We're finally here! It is hard to believe that it is officially "time"--time to go to Thailand for the delivery of Baby Dean! I still have a few weeks till my due date, but the airlines have strict rules for how late in your pregnancy you can take an international flight--rules which apparently we were pushing from the attitude of the airline employees yesterday!
Last year, when my good friends the Greene's traveled to Thailand to give birth to their little boy Zeb, the airline almost didn't let them on board because, though they had a letter from their doctor saying Alisa Greene was perfectly healthy to fly, they didn't have the exact medical form from the airline! So this year, I made sure I had the required form (which had basically NO relevance to a pregnant passenger--sample questions: is the patient contagious or pose a risk to other passengers? Does patient require medication that he or she cannot administer herself? etc.) as well as a letter from my doctor in both English and Chinese giving me permission to fly. The airline's official policy was that you can fly up to 36 weeks pregnant as long as you have the medical form. Well, I am not sure if the airline employees at the airport were aware of this policy. They saw me and were immediately concerned, so I handed them all my documents which I was sure would be enough! They barely looked at them, and instead just discussed what a bad idea it was to let me on the plane. Finally, a man who seemed to be in charge asked me--how far along in your pregnancy will you be when you come back? (They hadn't looked at my itinerary either, apparently). I said I would deliver the baby in Thailand, so I wouldn't be pregnant when I came back. This was apparently the core issue, because as soon I said that he gave me permission to get on the plane and they started printing our boarding passes!
The only other interesting thing that happened on our trip yesterday was a luggage mix-up when we arrived here in Chiang Mai. At the baggage claim, 2 of our three bags came out together fairly early. Finally, our third bag--a bright red Dockers brand suitcase arrived. David opened it because he had been trying to remember all day if he'd brought his flip-flops, and he immediately said, "This isn't our bag!" I said, "Impossible! What do you mean?" But he let me look inside and sure enough--that wasn't our stuff! The suitcase was IDENTICAL to ours! There were no more bags coming off the belt, so we knew someone must have mistakenly taken our bag, and now we had theirs! I started talking to an airport employee about what had happened, and David had the brilliant idea to go out and see if he could find the people with our bag! Thankfully, they had not yet left the airport and David was able to find them! They were confused at first, but then opened the bag in question and made the same discovery we did--they had the wrong bag!! After that, they were very friendly and asked for our help in finding a place to stay that night. It was an American man with his Chinese wife and daughter, and another Chinese relative. We told them where we were staying and that we were paying about $30 US a night, which we considered pretty cheap. They thought that was WAY too expensive, and told us they only wanted to pay $3 US a night. David and I have traveled enough in Thailand to know that such prices do not exist--you MIGHT be able to get a bunk at a hostel for $15 a night, but $3 is totally ridiculous, so we bid them farewell and good luck on finding their "budget" hotel!
All in all, the trip went pretty smoothly, and we are glad to have arrived!
Afterwards we went to Swensen's (not sure if they still exist in the States, but they are serving up some mighty good ice cream all over the place here in Thailand) for some delicious sundaes--no corn (see below)!
Well, today was the big birthday! No, not the birthday we are all anticipating in about four more weeks, but the birthday of that little person's mom--me! Today I turned 28, and David made sure I had a great day. Started the day by talking to my parents on Skype, and afterwards I went to this little massage place near our hotel for a pedicure (which we are actually counting as part of my birthday gift from my in-laws--thanks Dwight and Barb!!) I had a couple of really interesting conversations while I had my toes beautified. A group of Sri Lankan men came in looking for massages (a little sketchy, I must admit) but one of them stayed and got a foot massage and chatted me up. He said he and 150 others came in town from Sri Lanka for some sort of Pan-Asian games (ahtletic competition) for people over 40. He said 23 different countries would be competing, and he was very excited about it! He said he personally ran the 100 and 200 meter races, but I have to admit--this man did NOT look like a runner! But he was very nice and was sure to "wish me a boy" before I left, which is just very polite in Asian cultures when you are pregnant! I also had an interesting conversation with the owner of the massage parlor. She asked if I had gotten pregnant through invetro-fertilization, and I said no. She said she herself had had IVF 3 times, but all 3 times had had miscarriages. So now, she said, she just works all the time and tries not to think about having a baby. She was very friendly, and so happy for me, and gave me a special discount since it was my birthday! It made me so thankful for the GIFT that this pregnancy really is.
After dinner, we walked down to this little cafe called "Loves Chocolate" for dessert. At each table, they have a cute little gong you sound when you want a waiter to come:
The cafe's specialty was a wide selection of belgian chocolates, so I selected four different ones as my dessert and a steamed milk (instead of coffee). It was a delicious and relaxing way to end the evening!
The classes have been really helpful. They are taught by two American nurses who live here and are really familiar with the doctors and the hospitals here and they're procedures and all that. In addition to learning a lot of the things you'd learn at a birth class in the States, we've learned a lot about what to expect here in Chiang Mai, what they do differently here and all that. I've also really enjoyed getting to know the other couples in our class! One couple lives here in Chiang Mai and is opening a restaurant--the husband is actually a third generation missionary who grew up here in Thailand! Another couple teaches English in the north of the same country David and I live in, and the fourth couple teaches English in Cambodia.
Here is David standing beside the moat at our favorite time of day here: dusk. The weather is perfect each night as we walk to any number of little cafes and Thai restaurants nearby.
The first night we were here, we ate at this restaurant very close to our hotel. We had passed it on our way to the hotel from the airport, and saw that it was bustling with people, so we knew whatever they were serving must be good! Turned out, it was an all-you-can-eat hot pot buffet, the Thai version. We really enjoyed it!
You can see the place is huge, open-air and just swarming with people! It was a great adventure to give it a try. :)
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