Grand Canyon North Rim from Bright Angel Point.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Canyon X Vibrant
This was from Canyon X near Page, Arizona. I was in the Canyon by myself (well with the guide) for three hours of shooting. It was one of the highlights of my trip.
I have lots more photos from here to post. Stay tuned.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Japan Delayed
I messed up. I didn't realize that Tim needed a visa to visit Japan. Unfortunately, there is no way to get a visa before our scheduled trip on Monday. Tim spoke with someone in the travel industry who told her that it typically takes at least three days.
We considered moving our trip back five days and shortening it by one. That would bring us back to Thailand a day before the kids had to go back to school. The other option was to go in October during the week long school holiday. The kids would miss a couple of days of school under this plan. We decided to go ahead and move the trip back to October. The weather is usually better then, and late July and early August can be more crowded as Japanese students are on holiday.
Changing the trip was not without cost. There was a cancellation fee for the airline tickets, but I was able to cancel the hotel reservations without cost. In the long run, the trip might actually save us some money. I used miles to buy the tickets, which was refunded when I canceled. I did some calculations, and it turns out that we would be better off actually buying the tickets to Japan, and saving the miles for trips to the U.S.
I still feel like a bit of an idiot. I'm not quite sure how it slipped between the cracks, but it did.
We considered moving our trip back five days and shortening it by one. That would bring us back to Thailand a day before the kids had to go back to school. The other option was to go in October during the week long school holiday. The kids would miss a couple of days of school under this plan. We decided to go ahead and move the trip back to October. The weather is usually better then, and late July and early August can be more crowded as Japanese students are on holiday.
Changing the trip was not without cost. There was a cancellation fee for the airline tickets, but I was able to cancel the hotel reservations without cost. In the long run, the trip might actually save us some money. I used miles to buy the tickets, which was refunded when I canceled. I did some calculations, and it turns out that we would be better off actually buying the tickets to Japan, and saving the miles for trips to the U.S.
I still feel like a bit of an idiot. I'm not quite sure how it slipped between the cracks, but it did.
Friday, July 17, 2009
U.S. Embassy is Always Trying
A day or two before I left for my U.S. vacation, I remembered that we needed to renew Aleena's passport. It was not set to expire until January of next year, but for some reason countries require that your passport be valid six months beyond your scheduled trip. Aleena's passport was due to expire five and a half months after our trip to Japan. Lucky us, we got to go to visit the American Services Center (ACS) at the U.S. Embassy.
The ACS, as its name suggests, provides services to U.S. citizens living abroad. The two main services probably involve passports and providing documentation required by the Thai government for certain official business. When I wanted to get a Thai driver's license, for example, I had to go to the U.S. Embassy and get a notarized form confirming my address in Thailand. Of course, the only thing that the U.S. Embassy knows about my address in Thailand is what I tell them, but none the less it makes the Thai officials happy so I am required to comply.
I have generally found dealing with the ACS a very frustrating experience. The ACS employees are a mix of Thai and Americans. I think all the key roles are held by Americans, but the front line people are usually Thai. There hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. and then from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m.
We arrived at about 10:15 a.m. to renew Aleena's passport. Within ten minutes we had filled out the paperwork and were waiting for an interview. A few minutes before 11:00, the clerk tells me that the pictures that I submitted did not leave enough space above Aleena's head. This was extremely frustrating, since the clerk had looked at these pictures when we first submitted the paperwork but had not mentioned any issues. By the time we went out and had the pictures redone, the ACS was closed for its two hour break. Tim managed to actually talk our way back in past the guards, but the woman who conducted the interview had already gone to lunch. Actually, they told me that she had left for an emergency, and told Tim in Thai that she had gone to lunch.
I was beside myself as we had to wait for nearly two hours for the office to reopen. Tim took the girls to lunch, while I sat and fumed. Yes, I had made a mistake with the picture, but how difficult would it have been for the clerk to point it out earlier in the process?
When they reopened, they conducted the interview and approved the renewal. The passports are actually generated in the U.S., so it takes a few weeks to receive them. While I was back in the States, I received a confirmation email that Aleena's passport was ready.
