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Sunday 30 March 2008

From Cornwall to Bangkok

The last 24 hours were so stressful, with a combination of packing up the last of our junk and shipping rubbish to the dump. Racing round to see relatives and friends, which was great!

It's always lovely to see everybody but not in one quick stint. Anyway we left for the bus station and were waved off by Becca, my dad Hilary and Poppy and the boys driving madly down the one way street (the wrong way).

Hanna and Tehya in Thailand

Tehya was amazing on the bus ride, she is quite exceptional. We had a five hour wait and check in at the airport, then the flight was delayed by 45 mins. She was very tired by this point and very hungry but true to present form she was cheerful and patient.

As soon as we had eaten Tehya went straight to sleep, we did not. There was a lot of turbulence and I did feel complete terror at times, I kept saying to myself turbulence doesn't make planes crash and it seemed to help and I managed to keep relatively calm.

There was one really violent dip and shudder and the lights came on and the air attendants asked people to make sure that our seat belts were secure and at that point I cried out and nearly lost it completely.

Some luxury at the start of the trip

Tehya woke at breakfast and the three of us experienced a pleasant landing…I cried!

We got through immigration and baggage collection quickly and easily and with no delays. Finding a taxi for a good price was pain free and the driver was very friendly and pleased to meet Teh.

He got lost trying to find the hotel, but that was pretty amusing and we were so glad to be in Bangkok that it all felt fine and we were not rushed to arrive.

Monday 31 March 2008

The Dusit Thani is truly beautiful. The room is a little worn around the edges, but only a little! The hotel staff are kind and eager to be of assistance. They are very sweet with Tehya who is loving the attention and the friendly atmosphere.

The hotel is huge with six restaurants, bars, gym and swimming pool. The bed is the biggest most comfortable thing we have ever slept on and I am almost reluctant to leave it behind.

Fun in the pool for Tehya

We had room service the first night to avoid anything to much like hard work and had a difficult night. We were all exhausted but sleep did not come easily, and then when it did Tehya woke at 1.30am and stayed up until 4.00.

We made her get up at 9.30 for breakfast as we knew she would be hungry and wanted to swim. We felt more adventurous and went out onto Silom Rd. It was amazing, very hot and humid.

Tehya was really into her surroundings andΜύspent the whole time silent with big eyes trying to take it all in: The noise, smells, people, trafficΜύand the street stalls that were all setting up for the evening street market.

We asked her if she would like to go into a shopping mall for some air con after about 40 minutes but she just shook her head and said no, so we kept walking. Its only been a few days but over all she seems bright, excited, interested and happy, so are we!

More from Hanna, Gavin and Tehya soon...

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