Hi folks. I am back in the saddle in BKK. Been a while hasn't it. Took some time off. Not only from the blogging but also from BKK. Went back to the Big Smoke. T dot. Tarawna. Well actually Mississauga. I did go downtown once to see a Jays game! Beat the evil empire that night, way to go boys.
A special thanks from this rugged adventurer to those who put up with and entertained me while I was there. Great eats at bbq's and dinners. Great golf games. I really enjoyed it. I know it was just normal every day living in Canada but it sure seemed and felt special to me.
Yeah, it was fun to be back. Pleasant weather you folks have back there. Nice cool evenings, no rain. Very pleasant. I enjoyed getting away from the wet heat here in BKK. Of course it is also rainy season here. Rains everyday. Usually later in the day. 2ish to 6ish. Torrential sometimes. We have flood warnings coming for BKK middle to end of this week. Lots of rain up country and it all flows down hill to BKK. There are dams all along the tributaries and the main river (Chao Praya) but they open them up to spare the big city folks from having to get their feet too wet.
As you know Lena came back with me and we have know settled in to being a family here in BKK. Love it. It is going to be so cool to have her around for nine months.
And of course there are the visitors.
Starting in just 10 days we will have Diane's mom, sister and niece visit for a couple of weeks. That is going to be a hoot. House full of women. Notice I did not put any adjectives or expletives in front of that! Yeah I'm thinkin the rugged adventurer will play some serious golf the last two weeks of August. There will be blogs generated from that little partay I can tell you right now. Stay tuned.
I need to tell you about our experience getting here first though as our flight over was a bit of a bummer. Lena and I were in a bit of a huryy to get to the airport on Thursday becasue I have free Maple Leaf lounge passes that we wanted to use up. Lucky for us we were trying to be early cause our first mishap started by us being halted at the check in counter cause Lena had a one way ticket and no visa! They won't let you on the plane without a flight out of the country so we had to stand in line at the purchase ticket counter. This resulted in us missing the baggage check in cut off. For those who don't know this is one hour before all international flight departures. Lucky for us the flight was delayed for 90 minutes. Bonus we thought, things are going our way after all. So we sauntered up to the Maple Leaf lounge to have some free drinks and food. Good times.
We headed down to our flight and we were boarded and ready for takeoff at 3:30. But no. This did not happen. What is wrong with these people. Why do they put you on the plane knowing it isn't going anywhere. The pilot told us that they still had not removed the baggage from the flight Paris to Toronto! So we sat and waited for 90 minutes while they removed the baggage and of course loaded ours. We finally taxied out to the runway and sat and waited some more. Takeoff was close to 5:30.
Our connection in Tokyo was only one hour, so we knew right away that we had missed that. What would they do with us? We were now arriving very late! Well rather than put some 40 odd people up in a hotel (I would have enjoyed a bleary eyed walk around downtown Tokyo at Air Canada's expense) they bussed us to Haneda airport. This is at least a one hour drive across Tokyo Bay, from the east end of Tokyo to the south west end. It might have been cool had it been daylight but all we really saw was street lamps, apartment buildings lit up and expressway toll booths. At this point I have to tell you that SITTING for another hour wasn't on my agenda, but that is all that the bus ride turned out to be. A 15 minute nap in there somewhere as well I am sure. But all of this while sitting!!
We arrive at Haneda at around 10 Tokyo time. We are starving, getting smelly and very tired. When we check in they weigh our bags two times each. Gathering the numbers on a piece of paper adding them up. Then scratching their heads as the multiply the allotment times four. Allowed 200 lbs. Actual weight 192. That is what threw them. They thought they had us but Lenz and I had been through this agony at home, moving and shuffling bottles of salad dressing from bag to bag and finally out to the golf bag. Which is part of the equation that Lena and I had not even considered! But that is where our under allotment came from. Golf clubs, golf shoes plus salad dressing = 43 lbs. Did not know that!
So when they finally say OK I ask for a meal voucher or something that I feel Air Canada should offer to us for putting us out like this. No voucher she says. I am astonished, you mean Air Canada doesn't want to spend $8 on me? Really?
So Lena and I wandered through the duty free (no such thing in Japan, $18 bottle of Jacobs Creek cab was $40). We got to the gate and Lena bought a beer and we ate a leftover sandwich from Air Can flight to tide us over when Eureka I notice on our boarding pass it says Use For Lounge Access. Off we go to the ANA lounge for more free eats and drinks. Coolest beer service in this place. Kirin Ichiban Beer. You put your glass under the spigot. The machine tips your glass to pour the beer perfectly! Stops with about one inch of room left, stands the glass upright and then from a second little spigot it fills the glass to the top with foam. A perfect beer with a perfect head on it. Man that was worth it. Cold and tasty.
Ok so now we are fed and hydrated and ready for the final leg of our flight. Plane leaves at 00:30 from Tokyo and we arrive in BKK at 4:20 am on Saturday. Yes folks. We were dropped off at Pearson at 11 am on Thursday and arrived in Bangkok on Saturday morning. Approximately 32 hours door to door.
.
We were an hour earlier than first reported. Maybe a surprise is what we should do for Deedles. So we both snuck into the bedroom very quietly and sat down on the bed beside her. She was very surprised and also very happy that we didn't scare the crap out of her by yelling BOOO! Hahahaha, that would have been priceless.
But discretion is the better part of valour. Great big hugs for all. I must say she was happy to see us
Well enough for now. Enough that you know we are back here safe and sound as a family. Maybe I can get Lena to blog once or twice. See what it is like from her point of view.
Deeds is workin hard. Probably don't need to tell you that. The project is now just 7 1/2 weeks away from going live and Deeds is putting everything she has into making sure this is done once, done right. Both Lena and I know what our job is for the next little while as well.
Take care
Sawasdee Krup