Fast forward to yesterday. I was sitting at my computer at 8:45 a.m. when I remembered that we had to pick up the passport. We leave on our trip on Monday, so it was the last day to pick it up. I checked the confirmation email for any instructions, grabbed my passport, hopped in a cab and was on my way. I arrived at the ACS at about 9:40 and was please to see that there was no line and my number was called in fewer than five minutes.
As so often is the case with the ACS, what appears to be a promising experience quickly transforms into an experience teeth-grinding proportions. The clerk asked for Aleena's old passport. I hadn't brought it. The email didn't mention bringing the old passport, and honestly, I couldn't even remember that they had given us the passport back. The clerk said that they could not give me the new passport without the old one.
I looked at the clock and swore softly. It was unlikely that I could get home and back in an hour. I really didn't want to come back for the 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. session. I wanted to be done with it.
I jumped in a cab and showed him my home address in my little green book. This is a small notebook that has addresses (and sometimes maps) written in Thail. I use this primarily when dealing with cab drivers. The driver says he didn't know and asked me if I could give directions. I'm out of that cab in a second, as that is a recipe to raise my blood pressure another ten points. I had more luck with the second cab driver, who said Nichada and shook his head yes.
Even though Bangkok traffic made a quick return Trip unlikely, I decided to give it a try. If I didn't make it back by 11:00 a.m., I'd just have lunch and wait until 1:00. I explained to the driver in broken Thai that I wanted to go home and come back. I wanted to call the house so they could find the passport and have it ready for me, but my phone battery was dead. We arrived at the house at 10:25, and I had the passport in my hand two minutes later. I had Yaow ask the driver if he could get me there in under thirty minutes, and he said yes.
I was watching the clock the entire ride back, as we were really cutting it close. The driver passed the normal exit for the Embassy. When i questioned him, he said "rote tit" (traffic jam). At 10:57 a.m. we were thirty yards from the Embassy which was on the other side of the street. I handed him six hundred baht (the fare was 250 baht), told him ten minutes, jumped out and sprinted to the office. The guard looked at me, and said two minutes. I smiled and said that I only need one.
When I made my way back to the ACS, I was at first dismayed that they had locked the box where you take a number. If you don't have the number by 11:00 a.m., they won't service you until the afternoon. I saw the clerk from earlier in the day and got his attention. Fortunately, he decided not to be a complete jerk and waited on me right then. Ten minutes later, I was back outside with Aleena's new passport in hand. The taxi driver was waiting for ten meters up the road.
I definitely understand that the ACS has rules that they need to follow. What frustrated me so much this time is that the confirmation email didn't say anything about bringing the old passport. Maybe they told us three weeks ago when we applied, but adding the one line in an email would cost nothing and would make the experience so much less painful for the people they are supposed to serve.
The ACS, as its name suggests, provides services to U.S. citizens living abroad. The two main services probably involve passports and providing documentation required by the Thai government for certain official business. When I wanted to get a Thai driver's license, for example, I had to go to the U.S. Embassy and get a notarized form confirming my address in Thailand. Of course, the only thing that the U.S. Embassy knows about my address in Thailand is what I tell them, but none the less it makes the Thai officials happy so I am required to comply.
I have generally found dealing with the ACS a very frustrating experience. The ACS employees are a mix of Thai and Americans. I think all the key roles are held by Americans, but the front line people are usually Thai. There hours of operation are 7:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. and then from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m.
We arrived at about 10:15 a.m. to renew Aleena's passport. Within ten minutes we had filled out the paperwork and were waiting for an interview. A few minutes before 11:00, the clerk tells me that the pictures that I submitted did not leave enough space above Aleena's head. This was extremely frustrating, since the clerk had looked at these pictures when we first submitted the paperwork but had not mentioned any issues. By the time we went out and had the pictures redone, the ACS was closed for its two hour break. Tim managed to actually talk our way back in past the guards, but the woman who conducted the interview had already gone to lunch. Actually, they told me that she had left for an emergency, and told Tim in Thai that she had gone to lunch.
I was beside myself as we had to wait for nearly two hours for the office to reopen. Tim took the girls to lunch, while I sat and fumed. Yes, I had made a mistake with the picture, but how difficult would it have been for the clerk to point it out earlier in the process?
