game.

Can you tell we're excited?

The last hiccup came in Narita. I should first mention that our favorite Asian upgraded Jeff and I to Business Class for both our IAD - NRT and our NRT - BKK legs. This was my fifth time flying between Dulles and Narita in about a month and a half, and can say that this was the only time I was surprised at how "short" the flight felt. Bless you Will, and bless you Business Class. However, you can only imagine how happy I was when Jeff was upgraded for the NRT - BKK leg and I wasn't. Thankfully, they upgraded me at the last minute and I was able to convince a nice man (sitting in an aisle seat) to switch seats with Jeff (who was sitting in a middle seat).

$20 for this large room, aircon, hot water, and a balcony.

Lotus Flower Towels

After all that, we are here. We've checked into an airport guest house for a steep $20 - they probably charge extra so they can pay the person who folds the towels into lotus flowers. Tomorrow afternoon we get on yet another plane to go to Chiang Mai for the Loi Kratong festival. We are super excited!

-Alexis