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Dicky & Terry 3rd Birthday Party |
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2023-03-31 |
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Dicky & Terry 3rd Birthday Cakes |
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2023-03-31 |
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Bangkok to Ban Rung |
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Once we got thru immigration, we quickly located Tong and had the driver pull the van up to passenger loading area.
Here, we reversed the drill from curbside LAX: Opened the boxes, and placed car seats and blankets into the van.
We got out of the airport and stopped at the first gas station we saw and let the kids run around for twenty minutes; their first freedom in two days. Pure joy!
The Dicky and Terry really took to Tong and Bing, respectively, and slept in their laps for the much of the trip.
At dawn we pulled into a little "truck stop" with a 7-Eleven, Amazon Cafe, and some small shops. We hit the restrooms, and got some coffee, fresh fruit and groceries.
These Amazon cafes have sprung up all over Thailand over the last several years — I hope they don't run out all of the mom and pop shops.
Far and away the most important purchase was a SIM card, giving us a Thailand phone number and internet access. One of the really nice differences from the states is the ability to buy " pay as you go" phone and internet service without a plan.
After this stop we drove a couple more hours and rolled into our front gate at 9:10 am — 39 hours door to door!
Then we unpacked the van, and with all the endorphin energy we had we began to clean the house. |
2023-03-29 |
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Amazon Cafe |
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2023-03-29 |
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Mom & Pop Shop |
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2023-03-29 |
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Phone & Internet! |
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2023-03-29 |
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Dicky awake in the back |
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2023-03-29 |
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Terry & Bing just waking up |
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2023-03-29 |
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Dawn rest stop |
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2023-03-29 |
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Bing |
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Tong's girlfriend
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2023-03-29 |
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Dicky uncooped |
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2023-03-29 |
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All smiles on the van |
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2023-03-29 |
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Cream welcomes us back |
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2023-03-29 |
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Entering the Kingdom |
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We arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport, just before midnight (1/28). which was just about 30 hours since we woke up in Escondido to begin the trip.
As [I noted a couple of days ago](/timeline/event/397), our driver was cool with us either staying the night in Bangkok, or pushing straight through to our house in Ban Rung. We opted for the latter, mostly because we were so excited to "get home."
But first, we had to deal with claiming our luggage, and passing thru customs and immigration.
Muu found a Asiana airlines liaison who was key in accomplishing all three steps:
* He got us two dollies large enough to hold our five bags, two boxes, and the guitar
* He literally pulled the bags and boxes off the baggage conveyor belt and loaded them on the dollies
* He walked us to the oversize baggage area to claim the guitar — he pushed one dolly, I pushed the other, and Muu pushed the boys in the stroller.
* My guitar was nowhere to be seen, so he called the baggage handlers on the plane and they sent a picture of my guitar in the hold, then hand carried it to us.
* He then walked us to customs where he got us to the front of the line and we were waived through in about 60 seconds after only one bag was x-rayed.
* Finally, he walked us to immigration
At immigration, the line for foreigners was "a mile long." With toddlers, you pretty much have to let everybody else deplane ahead of you, and even with the time we made up at customs, I still dreaded waiting in a long line with two irritable toddlers in a stroller that cannot hold them for long when they are determined to get out.
Not to mention the two dollies with 350 pounds luggage! I was beginning to think about how I wished I got the boys Thai passports before we left Thailand so they could skate thru the line for Thai citizens — which was three people deep — including Muu!
I suggested that Muu ask the Thai-line immigration officer if the kids could just enter as Thai citizens without Thai passports, but with their birth certificates.
Of course the answer was no — They would enter as US citizens and furthermore would have a 45-day visa on entry, at which point they would need to exit the country. They could then reenter on Thai passports, but for now they were tourists in their country of birth.
The exceedingly good news was that the officer processed all four of us. She stamped Muu in and issued 45-day tourist visas to me and the twins. Another stroke of luck! |
2023-03-29 |
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Preparations in Thailand for our arrival |
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This week was a buzz of activity: Muu who packing and mothering the twins. Our sister-in-law Mare was searching for cheap fares and I was trying to find transportation to the airport, as well as checking on visa information.
I was also packing and scanning documents — Some items we would leave behind in the states and needed to br transported up to Orange County where JP would store them for us.
Muu was also making arrangements in Thailand for our arrival. We thought we would be arriving on Monday Jan 30. This would allow us to get the boys Thai passports in Bangkok, before heading to Ban Rung where we would throw a surprise birthday party for the twins on Feb 1.
Muu had contacted our trusty van driver a couple of days ago to let him know we were coming but we weren't sure of the itinerary. We also knew we would need help transporting all our luggage and the boys from the airport to a hotel and then home to Ban Rung by van. So, Muu told Tong to make arrangements to get to Bangkok and coordinate with the driver to pick us up at the airport.
We wanted to surprise of family, so we told only Tong we were coming and swore him to secrecy.
Everything was coming together nicely, when Mare called and said there was a flight arriving two days days earlier for the same price. Muu was out shopping for a new stroller at the time and didn't answer her phone, so I made a command decision and told Mare to book it.
It wasn't long before I realized that we would be arriving on the weekend when the passport office would be closed in Bangkok, so we would need another night in a Bangkok hotel, but it was too late, the non-changeable flight was booked.
Then when Muu came home, she launched into action to move the Thailand timetable up...
The driver was able to accommodate the change, and Tong and Bing got on a shuttle bus to Bangkok right away.
Muu said that she had also found out that we could get the boys their passports in Sisaket, so now we began to entertain the idea of just driving straight from the airport to Ban Rung, since we really had no obligations in Bangkok.
We would arrive at Suvarnabhumi airport at around midnight on Saturday. And our driver, who is incredibly easy going, said that we could decide when we arrived whether to go to hotel for the night or go straight to Ban Rung from the airport. |
2023-03-29 |
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Bing |
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Ban Rung - 3/29/2023 |
2023-03-28 |