When they reopened, they conducted the interview and approved the renewal. The passports are actually generated in the U.S., so it takes a few weeks to receive them. While I was back in the States, I received a confirmation email that Aleena's passport was ready.
Fast forward to yesterday. I was sitting at my computer at 8:45 a.m. when I remembered that we had to pick up the passport. We leave on our trip on Monday, so it was the last day to pick it up. I checked the confirmation email for any instructions, grabbed my passport, hopped in a cab and was on my way. I arrived at the ACS at about 9:40 and was please to see that there was no line and my number was called in fewer than five minutes.
As so often is the case with the ACS, what appears to be a promising experience quickly transforms into an experience teeth-grinding proportions. The clerk asked for Aleena's old passport. I hadn't brought it. The email didn't mention bringing the old passport, and honestly, I couldn't even remember that they had given us the passport back. The clerk said that they could not give me the new passport without the old one.
I looked at the clock and swore softly. It was unlikely that I could get home and back in an hour. I really didn't want to come back for the 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. session. I wanted to be done with it.
I jumped in a cab and showed him my home address in my little green book. This is a small notebook that has addresses (and sometimes maps) written in Thail. I use this primarily when dealing with cab drivers. The driver says he didn't know and asked me if I could give directions. I'm out of that cab in a second, as that is a recipe to raise my blood pressure another ten points. I had more luck with the second cab driver, who said Nichada and shook his head yes.
Even though Bangkok traffic made a quick return Trip unlikely, I decided to give it a try. If I didn't make it back by 11:00 a.m., I'd just have lunch and wait until 1:00. I explained to the driver in broken Thai that I wanted to go home and come back. I wanted to call the house so they could find the passport and have it ready for me, but my phone battery was dead. We arrived at the house at 10:25, and I had the passport in my hand two minutes later. I had Yaow ask the driver if he could get me there in under thirty minutes, and he said yes.
I was watching the clock the entire ride back, as we were really cutting it close. The driver passed the normal exit for the Embassy. When i questioned him, he said "rote tit" (traffic jam). At 10:57 a.m. we were thirty yards from the Embassy which was on the other side of the street. I handed him six hundred baht (the fare was 250 baht), told him ten minutes, jumped out and sprinted to the office. The guard looked at me, and said two minutes. I smiled and said that I only need one.
When I made my way back to the ACS, I was at first dismayed that they had locked the box where you take a number. If you don't have the number by 11:00 a.m., they won't service you until the afternoon. I saw the clerk from earlier in the day and got his attention. Fortunately, he decided not to be a complete jerk and waited on me right then. Ten minutes later, I was back outside with Aleena's new passport in hand. The taxi driver was waiting for ten meters up the road.
I definitely understand that the ACS has rules that they need to follow. What frustrated me so much this time is that the confirmation email didn't say anything about bringing the old passport. Maybe they told us three weeks ago when we applied, but adding the one line in an email would cost nothing and would make the experience so much less painful for the people they are supposed to serve.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
My Return Flight
If my flight over to the U.S. was uneventful, my return trip was anything but. It started off a little bit unusual in that Northwest (actually Delta) could not print my boarding pass for the Detroit to Tokyo and Bangkok segments. It was not a big deal, I just need to go to the counter when I arrived in Detroit, but I don't remember that happening before.
The flight from Detroit to Tokyo started off normally. I selected the middle seat in the exit row, calculating that the extra leg room and ability to get up easily would more than make up for having strangers on each side of me. Fortunately, the gentleman sitting in the window seat was very slight, so I was not crowded at all from that side.
I was listening to my head phones about an hour into the flight when I heard something over the intercom about landing. I looked over, and there in the exit row on the other side of the plane was a teenage girl on the floor, surrounded by people with an IV in her arm. Before you call me obtuse for not noticing it early, I was staring at the scene for about ten minutes before the guy sitting next to me noticed.
The girl was a diabetic, and apparently started having seizures in her seat. Fortunately, there was a doctor on board, as well as at least one nurse. They started treating the girl and the decision was made to divert the plane to a nearby city so that she could get additional medical equipment. Originally they were going to stop in Duluth, but bad weather prevented this, so we ended up in Minneapolis.
By the time the plane landed, the girl was sitting upright. When the paramedics arrived, I believe she walked off the plane herself.
