Thailand but no India

Gate 45, on our way from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Not our original plan.

We all have our dumb moments and Ben and I have definitely had our fair share this trip... It all started when waiting for our connection in Tokyo to Bangkok, we noticed our flight from Bangkok to Phuket was booked a month late. Seriously? We had no one to blame but ourselves, we booked them together, likely late at night when we clearly should have been sleeping. But it gets worse- when rebooking, we booked the return flight for a month later AGAIN! What!? Ok, now we are delirious. That time we blamed our old age and the computer. Thank heavens, just as we gasped in shock and laughed at our demise it popped up on the computer that the charge was declined! Thank heavens for our cc declining the charge because we were purchasing in a foreign land. So we sorted things out with the cc and booked a correct flight and made it to Phuket in time to check-in at our lovely hotel and hit the beach. Phew!

Well, believe it or not, our troubles didn't end there. We enjoyed our time in Thailand and then packed up at 4am and headed to the airport to catch a flight to India (a place I've been dreaming to go for the longest time). When at the check-in counter we learn we need a visa to travel there. Haha- you're kidding right? No. We scrambled to a computer to see if we could get a visa before our flight departed in two hours but of course, that wasn't going to happen. We were clueless to the fact that India is one of the few countries in the world that requires a visa from US citizens. And we had no warning of this when purchasing our flight. How were we supposed to know? We blame our lack of research and our quick trip planning this time. So our hearts sank as we realized we weren't getting on that flight, nor any flight to India (at least not on this trip). Now what do we do for the next two weeks? Of course, our initial thoughts were not positive ones but we quickly had to get over it and if you're a parent you may know Daniel Tiger and his song (which is often stuck in my head due to Finn watching the episode over and over again) "when something seems bad, turn it around and find something good." We realized that things could go much worse. We thanked God for protection and health and each other and asked for His help in what to do next. Things don't always work out the way we plan, and that's ok. We can't complain, we are still on an awesome vaca which so many people would trade our places for. We ended up deciding to travel to Chiang Mai and see the rest of Thailand. After that- we're headed south to the beach again. After-all, our plan was to come back in a few years anyway so we could get a more complete tour here. Turns out that Chiang Mai is such a wonderful place, and I'm so glad I get to see it.

Granted, there's been some unfortunate moments but it all seems to work out in the end. Thanks to Daniel Tiger (and the Gospel) for helping us stay positive and see the bigger picture.