March 27, 2002: Kathy arrived on Tuesday night to Bangkok, after the usual 24 hour ordeal from Boston starting with an ungodly 4:30am limo. Flight went well, and she managed to to use her trans-Pacific upgrade coupon by the skin of her teeth—after sitting in coach for two hours at the gate to make her realize just how much a difference biz class made. A snowstorm caused the departure delay, but it also caused a connecting biz class passenger to miss his connection—hence the available seat.
Arrival at midnite in Bangkok was a bit more problematic. The plan was good — she had a hotel dayroom booked at the airport, for a convenient and comfortable night's sleep before her flight the next morning to Chiang Mai. Problem was, the hotel entrance was BEFORE customs and immigration ONLY (a fact she learned only later). However, when she asked, airport staff told her to clear customs/immigration BEFORE going to the hotel. Once she had officially "entered" the country, there was no way to get to the hotel! After wondering around in a stupor for about an hour, checking with various airport and immigration staff to see if there was any way around this dilemma, someone suggested she sleep on the sofa in a "CIP lounge" - basically an open room in the terminal decorated in early-70s living room style. For 50 baht/hour ($1) one can escape the (very few) hard plastic chairs scattered about and sit in a comfy padded seat. It turns out they will let you sleep on the sofas overnite for the same hourly rate. So, for about $7 (significantly less than the hotel), she spent the night on short, uncomfortable, bright yellow sectional couch. No showers, no pillow, no blanket. But a heck of a lot better than those hard plastic seats.
Wednesday morning she and a Heifer Staff member, Judy Wollen were to arrive on the same flight around 10:30am. Dudee (from Heifer) and I (Scott) were at the airport early; I'd gotten a huge bouquet of flowers for her — a nice combination of roses, lilies and orchids — and a nice orchid corsage for Judy. Who knew I was such a romantic Boy?
An hour passed. No plane. Eventually they changed the 10:30 due time to "Delayed". No other update. Another hour. A third. Eventually word spread: the delay was caused by the heavy haze that fills the air here lately—a combination of air pollution and fires (many intentionally set to burn off the crops at the end of the season, others naturally occurring; some from careless cigarettes. It hasn't rained here in any significant amount since the end of October). End result: their flight came all the way to Chiang Mai from Bangkok, circled for 45 minutes, still couldn't land, and returned to Bangkok.
Three subsequent Bangkok flights arrived and landed successfully, while Kathy & Judy's flight continued to report "Delayed". The flowers started to wilt, as did my hopes of Kathy's Wednesday arrival. If something serious had happened, I reasoned — we'd have heard about it. Nothing — no information — was just too weird. Ate lunch. Waited. Coffee. Waited. Iced coffee. Waited.
Ultimately they did arrive, but not until almost 3:00 in the afternoon. Six hours late. Pretty impressive for a one hour flight.
Kathy's arrival was timed nicely to allow her enough time to get a decent night's sleep for the first time in several days, for us to get reacquainted (it's been two months) and her unpacked. We were to fly to Mae Hong Son — near the border with Burma (Myanmar) for Vet Camp [photos] on Thursday. Kathy's original thought was to fly Bangkok-Chiang Mai then on to Mae Hong Son the same day. That'd have been a big mistake. I'd persuaded her otherwise. Sometimes she listens to me.
All these things done, Thursday afternoon we returned to the airport with Judy and her husband Terry; a Professor from Chiang Mai University; his small cadre; and Bandit (another Heifer Staffer), totaling 10 with Dudee. But now, the flights to Mae Hong Son were all being cancelled! The flight was supposed to be at 4:20 in the afternoon; when we got to the airport around 3pm, we were refused check-in and told to come back to the counter around 4:00. At the appointed time two of the Heifer staff went to the check-in counter to sort it out. They didn't return for half an hour — 10 minutes past when the flight was supposed to leave.
Mae Hong Son is an easy twenty minute or less flight, it costs all of about US$10. But the road to MHS is nicknamed "road of a thousand curves". And now we're going to have to drive it. Six hours, easy. I'd previously taken the bus to Pai, which is about half way and took about 4 1/2 hours. Dudee and "Bandit" (whose name in Thai has quite a positive meaning, actually) went to fetch one of the Heifer cars. Around 6:00 they returned to the airport, and we set off. Nine of us in an oversized station wagon (Dudee wasn't going), with personal luggage and bedding, plus Veterinary supplies. Sounds like fun, no?
Actually... it was. Yeah, it was crowded. Quite crowded. As my DEC Buddy Loether used to say "Snuggle up and make your buddy smile". But everybody was excited about the Camp. We stopped in Pai — a restaurant I'd actually been to before, for dinner, and arrived by about 10:15. It turns out that the place we were staying was quite a bit closer than Mae Hong Son — MHS was the closest airport.
The Camp itself was a wonderful experience; one that merits it's own log. See you there.