36 hours Luang Prabang to Washington DC

This season of change continues at a rapid pace. We’re mostly unpacked in our new home now, and we even have wireless internet again after an in-house internet fast of 10 days – it got installed an hour before we left for the airport.

Oh well, it’ll be there and working when we get back in five weeks.

So now we’re in Washington DC. Surprise! Two days ago we woke up in Laos. Then we got on a plane (or three) and 23 years (or 36 hours) later we landed on the other side of the world.

Mike’s facebook status update last night read: “LPQ-BKK-ICN-ICD 36 hours with an 8 month old. There’s gotta be a hill tribe somewhere that knows of the bark of an rare, exotic tree that can be brewed to make a potion that’ll safely sedate babies for 36 hour plane journeys. I must find that tribe.”

Yeah, the Parent Protection Agency (PPA) really should make it illegal to do that trip non-stop with children under 12. Really.  The whole thing was one long, dehydrated blur of passing a wriggling, complaining baby back and forth between us, walking the plane aisles and finally getting him to sleep only to have him stir and cry 45 minutes later, and fighting the growing temptation to hand him to a stewardess, and say; “Enjoy. We’ll pick him up at the gate upon arrival.”

The endless baby-entertainment merry-go-round was interrupted only by a couple of freak-out moments. The first was when we arrived in Luang Prabang airport and were informed that – contrary to what we’d been assured by the travel agent – Dominic did not have his own seat but was on an infant ticket (and therefore, our laps) the whole way to Washington.

I was not at all happy. But after being told that all the flights were overbooked, we somehow ended up with a spare seat next to us on the 14-hour trip between Seoul and Washington anyway. Huge thanks to the guardian angel of exhausted parents traveling with small babies for that one!

And the only thing worse than hearing “This flight is already overbooked” when you’re trying to sort out your seat assignments at the transfer counter in Bangkok? Well, that would be: ““Um, this passport expired last month.

So much for not making the same mistake twice. Although, thanks to wireless internet in Bangkok airport and friendly relations between the US and Australia that allowed me to electronically apply for a tourist visa on my other passport, this time I didn’t break any laws. Also, while I acknowledge that it really is best practice to check the expiration date on my passports before trying to travel on them, I would also like it noted that I haven’t used my Canadian passport in about four years, so I’m not quite as silly as this might make me sound. Not quite.

But we’re here now. Back in the land of hamburgers and BBQ sauce and sweet potato fries and good wine and ice cream you can buy in grocery stores and blueberries and orange chicken from Panda Express.

I’m sure there are some things I’m looking forward to about being back that aren’t food related.

Thinking … Thinking …

Oh, yeah. Seeing family! Getting a haircut. Driving a car. Going to the festival of faith and writing. Buying things like ice packs, swim diapers, and king bed sheets. Hanging out with Mike every day for a month.

And hamburgers with BBQ sauce. Have I mentioned those already? CAN’T WAIT. It’s good to be on holidays.

What do you miss from “home” when you’re living elsewhere?

And as a bonus, since this post is so random anyway, here’s a video of Dominic doing what he did not spend most of the journey (36 hours!!) doing. Laughing hysterically. Even after two days with no sleep this can still make me smile.