Thailand - Part 3 and Getting Home

Toward the end of our trip we went to the Crocodile Farm.  It was a pretty neat, but frightening site!  There were crocodiles everywhere!

Baby Crocs

 There was a section where there was a bridge over a pond filled with crocodiles.  I was terrified about falling in!  The place sold raw chicken carcasses that you can feed to the crocodiles.  It was interesting to watch.  Since this was our first time seeing the crocodile eat, we didn't realize how fast it would happen.  Later we saw people feeding them, but they were teasing the crocodiles with the lure and getting the crocs to chomp and climb over each other.

Now you see it...

Not you don't

 At the Crocodile Farm, there were also many photo opportunities.  We saw grown tigers (white and orange), baby tigers and a bear all that you could sit with and have your picture taken for a small fee.  Brian did this at Nong Nooch so he didn't feel the need to do it again.  (He claimed it was quite scary sitting next to the tiger).

They had a show of crocodile wrestling that we watched.  It was pretty silly, but cool.  I was definitely less intimidated by the crocs after watching these knuckleheads drag them around by their tail and put their head in the crocs mouth.

 There were also elephants there (there are elephants everywhere in Thailand).  We took the opportunity to feed the elephants bananas again.  Drew clearly remembered feeding the elephant in Nong Nooch and he was an expert the second time around.  He probably passed out 10 bananas total to the different elephants.  He was really good it and didn't mind when he got slobbered on!

 The last day of our trip we spent around the condo, getting packed up and also enjoying the pool.  We felt it was important to let Drew have a fun day (while he liked the elephants, I'm not sure sight seeing is really that much fun for him at his age).  We enjoyed the pool and the sun and all rested up for our big trip.  It was a good thing we did too because we had quite the adventure getting home...

Our first flight from Bangkok to Tokyo went smoothly.  We were in the back of the plane and had two seats with no one next to us so it was perfect.  Drew did well flying and was able to sleep when he needed to.  When we arrived in Tokyo it was snowing.  Our flight was delayed, but they put us on the plane anyway.  The original delay was because the flight crew wasn't there yet.  They were on an incoming flight that was delayed, yada yada yada.  They finally made it to the plane and we were set to get de-iced, but something happened and we didn't get de-iced.  Eventually (after sitting on the plane for 5 hours), they told us they were cancelling the flight.  It took over an hour before they finally let us off the flight.  To me it didn't matter too much because Drew was sleeping and I wasn't looking forward to moving him back the airport.  Brian and I were pretty hungry.  We were supposed to get dinner on the flight, but that didn't happen. Then when we got off the plane, the airport was closed because it was nearly midnight in Tokyo.

Of course no one knew what was going on and when we'd be rescheduled on a flight.  All they could tell us what that we could call the ticketing office in the morning when they opened at 9 am.  We had to pick up all our luggage and go through customs since our flight was cancelled.  That actually ended up being ok because I needed to get some more diapers and repack a little since our travel day was much much longer than I anticipated.  But since we had all our crap and no yen, we decided not even to try to get a hotel out of the airport.  Plus we heard they were all booked anyway (there were 4 or 5 flights cancelled that night).  I also thought that since we didn't know what time our next flight was it was safer to stay at the airport anyway.

The airport was kind enough to pass our sleeping bags, air mattresses, crackers and some water.  This helped alot because the floor was cold and we also had to make a tent to keep the light out of Drew's eyes.  Eventually the next day we were put on a flight from Tokyo to Houston and finally left the airport about 5 pm.  We made it safely back to Houston on Tuesday (instead of Monday), but we made it and that's all that matters.

 

Our Tokyo accommodations

Overall, we all had a fantastic time and really appreciate Steve and Mary having us and being such generous hosts!