It was a marathon couple of days to make it to our destination this fall — Thailand! Of course, it doesn’t help that Thailand is literally on the other side of the word from Texas, so it’s amazing that we can even get there in one full day of travel. But it took us almost three days by the time we actually made it. Part of the joys of travel, right?!
Wednesday
We started our trip by driving down to Houston the night before our flight. We managed to book discounted tickets on ANA, a Japanese airline. We flew IAH -> Tokyo -> Bangkok.
With the approaching tropical depression in Houston, we opted to stay in a hotel near the airport instead of staying with Payton and Corinne in Sugar Land. While we would have loved to see them, it was less stressful to stay near IAH and not worry about flooding and traffic in Houston.
The drive down was uneventful and fairly dry too! We stopped at Grub for dinner, grabbed some ice cream from HEB, and checked into the hotel. We were all hoping for a good night sleep in preparation for a long day of travel on Thursday.
Unfortunately, Caden wasn’t feeling well this evening. A headache turned into a cough which turned into a fever overnight. Oh boy!
Thursday
Up early this morning, Kamy and I ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and then ran to a local pharmacy for some medicine for Caden and snacks for the airplane. It was raining lightly, but nothing major. By the time we got back, packed up, and were ready to leave, the rain was really coming down! It was blowing like crazy — literally sideways. The portico at the hotel didn’t even begin to keep us dry. Keller braved the wind and rain to pull the truck up to the hotel lobby door so we could load our suitcases and head to the airport. It was clear that no planes would be leaving immediately, but we didn’t want to do wait too long and risk missing our flight.
We parked just down the street at the Parking Spot for Payton and Corinne to come snag the truck when it was convenient for them. The rain continued to pour down and, while the kids managed to stay relatively dry, Keller and I were thoroughly soaked by the time we unloaded the truck and were in the shuttle van. There was a lot of water on the road to the airport, but the shuttle didn’t have too much trouble with it.
Once we got to the airport, the adventure continued! All the rain had filled the gutters, drainage ditches, and roads across to the terminal. The rain had flushed all the cockroaches out onto the medians. Uggg!
Our shuttle van had to drop us on the far side of the lanes, so we stepped onto the median with all the crawly bugs. The remaining lanes were under about 4″ of water, so Keller and I pulled up our pants, took off our shoes, and carried the luggage and the kids across. Plus a few cockroaches that came along for the ride. <shiver> After wading across, we knocked the roaches off and went inside. We didn’t think Houston was where we’d have to be dealing with cockroaches!
A trip to the bathroom to wash our feet and dig dry clothes out of our suitcases was next. After putting ourselves back together, we checked into our flight. The counters were pretty deserted, as was the entire terminal. The process was a little slow since we had to verify visa approval but we had plenty of time. Security was simple and we were at the flight gate about an hour before our departure. Or rather, the scheduled departure.
The weather continued to deteriorate and it was quite stormy and windy. It was clear that we wouldn’t be leaving at 11:30. Or 1:30. Or 3:00. About 3:30 we were notified that the flight would be officially delayed until the following morning at 9am.
Meanwhile, we’d been hanging out at the terminal, twiddling our fingers. Caden still wasn’t feeling well and was running a fever, so he felt pretty pitiful.
We planned on grabbing dinner at Pappadeaux with our meal tickets from ANA, but they were closed. Keller managed to find a hotel 15 minutes from the airport, so we booked a room for the night. I spent two hours on hold on the phone, waiting to rebook our connecting flight in Tokyo. Plus we had to wait about 90 minutes for our luggage to be returned to us for the evening. Our flight on Friday was bumped another two hours later, to 11am. Now we were looking at a solid 24 hour delay.
The next challenge was getting OUT of the airport and to the hotel. The hotel wasn’t running a shuttle because of road flooding. And our parking lot was flooded from earlier in the day. Fortunately, we were able to catch a shuttle back to the remote parking lot once the water drained a bit. The driver talked the police officer into letting him past the blockaded road in order to get us back to the truck.
Dodging flooded streets, we drove out of the airport 12 hours after arriving that morning. We didn’t make it very far at all today!
We finally figured out dinner at Mi Ranchero near the hotel, after trying several restaurants that were closed due to the flooding. Then we headed to the hotel and crashed for the night. Fortunately Caden is feeling a bit better, though not 100% yet. We’ll try again tomorrow and maybe we’ll make it a bit further!
Friday
Round 2! Most of the storm has cleared through Houston, so we didn’t have any trouble making it back to the airport this time. We chose a different Parking Spot lot, dropped off the truck, and took the shuttle to the terminals. This time we didn’t even have to deal with cockroaches! 😉
The airport was a lot busier than yesterday, but since we’d already rebooked our connecting flight, it didn’t take too long. Our biggest concern was making sure our suitcases made it to Bangkok with us.
This time we made it on the airplane! We had the four middle seats on the large 777 airplane. ANA international flights have more leg room between seats in coach, so Keller was actually able to sit in his seat without his knees in the back of the seat in front of him!
Both kids did amazing on the 14 hour flight to Tokyo. It was definitely a long way and a super long flight. No one got sick, and Caden managed to sleep on the floor for several hours. The rest of us dozed a bit but didn’t get more than about 45 minutes of sleep. The food wasn’t too bad either, though neither kid ate much.
Upon landing in Tokyo, Kamy was feeling pretty shivery and disoriented. No sleep and no food during the flight was taking a toll on her body. We changed clothes, brushed our teeth, and recuperated at the gate for our next flight. Kamy promptly fell asleep on the floor and slept for almost 2 hours. Meanwhile Keller and Caden tracked down ramen for a meal. They really liked it!
Our next flight to Bangkok wasn’t full at all, so we were able to spread out once the flight took off. Kamy lay down across two seats and put her head in my lap. She slept for almost the entire 6 hour flight. Caden sat next to Keller to watch a movie on the laptop and then he slept for about 3 hours too. Keller stayed awake but I managed to get about 2 hours of sleep.
When we landed at Bangkok, it had been 24 hours since we left Houston on Friday … 48 hours since we’d been scheduled to depart Houston on Thursday … and 66 hours since we’d left home. What a whip! We flew about 10,000 miles. Whew! We were finally in Thailand.