August 15 - We're home!

Today we'll fly out of Narita into Chicago O'Hare then connect there to a flight to BWI.

We take the Airport Limousine bus to the airport.

On the plane it already feels like America. There are a number of U.S. military and their families travelling on this flight. I'm tickled by the discipline that these military kids have on the long flight.

At O'Hare we have an "incident" that wouldn't have happened in Thailand. To change from the international to domestic terminals we need to catch the tram/train/whatever. It's not the longest of layovers and G's concerned about us missing our flight... but even more, he's determined we're going to make it. So we SQUEEZE on to the tram. More people SQUEEEEZE in behind us and Felicia's getting smashed into other people, luggage and the pole. She's yelling and starting to cry. So, Geoff shoves back. There's more shoving...
There's words flying in our end of the car among a variety of people:
"Stop pushing!"
"You're crushing my daughter!"
"You think that just because you're a big man you can do this!"
"You're just trying to protect you child..."
"I'll call the police"
"Yeah, go ahead."
"You're stupid"
"You think that just becasue you're a big man you can do this!"
"You don't have to push her."
"You're stupid!"
it goes on...

Ahhhh... welcome to America.

So, we taxi it back home and we're greeted by the most welcoming presence of my in-laws who've started the AC and stocked us up with food and diapers :o)

We made it... we're glad... and sad...

OK... now we need to relearn where we keep everything in the house. Man! we need to relearn where we live! We almost didn't remember what to tell the taxi driver :o)

Amen! What a blessing and a privilege it was for us :o)

Now it's time to get the kids ready for school in less than 2 weeks!

August 6 - Trying to be more Thai

We're flying back to Bangkok tonight so we need to finish check out of the hotel before we have a full Disneyland day. Check out wasn't too bad. We beat the rush (and I mean RUSH!). Of course there were folks who ignored the roped queuing areas. Many had no issue interrupting your conversation with the front desk staff member with whom you're OBVIOUSLY speaking.

We shuttle it over to the park where we enjoy the character breakfast buffet. I load up on the dim sum... yum yum dim sum! (that's the name of a board book in the children's section btw)




OK... so now G is getting the full park flavor today and it's SOOOOO not pretty. Today would've been a good day to be more "Thai" and maybe not made so much of a scene or a big deal during the "trying" times... oh well. There's yelling at people trying to cut/push their way at different ride lines. There's elbowing of folks. The degree of pushing and line jumping is so overwhelming that G and I have lengthy conversations about how the 'line' culture might have evolved into what it is today. I don't think they could pay me enough to be a "cast member" at this park. It's continuous. Cast members denying entry to people who are trying to jump the line by catching up with another member of their party who "got in". Cast members repeatedly announcing the line etiquette rules. Please don't misunderstand. Every OTHER aspect of the experience was wonderful. But MAN! The cultural difference in this ONE aspect was overwhelming. And, when you've got irritated people yelling at each other about it in the line it just kills the magic.








But anyhoo, it was fun. We made it back to the shuttle in a series of swift walks between a series of serious downpours.







At the hotel we get our bags and take two taxis to the airport. Luckily, ONE of the two drivers knew which terminal held Emirates Airlines. The driver of the taxi I was in almost dropped us off at the wrong terminal... at Hong Kong Airport - the largest passenger terminal in the world.

We're almost home... We weather a flight with a REALLY grumpy flight attendant who would snatch the tray of food while you were still holding a forkful to your mouth. HELLOO-OOO!

OK, so we're now at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok and we're going to save time by taking a TAXI. ...where do I even begin? I'll start by saying that there is a designated taxi stand downstairs where you're supposed to pay a fee and get a taxi. You're not supposed to catch a taxi upstairs. If you've already got all your belongings and 4 kids in the taxi you'll have to get out to the sound of irritating, irritated "discussion" with 3 security guards, a taxi driver and a husband who hasn't slept in a few days. You'll have to haul all your bags and kids downstairs through a maze of moving walkways and hallways. Once you get downstairs you can't just catch a taxi; you must pay the fee. If you try to bypass the fee it gets very irritating for the mother and nerve racking to the taxi-van driver. Then to top it off, your oldest child will lose the precious "squishy coin" from the park because she fell asleep while holding it in her hand.

But hey... WE DID IT! We did a Disney thing...

Now we're home... bring on the magic of Baileys!

August 1 - A Trip to Hong Kong

Geoff left for China on Sunday to visit a plant in Donguong and today I left with the 4 kids to meet him in Hong Kong. I'm so glad that at the gate I can corral the kids into a corner and block then in with the stroller.


