Cambodia/Thailand trip

After a rough start to our travels we finally made it to Cambodia which had been on my "must see" list ever since moving to China.  My parents were scheduled to arrive on Friday the 28th and we were supposed to take off the next morning at 5am for Bangkok and then on to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  I had been tracking their flight because I knew we didn't have much wiggle room for late or missed flights.  I saw they left Denver late, but thought they would still be okay with their tight connection in San Francisco.  I must have been worried because I woke up at 1am and tracked their flights for about an hour.  I saw their flight out of San Francisco had been delayed for take-off awaiting connecting passengers, so I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to go back to sleep.  Something made me check my email again and I was shocked to find one from my mom saying they'd missed the connection and they were put on a flight to Shanghai and then on to Beijing.  The stupid part was that they hadn't really missed the plane, United had just decided to shut the door and back up a few feet from the gate.  The San Francisco to Beijing flight actually ended up taking off AFTER the flight they were put on to Shanghai took off.  Anyway, all of this put me in a tailspin and I started checking alternatives to getting to Cambodia in case they didn't make it here in time for our flight the next day.  This all turned out to be a blessing because when I called our airline to ask about the next flight if we didn't go that next morning, they said our flight had been canceled.  Thanks for letting us know!!  If I hadn't called we would have shown up at the airport at 3am with no flight to catch.  Don't fly Sri Lankan Airlines!

So it was good that I found that out in advance, but how the heck were we going to get to Cambodia?  It was a holiday week here in China and flights were booked solid.  We needed to go through Thailand because we'd booked a specific hotel there that Jack picked for his birthday.  We could have switched and found another hotel, but Jack would have been disappointed, it would have been a lot more work, we would have lost a lot of money AND we had flights to Cambodia from Bangkok.  

Enter Kenny's assistant, Lisa.  She worked with their travel agent off and on all day to help piece together some flights on different airlines.  The catch....we needed to get to Shanghai (where the flights were out of, nothing available from Beijing) to meet my parents who knew nothing of what was going on.  So I threw a bunch of stuff in some bags, called the kennel to have Indy picked up and off we raced to the airport.  My biggest fear was that my parents would get off of their plane, run over to the Shanghai to Beijing gate and we'd cross paths in the air.  Luckily my friend, Jean, was on duty to call my mom as soon as they landed to tell her we were on our way and not to get on the next flight.  It all worked out great.  We had one 2am flight that we wouldn't have normally chosen, but we were so lucky to get there at all.

It was a wonderful trip.  Cambodia was beautiful, hot, humid and full of history.  The recent history of civil war and with the Khmer Rouge was fascinating and very sad to learn about.  Our guide was born in 1970 and shared his memories of the Khmer Rouge and the feeling of being hungry all the time when he was a child.  

The boys were not so thrilled with the temples, but loved the pool in Cambodia.  Plus, they knew we were heading to Thailand and the beach afterward and as long as Grandma and Papa are along they are happy.

We weren't counting on a trip to the ER, but we can now add Thailand to the list of countries we've been to the hospital in.  We're up to five countries we've gone to the ER in thanks to Nugget.  He had a totally innocent accident while stepping off a curb.  As soon as I picked him up I knew we needed to head to the hospital.  Luckily we were in front of our hotel and they got us a cab quickly.  We were also lucky my parents were along because they took the big boys and we could concentrate on the Nugsters.  The skin was split down to the bone and it took 11 stitches to close it.  The nurses didn't think I should be in the room given the state I was in when we came in.  There was A LOT of blood and although I used to help nurses with dressing changes all the time when I worked, for some reason when it's my kids I get really woozy and nauseous.  The hospital was really impressive and as clean, professional and modern as any I've seen in the US.  The whole bill with ER visit, X-Ray (the doctor was worried about a skull fracture), sutures and follow-up wound care the next day was about $110.  

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