One you land, its not a simple matter to just take off again. We had to wait for one hour for the brakes to cool down. Additionally, the pilot needed to obtain new navigation plans, and we had to wait for our turn to leave. By the time we finally took off again, we were three hours behind.
Apparently some of the passengers were much more concerned about their itineraries than the passengers health and safety. I heard one passenger comment about how in Japan, if you do something like this (he assumed the girl didn't monitor her blood sugar, which may in fact be true, I don't know), you pay for it. Others complained to flight attendants about missed connections. The flight attendants were pretty put off by it. I was too. Certainly I was concerned about my connection, but there is a time and place to voice that, and as the girl is exiting the plane does not qualify as the time nor place.
The entire incident had to be very expensive for Northwest. In order to land in Minneapolis, they had to dump or burn 30,000 pounds of fuel. Additionally, almost everyone who had connections missed them, requiring Northwest to put two hundred to three hundred people in hotel rooms. They also rebooked many of us on different airlines the next day. I flew on an 11:00 a.m. (Tokyo time) Thai Airway flight. There are undoubtedly many more costs involved.
When we arrived in Tokyo (Narita actually) at about 8:30 p.m., cleared immigration and customs, and a bus took us to a hotel. They provided us with a voucher for dinner and breakfast. There was a bus to take us back to the airport in the morning. I walked around for a few minutes and took a few photos, but nothing really striking.
Although it was very inconvenient to be stuck overnight, I have to compliment Northwest on how they handled the situation. They put the safety of the passenger first, and really did a nice job of trying to make the transition for those impacted passengers seamless.
The flight from Detroit to Tokyo started off normally. I selected the middle seat in the exit row, calculating that the extra leg room and ability to get up easily would more than make up for having strangers on each side of me. Fortunately, the gentleman sitting in the window seat was very slight, so I was not crowded at all from that side.
I was listening to my head phones about an hour into the flight when I heard something over the intercom about landing. I looked over, and there in the exit row on the other side of the plane was a teenage girl on the floor, surrounded by people with an IV in her arm. Before you call me obtuse for not noticing it early, I was staring at the scene for about ten minutes before the guy sitting next to me noticed.
The girl was a diabetic, and apparently started having seizures in her seat. Fortunately, there was a doctor on board, as well as at least one nurse. They started treating the girl and the decision was made to divert the plane to a nearby city so that she could get additional medical equipment. Originally they were going to stop in Duluth, but bad weather prevented this, so we ended up in Minneapolis.
By the time the plane landed, the girl was sitting upright. When the paramedics arrived, I believe she walked off the plane herself.
One you land, its not a simple matter to just take off again. We had to wait for one hour for the brakes to cool down. Additionally, the pilot needed to obtain new navigation plans, and we had to wait for our turn to leave. By the time we finally took off again, we were three hours behind.
Apparently some of the passengers were much more concerned about their itineraries than the passengers health and safety. I heard one passenger comment about how in Japan, if you do something like this (he assumed the girl didn't monitor her blood sugar, which may in fact be true, I don't know), you pay for it. Others complained to flight attendants about missed connections. The flight attendants were pretty put off by it. I was too. Certainly I was concerned about my connection, but there is a time and place to voice that, and as the girl is exiting the plane does not qualify as the time nor place.
The entire incident had to be very expensive for Northwest. In order to land in Minneapolis, they had to dump or burn 30,000 pounds of fuel. Additionally, almost everyone who had connections missed them, requiring Northwest to put two hundred to three hundred people in hotel rooms. They also rebooked many of us on different airlines the next day. I flew on an 11:00 a.m. (Tokyo time) Thai Airway flight. There are undoubtedly many more costs involved.
When we arrived in Tokyo (Narita actually) at about 8:30 p.m., cleared immigration and customs, and a bus took us to a hotel. They provided us with a voucher for dinner and breakfast. There was a bus to take us back to the airport in the morning. I walked around for a few minutes and took a few photos, but nothing really striking.
Although it was very inconvenient to be stuck overnight, I have to compliment Northwest on how they handled the situation. They put the safety of the passenger first, and really did a nice job of trying to make the transition for those impacted passengers seamless.
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Sound of the City
I took this picture at Devou Park on my trip back home. I really love the wireless remote trigger.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)