We flew Emirates Airlines where Economy Class is a lot closer to 1st class in the states. After boarding the flight attendants walked the aisles of the 777 with their trays of tong handled hot towels. The seats where equiped with individual touch screen monitors and airphones. You could watch movies or TV, listen to music, or play video games by yourself or with other passengers. The food was closer to real food and served with real flatware, no plastic. All beverages, with the exception of champagne, was complimentary. They'll gladly pour you a double.

So... the flight... Totoy sooooo does NOT like to remain buckled, particularly when the "fasten seat belt" light is illuminated. What can I say, I was ready to toss him out the nearest exit(which may have been behind us), as were anyone sitting near us. They made their appreciation for Cam's screams very clear. But we survived. Thank goodness that Emirates had great video games and cartoons for the other kids.


So we land at Hong Kong and it takes us forever and a day to get to baggage claim. Per Felicia, she learned this from an airport book from The Tangredi Fam, "We are in the largest passenger terminal in the world!". I can tell... In our journey to EXIT the airport... Flea has to poop(in bathroom stall with auto-flushing toilets.... auto-flushing toilets and Flea are a bad combo); T needs to go to the bathroom; diapers need to be changed; T decides that he's just done with walking... that's it, no more walking, just done... and if he's going to walk the steps will be no greater than 2 centimeters MAX. This is all before we've even made it to immigration. It takes us so long that our baggage is going round and round with the baggage from the next flight. I'm just glad it's still there :o)

EVENTUALLY, we find the driver from the company at which G is working. I find out later from G that we took SOOOOO long that the folks at the business were starting to really freak out that they had lost their potential client's wife and children. But MAN! This guy can walk FAST! Somehow, even with our baggage cart, he was able to move at running speed without actually running. Felicia and I(with the double stroller) were definitely running. I'm not sure why, but people move quickly here. Very, very quickly.

We get to the Harbour Plaza Hong Kong hotel and check-in to one of the two rooms(the other is in G's name and he's still at the plant working). We order hotdogs and fruit from room service and the kids GO TO SLEEP. (yippee!) Geoff rolls in around midnight and we escape to the connecting room. Tomorrow.... explore Hong Kong! (after we sleep in a bit and G gets some work done and we eat breakfast, get everyone to pee, change diaper, and tag them with a hotel card)

June 15 - We're off to Singapore

First, it's getting it together and getting to Singapore. This time we're bringing TWO suitcases with extra clothes for everyone. So I stay up way too late packing as usual and Khun Rin picks us up at 5am for our 7am flight on Air Asia. It's an Asian equivalent to Southwest where everyone stampedes to the door at boarding. Food, drink and merchandise are available for purchase and there are no pillows or blankets. We did depart on time. I was still trying to get kids buckled while we were on our way... and we were one of the FIRST ones on the plane :o)

So we're in Singapore!

After a less than smooth check-in at the Novotel Clarke Quay we hit the McDonalds to feed the starving kiddies and explore the neighboring Fort Canning National Park. Second photo is a view from our hotel room.


Then we recharge at a restaurant on the river and explored the city on foot. The exploration, however, was more of an accident. We got turned around a little trying to get from Fort Canning Park to the hotel.



Eventually, we get into our hotel room for a break and some work for Geoff. I take the kids to the pool while Geoff gets on a conference call. At the pool Turner has a breakthrough! He holds his breath with his head UNDER water. One more step away from high-intensity-death-watch for me. One step closer to being able to ENJOY the pool with the kids :o)

Finally, we have a wonderful dinner at Quayside Seafood and Grill across the street from the hotel. Among other delicious goodies we enjoy the fabulous curry crab! We intend on taking the "must do" night cruise on the river... but Turner and Ronan don't make it through dinner.

May 28 – Back to Thailand

So we get up early again…. Alu & Abel take us to the airport on their way to work…

The kids are better on this return to Thailand flight than they were getting out to PI. I suppose everyone’s just too tired to make trouble :o)
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... the miracle of flight...

And there's always the new toys...

This trip was way too whirl-wind. Next time I’ll take more pictures and make it home with more sweets :o) Thanks to Ate Christine I at least made it back with a couple of bags of assorted pastilles and a tin of turrones de casoy (love those!). Tita Oyen sent us home with 2 bags of pan de sal (which where ALL eaten by the next day).

I got to meet soo much family but didn’t really get to talk.

We’ll just have to be sure to come back again…

Thank goodness Khun Rin is waiting for us at the airport with the van. At the house, Cambric has a special treat. A birthday package from Virginia/Great-Grandmama Dot is waiting for him. All the kids benefit :o)

April 5 - Oh Cr-p!

Kids are up at 3am local. It’s a sh—ty morning. I’ll elaborate…

1- Cam does his usual poop and bounce on his bottom. It can’t be too messy for him. Thank goodness for the handheld sprayer in the tub.

