Busted Flat

"Busted flat in Bangkok, waiting for a plane... feeling 'bout as faded as our kids..."

So here we are in Bangkok, waitin' for Bobby McGee. Not as faded as all that, although there are moments when the jet lag catches us! Our visa drama continued for 2 days, as it looked like Bhutan had shut down visas for families a few days before ours was due to be issued. Just as we were looking into giving up the medicine-in-Bhutan idea and becoming ex pats in Bangkok (this would probably involve becoming dishwashers to support our growing need for iced milk green teas and the kids addiction to their ozonated Thai pool) the visas came through this afternoon! Kelly attributes this to diplomacy, while I am sure it is my sudden boost in karma from all my donations to the elephant funds. When I wrote that in a note to our friend Allyson Whyte, Kelly claimed I was lying. But I never said these were financial donations. It was spiritual money. My soul was with the elephants. Deeply. In fact, I thought I might have to ride them into Bhutan if the damn visas didn't come through.

The Journey

"The Journey"

As expected, The Journey was indeed epic. Particularly poignant was Noah sobbing and flinging himself around in utter frustration somewhere over the Northern Pacific Ocean between Minneapolis and Tokyo. We were also disappointed not to get the cool, seat-specific television screens and instead got a single crappy projector screen, which doomed the kids to watching Seth Rogen's abysmal "The Green Hornet" three times over. There were, however, higher points to the trek, including:

• Seeing snow in summer! Flying over an amazing Alaskan mountain range and watching snow fall below us while traveling from Charlotte (85˚F) to Bangkok (88˚F). It seems like a surreal memory now as we drip sweat in the Thai humidity.

• Ethan on the airline meal: "Wow, this is the fanciest meal ever! This is gourmet chicken!" I think he was really hungry.

• Noah, arriving in Bangkok, said in amazement, "they have cars what drive by themselves!", seeing cars with no steering wheels (not knowing the steering wheels are on the right)

• We had a long discussion about the immigration policies of different countries, including our own, and countries that do not actively seek immigration like Bhutan. Ethan's opinion: "I think the king of Bhutan would make an exception if there was a really pretty Irish girl."

Welcome to our blog! We will be describing our travels during Seth's sabbatical in Bhutan in July 2011. We'll also be in Thailand in June, and Cat Ba Island, Vietnam in August.

Please be patient with us as we figure out this blogging business -- we are new to it. I suspect we'll finally have it all figured out just when we are on the plane heading home...

Thanks for joining us on our adventure: Seth, Kelly, and our three little typhoons launch tomorrow!