Booking hotels in Bangkok, Thailand. Travelling with children.

It is easy to just arrive in any city in Thailand, including Bangkok, baring a holiday, and book a hotel room.  Especially if you are on a budget, travelling with children, and care about getting the most bang for your buck.  In fact if this is the case, this approach is strongly recommended.

Damsel in distress.

Ultra modern. ultra clean Bangkok Airport

When we were getting our visas for Thailand in the Thai Consulate, we were asked if we could aid a Thai girl in getting home.  It turned out that for personal reasons a Thai citizen was in Lapaz and needed to get home but was scared to make the long journey by herself. Would we be willing to assist this young damsel in distress?
We all have our go to mode, or our first reactions when confronted with a request.  Mine is always one of generosity bordering on pulling down my pants, bending over and asking how else may I please you.  So naturally my first response was a whole hearted and happy yes to this humble request.  It was only afterwards when I had a moment to think and be Bolivian did some possible consequences of my acceptance play out.  The first and most natural scenario that played in my mind was that what better cover for a drug smuggler than to plant their mule with an unsuspecting family of 4 to take their several kilos of cocaine to south east Asia were a large profit could be had.  Scenes from Midnight Express played repeatedly through my mind.  My other thought was that some mail order bride was being returned to sender, some poor girl tricked into making the journey to Bolivia only to be abused by some pot bellied greasy old perv.  But I had no choice.  It was the right thing to do.

Bangkok (first world fun with third world charm)

One of many temple complexes sprinkled throughout Bangkok

Most backpackers seem to treat Bangkok as an arrival and departure point and little more.  A typical Bangkok tourist visit, will almost always include the Grand Palace.  After this Kao San road, MBK mall in Siam Square, maybe Chatuchak weekend market or floating market and if travelling without kids, probably a walk around Chinatown and Patpong.  2 or 3 days tops.  For repeat visitors, usually a direct flight to where they really want to be and you skip Bangkok altogether.

Old vs New.  Immaculate vs decrepit. Give yourself time to explore.

Doha Airport layover. (The Blind leading the blind)

Big spenders get to exit planes in Doha on covered stairs to be whisked away in luxury cars.  Cheapskates like us disembark the back of the plane on regular stairs to be herded on to buses.

They say first impressions are what count.  Fortunately for me this is not the case.  After being blown away by our journey on Qatar Airways, we were once again blown away by the heat upon exiting the airplane on arrival to Doha airport.  The airport here has an interesting system where all planes are parked on the tarmac and the passengers are shuttled to their respective terminal by bus for poor class, and BMW for the rich.  This requires you to exit the airplane on those roll away steps.

Buses for the plebeians

Limo service for big spenders

The point of a journey is not to arrive.

"Are we there yet?"  14 hours of this was sure to be a very torturous beginning to a very long vacation.  But it is my belief that if you change your view of where "there" is, then the question disappears.  Instead of viewing 14 hours of being trapped in an airplane as an ends to a means, we viewed it as a part of a journey.  The prince was key in making this transition of mentality from the destination becoming the prize to the journey itself being the objective.  So while the Queen and I were bogged down in the logistics of travel, the Prince handled the journey itself.  This began with internet searches on what plane we would be on, including size, capacity, speed, and specs.  It continued with maps showing what continents and countries we would be passing over.  He also studied what food was to be offered and what movies.  Thus we where very excited about the whole affair.

Doha Airport view of skyline