2- We’re in Japan. They’ve got these fantastic high tech toilets. They’re so high-tech that toilets have warning pictures. One of them is a caricature of a little boy sitting on the toilet leaning back on the lid with an “X” next to it, warning not to lean back on the lid or you may break the toilet structure. Turner’s interpretation: Little boys may not sit on the toilet. Yep, he had to poop. So where is a little boy to poop if NOT on the toilet? Where else but in his underwear while on the white, white, white bed linens… of course. So that’s mess number 2.

3- Felicia’s excited to take a bath in the fabulous, high-walled tub. So I help get the bath drawn and get her IN the tub. While she’s in there she gets her urge to poop and goes to the toilet to poop. Well, she didn’t quite make it… Did I mention that the tub was deep? She calls me to help her get back in the tub….. THAT’s when I see what’s happened to the white, white, bathroom. There’s now brown, brown: in the bath water, on the tub where she eventually climbed out in a trail connecting tub to toilet, and toilet to the door to call me. Oh, and then there’s Felicia.

Geoff was sleeping since he stayed up late with them while I passed out as soon as I hit the mattress… airplane clothes and all.

We hit the buffet breakfast at 6am and all is well :o) It’s the first of many occasions where I attempt to communicate that I can’t communicate in “fill in language here”.

So we squeeze on to the 7am bus to Narita Airport. We need to unfold seats that fill in the aisle. Fun for the kids. Not so fun to get through passport/ID check to the airport.

At check-in we try to convince the airline to let us bring Cam’s car seat on to the plane… nope. Looks like we won’t be able to strap Cam into a seat to keep from losing him… that’s going to hurt. Turner’s asthma kicks into full gear on the flight. By the end of the flight we could tell it was FINALLY improving. Phew! Nanay was scared. I’m also VERY sick of pacing the aisles with Totoy(Cam). So I’m in tears by the end of the flight between Turner’s asthma scare and the Cam challenge. So glad that Ronan sleeps the whole flight and Felicia is self entertaining for the 6 ½ hours.

WE’RE IN THAILAND!

Where’s the stroller? Waiting…. Waiting…. Waiting… “So sorry for the inconvenience the stroller is at baggage claim.” No biggie. Trip to bathroom… go through customs and make our way to baggage claim… we’re thinking we’re sooo not going to see the car seat or stroller. But hey! There they are! Got the blue Samsonite (which I’ve grown to loath… I swear it refuses to close for ME)… But there’s no black bag or silver bag. Geoff finds our black bag on someone else’s cart. We find a bag that soooo looks like ours. But soooooo is not. Thai Aiways rep is very helpful in filing paperwork to find bag. Hmmmm what was in the bag? Over $1000 of meds! 4 months of Singulair and inhalers, Tamiflu, Z-packs, malaria, etc… Gifts for Thai folks and our family toiletry bag! Maybe it wasn’t a mistake…. Maybe someone hit the pharmaceutical jackpot?

An angel with driver is at the airport to pick us up. Jack and Peter-the-driver (from Delta… company in Thailand) drive us to our temporary home. It’s over 90 degrees F and humid. It feels like 4th of July. We’re so happy to ride in an air conditioned van with bottles of water.

We get to the house and meet our very nice landlady and her husband. We get a ton of keys and a very nice looking bottle of wine. Jack and Peter take Geoff to the store so we can get toothbrushes, food, etc.

WE MADE IT!

Quote by Jack while shopping with Geoff at the Carrefour store, “Ahhhh, garlic! Very important.” Some things are universal, aren’t they?

April 3 - Economy Plus some phlegm...

Geoff’s parents drive us to airport at 4am.

Jules has been awake since April 2nd at 6am-ish.

Turner discovers his love of 7-Up thanks to the beverage cart. This blog is beginning as a day by day account… but that WILL change.

Somewhere along the way it turns into April 4.

We’re soooo happy to get economy plus seating from SFO to NRT, the 11 hour flight. Those few extra inches make a huge difference. We only need to do half of the “don’t kick the seat in front of you” patrol. Geoff and the kids are taking up the 5-seat center section with Geoff sitting on the end. I get to sit next to Bill. He’s 89, traveling with his step-son Geoffrey(who’s sitting in regular economy). Bill’s a nice guy to talk to… As long as you can ignore the monster phlegm globs he’s spitting out and leaving on his tray table on tiny airline cocktail napkins. Then, once we were in the final 3 hours he turned into grumpy man. But not too grumpy.

Arrive Japan’s Narita Airport. Go through customs… All our bags make it!

We take a shuttle over to the Airport Hilton and are very happy to have some room to move. But we’re in Japan, this won’t last long.