Back in Thailand ... for a Short Time

The kids and I arrived back in Thailand last night at about midnight local time. Flying with three young children on a twenty-four hour plus trip is a bit challenging. Overall the kids were pretty good, although at times on eleven and a half hour flight to Tokyo, we were all frustrated by the lack of room to spread out and the corresponding inability to sleep.

A few highlights from the trip:

- The Greater Cincinnati Airport has these machines which attempt to detect explosives or perhaps even drugs. Part of the functionality involves blowing a puff of air. This is very evident when someone with long hair goes through, as it blows their hair up. While we were waiting to go through security, Nalin was fascinated with watching the women go through. When we got to the front, they told us that we didn't have to go through. The guard saw the crestfallen look on my children's face and told them that they could go through if they wanted to do so. Jacob goes through, and then Nalin. I turn around and Jacob is standing in it again. I barked out "Jacob, stop it." Of course when he steps out prematurely the alarm went off. The TSA inspector was in pretty good spirits and reset the alarm.

- The flight was pretty smooth. Turbulence doesn't bother me, except for the fact that on some flights the seat belt sign is on the entire flight. On our flight to Tokyo, we were free to roam about the cabin almost the entire flight. The kids and I don't really walk around that much, but sometimes we try to lay them on the floor, or hold them in our lap.

- United's entertainment package is just awful. Yes, there is a TV on ever seat. No, I didn't spend a minute watching any of it. The kids watched a little, but the selection was really poor. Jacob's screen went out about an hour into the long flight. The flight attendant came over, couldn't fix it, and offered to reseat us. Of course she couldn't reseat all four of us, but could have put two of us some ten rows away. Yeah, that would work out really well. In fact, how about just relocating me ten rows back. As we declined relocation, she gave us some card to get bonus frequent flyer miles. About ten minutes later I remembered that Jacob had looked for something under the seat shortly before the TV went out. I asked him to look and see if there was a switch on the box under his seat that feeds the screens. He took a look and "ta da" the screen was fixed. The score, United flight attendant 0, Jacob 1.

- I brought a lot of candy with me on the plane and in my checked luggage. I brought about fifteen pounds of skittles, about twenty Cincinnati style chili packages, and some powdered gravy. You can get the gravy here, but its more expensive. The skittles are very difficult to find, and Cincinnati chili, well you are lucky to find that in most parts of the U.S.

- The pièce de résistance of my culinary imports was the soy cheese for the girls. The girls love cheese, and as you may know are allergic to cow's milk. They can have indirect milk (if its cooked in something), but regular milk and cheese will cause them to itch. Of course, their inability to eat it has only increased their love of it. I froze half a dozen cheese blocks and put them in a container with some of those fluid filled freezer packs. My concern was that the cheese would be warm when we arrived, but to my surprise it was still quite cool.

- On the flight to Bangkok, Nalin sat next to a young Thai woman who was living in Naples, Florida. At one point in the flight, Nalin was actually sleeping with her head rested on the woman's arm. I looked over at one point and the woman just smiled , seeming to indicate that it was okay. That was enough for me.

- All of our flights arrived early. It took us about twenty or thirty minutes to get through immigration. After we had cleared immigration and I piled our bags on a baggage cart, a Thai policeman came up and asked me if I was Brian. He said that my wife had sent him, and handed me the phone so I could talk to her. He pushed the luggage cart through security, which allowed Aleena to be completely lazy and ride in her stroller. When the officer arrived, I was ready to fold up the stroller and throw it up on the luggage cart. Lucky girl. The officer took us right through customs. I'm not sure if we would have been required to run all the luggage through the scanner but for him, but it was nice to avoid heaving around the fifty pound bags while managing the three kids.

So overall the trip wasn't too bad. I really don't look forward to traveling half way around the world with three kids by myself again. I don't look forward to making the trip by myself sans children, but of course, that's what I'm doing next week. More on that later.