Wednesday 2 March 2016

Thailand: Bangkok (Arrival in 2016)

It has been a while since the last time we updated our travel blog. We have been busy with works, kid and travels. This year, it is time to travel back to Thailand again. This year is a bit challenging because we have our little one joining in our family. This was a bit challenging for me with such a long international flight without my husband's help. I tried to manage a few hours of layovers in each transit as little as possible. Unfortunately, we had snowstorm the night before we supposed to fly in early morning, but we could not. All the flights were cancelled, and I had to book our flights from Canada to Thailand again. Due to limited seats and many people rebooked their flights, we could get our flights confirmed 2 days later. It might be a good idea that snowstorm happened at that night. That means we, as passengers, could fly anywhere till we got to Bangkok, Thailand. I booked our flights with Air Canada, and they normally fly through Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. I selected the choice that we wanted to fly directly from Canada to Thailand without overnights anywhere due to a child's concerns. Then I told the airline that I wanted to fly through London, UK and that saves our time to fly less hours than expected when comparing to those countries. I was a bit nervous to fly with our young child alone and a lot of stuff to carry along and 4 checked baggage. Luckily, all the checked baggage checked through all the way to Thailand, so that left me worry-free in London, UK. When we arrived in UK, everything was smooth and we did not have to go through custom immigration. While waiting for boarding with Thai Airways (A380), we could walk around and did some shopping. In Heathrow airport in the UK, there is a play area to kill time. If you have young children, this might be the place. If you fly to Asia, the terminals are pretty far from this play area. Please make sure you check your time and get to terminals in time for boarding your next flights.

When we boarded A380. I was surprised how huge this plane was. I thought I would not have a chance to fly this type of aircraft since my husband and I have travelled a lot together in the past. We were so lucky to board this plane because travelling with a young child, there is so much leg room and that our child's legs could not reach the back of front's seat. The crew was so friendly and played with children when they were not on duty. Everything went well until we arrived in Bangkok. I was worrying about the checked baggage and how I would handle that alone because I had to have our child on a stroller with 2 carry-on bags. Luckily, I could find and paid a ground helper who delivered our checked baggage till we saw our family at the exit.

Here we were in Bangkok, Thailand. It was the first time that my family saw our child. They had not seen me for over 3 years. I could say that things have been changed a lot since I left the airport. One thing that I still saw was people's smile and respect. These symbols/tradition are forever with Thai people. Our child was surprised how things were changed from where we came from. I explained him from places to places, little by little and it was only a few weeks, he could adapt himself into routines in Thailand. It was a big change for a young child such as weather, day/night time, food, people, places, language, etc. Tonight we would sleep really well after our long flights.