Hello Hello!

We are currently in Bangkok, Thailand.
Right now we are stuck here until our original departure date of Dec. 19, 2007.

Our plan was to leave earlier and take more time in Nepal. Nepal has more stuff to do culturally compared to Thailand. Also, we have finished everything we have planned so we really have nothing to do. :P

Matt and I had a blast in Chiang Mai. We traveled around and did/seen many great things.

On Dec 5 was HM the Kings 80th Birthday. We got to hear a lot of partying way late into the night.

When we took the bus at 7am, it was great. It was another VIP bus with goodies and a coupon for the lunch break to get our meals for free. Just shortly after lunch our bus driver kept stopping every 50Km to check the bus. We finally stopped and had to wait for another bus. We had a broken bus. Great... but on the new bus loaded with like 50people, i got to watch Transformers. I am glad matt had watched it before because it was in Thai. So matt could explain the movie to me as we went along.

When we arrived in Bangkok, we found a taxi driver. He took us to the airport for only 300B. The drive was well over an hour to get there. We had even taken the super highway. You pay 65B to take this highway and there is only two places to enter this highway and about a bajillion to exit. It was cool. It was definately worth the money cuz we were in a rush trying to catch the next available flight.

When we arrived we were heading for the Air India Booth. Before we got there we were approached by a very well dressed man. He said he could help us with changing our flights. We thought he was an airport rep because there are so many of them running around the airport already. So this man called his agent who looked up Air India for us. The man had said "Very full full full, not available until Dec. 17... you want me to try another airline?" We agreed because at this point we just wanted to go. He tried and called Thai Airways and got us to tickets for 16,000B. While he was on the phone though, me and Matt had an idea. So we asked him "Can you check for Air India again and see if one seat is available now and one seat available for the next flight after that?" So he called his agent again only to say "Full full full, try Thai Airways?" So we were gonna buy the ticket for 15,000B,it went down! Then when he arranged the tickets, he then said 30,000B total. I had said "Isn't it this price?" And he said "Oh sorry, that was only one ticket." So we had to cancel those tickets because we didn't have that money. Its ok, cuz he didn't have my credit card number or anything. He then said "Oh, but Thai Air better" and right then it turned into a battle. I had told him how i really didn't have that kind of money and that he would basically be giving me free tickets. I had asked him if talking to him was going to cost us anything and he said "No" and as the convo continued, I had asked "When does Air India booth open? I will go on standby with them?" And he said "I dunno, you should try Thai Air for a deal" And then I said "Thank You, we will go look for Air India" Then he quickly said "You owe me for canceling tickets" And I said "No i don't, you already said I don't owe you anything" and he tried following us for a minute until he realized i wasn't paying him a dime, when i didn't buy anything from him.

So we found the Air India counter. We were put on standby for 1:40am. It was already 11:40pm by this time. So we sat down and fiddled around forever. Then the guy comes up to us an says "Flight delayed, you have to wait until 2:30am." So we dinked around some more. 2:30am comes around and then they say "still delayed wait till 3:00am. By this time we are a little frustrated mainly because we haven't slept in forever, because we has to wake up at 500 Am the day before to catch the bus. So 3:00am rolls around and then they say "Where are your India Visa's?" We said we would buy them in India and they said "Not for here, you need Visa before you fly." So we waited with Air India since 7pm, when everyone has already looked at everything we had and if they would've said something then, we could've gotten a rush for it that night. Instead we wasted all that time in the airport for nothing.

So we go get a taxi. 2 men are fighting for our business. One guy said he knows where Merry V Guesthouse is and he said only 200B to get there. We take him and he said "Want to go on super highway?" We had said No because we weren't in a rush. We clearly said no like 100 times, but sure enough he takes the exit to get on the highway. When driving to the toll booth he said "65B" and we said "we have no money, this is all we have" so we gave him the original 200B and he shook his head but still paid to go on the highway. Not only did he go on the highway, but he was also lost. He read the email that had the address for the Guesthouse and he had the Guesthouse card from me, and he still tried dumping us in Lampini area. This area is not at all what we looked for. So i yelled at him. I yelled the address to him 3 times. I yelled at him for taking the stupid highway. I just wanted a bed and sleep. He got mad cuz the Guesthouse was on the other side of town. His fault not mine I told him. So he still had no idea where to go. I told him and pointed to the right exit and he was trying to turn left. I could've drove us there.... and when we get there he said "100 more Baht" and i fought with him. "You got us lost, you took the highway when we said no, you took everything wrong. We owe you no money" so he tried begging Matt for money. I was gonna seriously like punch him in the face. I told him "I knew where to go and you tried taking us somewhere else. We have been here before" and then he starts talking Thai to the other taxi drivers and getting all mad. It was his fault and we weren't taking crap from anyone.

We got a bed, but we didn't sleep yet. We rushed to find a tourist office to get our india visa's. This lady tried selling us tickets to go straight to Kathmandu and skip India all together. It sounded like a good idea until she said "No available flight for the days you need to be back in Bangkok" So we had to skip that and go through the whole India visa process. But it doesn't take 2 days to get the visa. The airport people told us 2 days cuz thats how long it took for them. The agent told us its 2 days for Thai people and 6 working days for Foreigners. So the 10th is a national holiday so we are waiting until Dec.18. We need those Visa's by that day because we need to get to the airport that night for our flight at 2:40am on the 19th.

So we are in Bangkok with nothing to do and no money. We are dipping into our Nepal budget because the visa's took $265 CDN. We weren't going to buy them here, because it was cheaper to buy them in India. We weren't going to buy them in Canada because we wanted to do it in India. It only costed $16 CDN to do it in Canada. GAAAAAAA.....

Oh well... there are always going to be bumps in any road. No smooth rides in life. Yesterday we slept from noon till 7 this morning.

We feel better now and now we are going to go shopping in the department store for some cheap food!

Its an adventure!

Luv from

Corrie and Matt