Thailand Day 3

Beep beep went the alarm, again...early morning. Dragged ourselves out of bed around 7am and headed down to our buffet breakfast. Decided that we would go to the US Embassy as soon as it opened. Got there around 8:30 am. After some mass confusion about my pages, which were free probably the highlight of the trip, I took a number and waited for my number to be called. There were about 40 people ahead of me and only two windows. I couldn't believe I had to wait through all of that, so I went to another window, the drop window. I stood by it for a bit, hoping someone would ask me if I needed help, sadly, nobody came. So finally, I just tapped on the window and asked if I could drop it off. Of course! So we left to kill time for about an hour. Around 10, we headed back into the embassy to pick up the passport. Alright! We were ready to head to the Chinese Embassy. I had all of my documents that my employer had given me, just give these to them and pick up your visa. It couldn't really be that easy, could it? So we head over to the Chinese Embassy, getting lost of course in one taxi and having to switch to another. We finally made it, took a number and started filling out the paper work and gluing my picture on it. Of course, in the visa office, it always takes forever. So we were busy filling out the papers, when I looked up and saw that they had already called our number! Flashing was 322. We were there for maybe two minutes...so we rushed up to that window with our number in hand, and said, we're sorry but we're 321. Get a new number was the automated response. Well, it really was a person, but the way she said it seemed like she was a mechanical device or something. Disgruntled, we grabbed a new number, 371- and yes, these are the real numbers because the memory is so engrained in my brain. We watched the numbers fly by, about five minutes later, we were up. There was a lot of commentary going on about how quickly they went through the numbers, I think they skipped at least 18 people. Finally, we got back up there, gave them the paperwork and waited. Hmmm...you need to have a health examination. Great, of course, it wouldn't be that easy. We politely told them that we had already done that, we had to do it for the paperwork that we just handed them. I'm sorry, you need to have a health exam. Okay, wait, we have a copy of the health exam from Kunming, will this work? I'm sorry, no copies accepted. *sigh, alright. What do we need to do? Go to a hospital and get this filled out. Even more digruntled, we left with the new health exam paper-which was the EXACT same form I had just gotten filled out in China about three weeks ago- and headed to a hospital. Well, the Bumrungrad hospital was the hospital of choice from a friend. It was huge, and clean, and so nice. We got to the registration to find out that the place closed already at 3pm. It was around 4pm at that time. *sigh, okay, sign us up for your earliest appointment, which meant ANOTHER early morning. We headed back to our room to get cleaned up, and I suddenly realized I didn't have my purse. Frantic, I threw the room upside down, but could not find it. After much agitation, we realized I had to have left it at one of the embassies. We got online so I could call my employer about the potential delay in our trip and that we might not make it back on Thursday, when I looked in my e-mail and found this message. Dear Suzanne, we have found your purse left in a taxi, please call this number to retrieve it. YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! The luck, I was so happy. We called the number, got the address, and hopped onto the sky train to get the purse. It was being held in the taxi headquarters. When we got there, we were treated like royalty. Kind of weird, I just wanted my purse back. We got to meet the "president" of the company and the entire process of how they tracked me down. It was a process, they found my arrival entry card for the Chinese customs in my purse, found out that I was American and called the US Embassy to find me. Because I had just been there, they had my e-mail ready to give out. Then it was education time, we learned about the red shirts and the yellow shirts of Thailand. Red=democracy, yellow=Monarchy. Then it was picture time, they took pictures of the whole purse handing off and the handshakes. They said they'll use it in the paper for propaganda. Sweeeeet, as mom said, "do you guys really feel safe about that? *sigh, you need to be careful." We headed out of the place about 30 mins. later, with the purse in hand. On our way back to the hotel, we were kicking ourselves for not asking for one of the red shirts. I'm sure they would have been happy to give one to us. Anyways, on arriving to our hotel, we ate the International buffet for dinner and decided to call it a night. Total walking distance: 9-10 miles.