Well I think that I will proclaim the trip to Thailand a total success. Definitely the best vacation (also longest) I have ever taken. While many of the things that happened on the trip cannot be discussed in such an open forum I will be continually updating things when I think they are appropriate.
I will say this . . . my last two days in Bangkok leave a little something to be desired but I still managed to have fun.
On the 3rd, traveling from Ayuttahya to Bangkok, I managed to "misplace" my passport. So on the night of the 3rd I found out that I would have to make a police report, go to the US Embassy, and then Thai Immigration on the following day. I guess that days of shopping for gifts for my coworkers would have to be canceled. That night though, Lawerence and I went out and we had a ball. After drinking copious amounts of Tequila for about two hours and proclaiming our soberness we set out to find more fun. Now all the bars in Bangkok close at 1am (one of the fatal flaws of the city) but we didnt let that stop us. Never fear because the tuk tuk (souped up golf cars that drive you around the city for cheap) drivers all know where the illeagal late night spots are.
So we hopped into a tuk tuk and the told the driver to 'show us the party', to which he greatfully obliged (they get paid for the people that they bring to the clubs). This tuk tuk driver thought he might have some fun with us so as we took off from a red light he guns it and makes the tuk tuk pop a wheelie. He actually does this on several occasions during the ride. Lawrence and I think this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to us . . . until we get into the drag race with this other tuk tuk, which we lose. With my extensive engineering background, I blame it on the extra weight (the other tuk tuk only had one passenger). We get to this weird night club full of tourists and hookers. Anyway, by the time that we showed up we realized that maybe we were a little more inebriated than we thought. I ended up in an epic arm wrestling match with some Dutch woman (who I barely beat after about 5 minutes, in my defense it was a left handed battle) but she did have quite a lot of cleavage going on so it was OK with me.
Somehow after about an hour Lawrence gets lost and I stumble out into the Bangkok night to get back to my Hotel because I have to get up early to handle my lost passport . . .
I wake up in the morning only to realize that during the night I had lost my Japan ID card and my Bank card also. What a fucking idiot I had made out of myself. I had absolutely no ID to speak of and my plane (I thought) would be taking off in 25 hours!
I went to the police station to file my report, no problem, I get a copy and I am on my way to get the passport photos. This was fairly simple but at the time of the pictures-- I will say-- I was less than stoaked. So in my picture I look like a guy who has just been in Thailand for 2 weeks, getting drunk every night, not have shaved in a week, and looking pissed off because I lost my passport and ID and atm card all in the space of a day. Will post a picture.
Then I headed off to the embassy, which seemed to be on the other side of Thailand from my hotel. When I arrived it was chaos, all of the people who had been in the tsunami and lost all of their belongings and passports were there trying to get a new copy and shoes to put on their feet. Not to mention that Colin Powell picked that day to visit the embassy so for about an hour there was an 'emergency meeting' so no one was doing any work in the Embassy. There were also about 50 military guys running around with sub machine guns at the ready (which, I have to admit, was pretty cool). So I showed up to the embassy at 10 am and finally got my passport at about 4 pm. Not too bad for having lost the most important document that I own a day before I really need it.
By losing my passport, I also lost my visa (dammit!) and my reentry permit (necessary if you want to go back to Japan, double dammit!) They talked to the Japanese Embassy and they told them that I needed to get my employer to send a notarized letter to city hall in Hikone and have them sign that and then mail that to me in Bangkok. Damn that!My plane was in less than a day (I thought) no way in hell that was going to happen. So I contacted my supervisor and he talked to Immigration and every thing was cool for my arrival in Japan.
The rest of the day was fine. For all of my friends to whom I have ever given the, "You've got to keep some perspective" speech, you would have been mighty proud of me. I kept a pretty damn good attitude throughout this whole ordeal. Never failing to remind myself that, at this point, over 150,000 people had been killed by the tsunami and that my problems didnt really mean shit to these people, and yet, they still dilligently took care of me. Also working in New Orleans Public School for three years has also given me some unique perspective into giving people the time they need in order to do their jobs (or homework).
Now, all I had to do was get on my plane which left at 9 am. . . Well to add a little insult to injury, I woke up late/got stuck in the worst traffic I have ever seen on my way to the airport and missed my plane. So OK, I had come to grips with this after I got into the cab that the plane would be missed. I thought they would put me on a flight a few hours later. Think again.
I got to the Japan Airlines office and they told me that I have a ticket that cannot be changed and I would have to pay 31000 baht (about $800) to get home. Well seeing as how I had about 500 Baht on me and no credit cards to speak of I informed the staff that they had better get used to my face because I was going to live in their office from now on. The lady went back to her boss and came back two minutes later and told me that they would put me on a flight free of charge. Thank God! The only catch was that this flight was at midnight. So I had a brief 15 hour stay at Bangkok airport with basically no money because of the 500 baht airport tax that they charge (thats some bullshit!). Thank God I had been eating about 5 meals a day for the last two weeks. All that Pad Thai would hold me over.
The airport stay was cood though. Apparently there was some Muslim Holiday, Hoge (sp?) and the airport was full of thousands of Muslims going to visit family (I guess). My exposure to Muslim culture is quite limited, we will say but it was cool to hang out and observe these folks. They all got up and prayed at one point, and I got to watch that. They spent most of their time chilling on their mats drinking tea (I dont know where the heck they got all those kettles from) and playing with their kids, who were some of the cutest I have ever seen. That is one thing that I have started to notice about adults, if you smile at their kids they will always smile and acknowledge you.
Overall the airport experience was long, but highly worthwhile. I dont make enough eye contact with people and it helped me to work on that. People just want to be acknowledged and I have got to make a conserted effort not to be in my shell all the time. I think my eye contact problems go back to Detroit and people not wanting you to look at them too long, else something is wrong. I dont know.
To make a very long story short, I made it back to Japan at 7 am and only had a 3.5 hour train ride to get back to Hikone so whatever doesnt kill you, will only make you stronger, I guess.