The Life and Love of Karen: It is about the journey, not the destination

It is about the journey, not the destination. Sounds great but when a 23-26 hour trip turns into a 55.5 hour trip, the romantic notion dissipates quickly. I know many of you followed my saga via facebook, text message, or my mother but here is the summary of my journey to Bangkok. And, let me tell you the journey made me so glad to get to the destination :)

For all you visual folks, I documented my trip in shoe and chocolate photos – shout-out to cousin Veronica for the amazing chocolates! (Found at the bottom of this blog if you want to skip the "exciting" details)

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Karen. She was moving to Cambodia via Bangkok and was supposed to catch a 7am flight on the busiest travel day of the year. So, she planned to be at the airport three hours early as it is hard to re-schedule flights Bangkok if you miss them.

At 2:30 am, Thursday, January 2 – Karen wakes up after four-ish hours of sleep.

At 3:30am, Karen says goodbye to her little sister (who woke up at 3:30am to say goodbye). Karen's older sister, her hubbie, and parents load into the car. with 3.5 years worth of stuff, to go to the airport.

From 4:15am to 5:00am – The whole mob of Bortvedt/Andres folks (along with approximately 1,000,000,000 of their closest friends – and two that were actually their friends) stand in line at the airport to check in. While still waiting in line, Karen hears the United lady say, the Air Canada flight to Vancouver is canceled. Well, that is unfortunate. Karen confirms and is told to call to be rebooked (Air Canada operates through United at PDX and thus, apparently, United can't rebook). After calling, Karen is told she was already rebooked (nice of them to tell her that) and will fly out that afternoon. Because she has the most amazing parents that love her, they didn't make her just stay at the airport but took her back home. When she arrived at home and looked at the new itinerary, she realized she now had a 7 hour layover in Vancouver (ugh).

Attempting to rally, Karen curled back up in bed but something didn't seem right. She couldn't figure out why it was taking 16 hours longer to get to Bangkok when the lay over was only slightly longer... At this point, in a moment of sheer adrenaline, she realized her blunder. 12:00 is not midnight but noon. The three hour layover turned into a 19 hour layover. Thus, doing the only logical thing, Karen called to try to be moved to a flight with a shorter layover or to demand a hotel stay. The nice Air Canada lady (Mercedes, I think was her name) said, Karen could ask in Vancouver but there was no guarantee or Karen could book and request the reimbursement (Karen opted to book a hotel because emotional and physcial exhaustion make her similar to a wailing banshee or a siren, neither of which end well for those around her).

At 11:15 am – after two more hours of sleep and another shower, Karen tried again, heading to the airport, checking in and saying goodbye to the family.

At 3:40 pm – the scheduled departure time, the many folks waiting to fly to Vancouver were told the
flight was delayed, again. This time for mechanical issues. Another traveler, who had friends that went to UP, worked on an oil rig in Canada, was recently engaged and getting married in Algeria in August said that the morning flight had been canceled because the landing gear on the plane coming in wouldn't deploy (obviously, it eventually did and equally obvious, Karen spent the time making friends).

At 5:15pm ish – the plane finally departed. Through sheer karmic airplane justice, Karen was the only one on the entire plane with an empty seat next to her. Allowing for optimal curling-up and sleeping, for the entire arduous one hour flight. In Vancouver, the nice Air Canada lady ensured Karen had a window seat for the quick, 14-hour hop to Hong Kong and told Karen she should have just gotten a hotel voucher upon arrival (erg, way to go Mercedes). Fast forward through a delicious
PBJ dinner, making friends with the Indian shuttle driver, sleeping...

9:00am - Friday – Karen arrived at the airport and went to check-in for her flight (after learning it was delayed by an hour making the connection nearly impossible - 25 minutes from touchdown to doors closing). The attendant told Karen to check on the layover when she arrived in Hong Kong, and then told her, he couldn't even find her ticketed for that flight... By this point, Karen was immensely amused more than anything. She also started considering the benefits of doing mission in Canada. After an hour with the ticketing agent, she managed to find the ticket and change the connecting flight so Karen would make it to out of Hong Kong...maybe...

The flight from Hong Kong, despite the delay was a lovely experience. Karen sat next to an awesome couple named Margaret and Alex who were from Edmonton, Canada and heading to Hong Kong and Bali for three weeks, their son is a neurobiologist. Between establishing a long-lasting friendship and eating delicious vegetarian meals, Karen watched four movies – since plane rides are one of the only times she takes to get in touch with pop culture. After a layover in Hong Kong, Karen caught the plane to Bangkok (the interior was all bright purple and pink and the stewardesses were dressed in traditional Thai garments – unfortunately, no picture can be included, Karen was too busy trying unsuccessfully to keep her stomach in place ;) ). Looking stellar, like the beautiful orchids adorning the lapels of the stewardesses, Karen was met by two of the MKLMers with whom she will be working for the next 3.5 years. One watermelon smoothie and a cab ride later, Karen's travel endeavors finally reached a conclusion... It was now 11:15 am Saturday (Pacific Standard Time).