Travel Adventures

The family at our going away party.

Our travel adventures began as we were leaving my parents house to drive to the airport on Thursday morning. About 15 minutes into the trip, we hit a deer! Luckily it only dented the hood and cracked the front grill, so we were able to keep going right away. There were four nice skid marks on the road though.

It was about 10:45 when we arrived at the cities and we decided we should get some lunch, so we stopped at a restaurant along the Interstate. As I got out of the van and realized I didn’t have my wallet! Panic Strikes! We began to frantically look in our backpacks and all over the car, and I’m trying to remember the last time I saw it. All I could see was my wallet on the table at our going away dinner. Niki started to call the restaurant to see if I left it there and Dad called Grandpa so he could check at my parent's house for the wallet. Then I remember I should check the shorts I wore last night as I probably just took them off and threw them on the ground and Melanie probably just packed them in the suitcase…Sure enough, it was there!

We finished breakfast and arrived at the airport around noon. We said our good byes to Mom, Dad and Niki…This was really tough for me, but with Skype and email the world is a smaller place…

We then went to check in and get our boarding passes and we found out that our luggage was over weight by a few pounds, so we open up our suitcases and do some quick re-arranging. In the process of zipping everything back up, the zipper on our smaller suitcase decided to malfunction. So now we are holding up the line and our suitcase will not close properly. Melanie whips out the sewing needle and thread all ready to perform surgery on the luggage, but the airport lady gave us some duct tape. So we duct tape the crap out of the luggage and hope it stays closed. We wish our luggage a good trip and head to the security check point.

Duct Tape Surgery!!

So we board the plane and we have an empty seat next to us…sweet! Right in front of us was a small boy who keep standing in his seat and blocking our view of the TV…not sweet! The flight was pretty uneventful except for some crazy turbulence about 5 hours into the flight. The entire plane screamed…how exciting. I just sat there thinking that with our luck, the plane is going to go down. Why did I think that, well, let me review the last two weeks. The truck broke down in St. Paul, it took 10 days and cost over $1000 to repair. At the same time Melanie’s sway bar busted, cost us another $350. I also borrowed Dad’s Goldwing and proceeded to break the plastic wind deflector. Melanie’s computer hard drive died, we hit a deer, almost lost my wallet and broke our luggage.

Anyway, the rest of the trip went fine and it is now 9:30 am Saturday morning here in Bangkok. Hopefully the next few years go more smoothly.

The Final Countdown

It is exactly one month before we fly back to Thailand and we have been very busy preparing for the big move. We've gone through all of our possessions and separated them into lists; store, sell, and take with us.

We are not taking a lot of our things as we are going to get a furnished apartment and much of our furniture is college hand me downs. We've managed to sell our car, truck, motorcycle and most of our smaller possessions. The only thing we have left to sell is our house.

Last week the moving company came and did a survey to determine how many boxes they would need to pack up all of our stuff. They will be back on August 23rd to put everything in a shipping container and an air freight package.

This week we are working on applying for our visas. Eric will need to get a non-immigrant business "B" visa as well as a work permit in order to work in Thailand. I will get a non-immigrant "O" visa, which is for spouses of Thai nationals or those with a "B" visa. There is a lot of paperwork required, but luckily we are getting help!

First Impressions of Thailand

Well, its been a week since we've gotten back from our house hunting trip to Thailand. I can honestly say that a lot of my fears and anxieties about picking up our lives and moving halfway around the world have been dispelled. Before the trip I was about 90% worried about moving and 10% excited, and after the trip those percentages have flip flopped.

I think what really eased my fears was how kind and easy going the Thai people are. Also, the great food and beautiful scenery helped too!

Well, enough of my jibber jabber- on to the photos!!!

Ayuttaya:
This tree has grown around a sandstone Buddha head

The ruins of the old capital of Thailand.

The new HTI Plant

Bangkok:
Chatuchak market: One of the largest markets in Thailand. It is only open on the weekends, but you can buy pretty much any thing there. We only went through a small portion of it.

Our friends Greg and Mary were approached by this group of school girls. Apparently they needed to find Americans and ask them a series of questions. I think they gave Greg a pin for helping them out.Monitor lizards in Lumpini Park
The Reclining Buddha
Decoration around the Grand Palace

Mission Accomplished!

After three solid days of looking at all types of apartments, houses and condos all over Bangkok- I think we've finally found our new home! As soon as we stepped into the front door and saw the panoramic view of the city- we were smitten. Here are some photos that we took as we toured the condo:

Front Entrance:

Living room from front door:

Kitchen:

Bedroom:

Walk-in closet:

and the most important room- the bathroom. Look at that view!!

Swimming pool:

The condo is located right downtown and there is easy access to the Expressway and to the subway. It is also located near Lumpini Park, Suan Lum Night Bazaar, and a Thai boxing arena.
We are in the process of negotiating our lease right now. In Bangkok- everything is negotiable, so it is very common to ask for upgrades and improvements or to haggle over price when you rent an apartment or condo. We asked for an oven and a dryer- many Thai apartments don't come with these two items. So, hopefully things go well and we can sign a lease soon!

I have a ton of photos to go through and I will be updating the blog with all of the wonderful sights we have seen during our house hunting trip- so stay tuned!!