After a teary goodbye at the airport to my parents and a few close friends, my 2 stop flight to Chiang Mai ended up being a bit of an epic with an extra long transit in Hong Kong as my flight from Sydney landed 1 hr earlier than expected (4am HK time!) and the flight to Bangkok was delayed by over and hour with 'technical problems'. This left me with a mad dash at Bangkok to get off the plane, get through immigration, collect my bags and check in for my domestic flight before the check in counters closed. I felt like i was on the amazing race or something and somehow managed to check in with just 4 minutes to go (although the board already said the counters had closed). Praise God that at every step of the way, even though all the planes were full, I never got pulled up on my luggage being overweight!
As we flew into Chiang Mai, I looked out the window to see the city that is to be home. Rather than seeing the grey rain clouds of Sydney, i was greeted by another kind of grey - smog!! and lots of it.
It was so nice to have my niece and nephews come running at me with big hugs as I came out of the baggage claim. Then i saw my sister, brother-in-law and team mate Kristy and her daughter Amelia. It really felt like i was back home and if it wasn't for the fact that the kids had all grown up so much and that James is almost taller than me now, it would've felt like no time had passed at all. That night, my sister had organised for our team mates and some of my close friends to come around for dinner. It was so nice to see them all again in person and to hang out. Even nicer that I haven't lost too much of my Thai and could chat and have fun with them like the old days. Am looking forward to hanging out more - when i'm not so tired from travelling for 20hrs.
With Jai and Ang
With May, Daa & Boom
Many may think I'm strange, but I'm really enjoying the heat and humidity, maybe cos Sydney has been so cold this past summer. However, it wasn't so great when we ended up with a blackout late last night just as we were about to have a shower and go to bed. Trying to sleep in a room with still, humid air isn't so fun. So while we were waiting for the power to come back on, i thought it was an opportune time to play with my camera and get the kids to make letters with their torches. Here are a few of the better shots.
Then today, we went out on a 'tiaw' (day trip), to Mae Wang where we got to camp out in little shelters next to the river and eat REAL Thai food (it's never tasted sooooo good!!) and the kids got to play in the river on tyre tubes. It's soooo good to be back! So much to praise God for!
Eating REAL Thai food with Lop, Nit, Denise and John at Mae Wang
Mimi floating down the 'slider' rapids
The river.
For those who pray:
- Praise God for safe travels to Thailand
- Praise God for great family and friends here
- Pray for the reestablishment of friendships and development of new ones
- Pray for continued settling in, finding of suitable accommodation, cultural adjustment, further language learning etc
