June 20, Wednesday & June 21, Thursday & June 22, Friday

June 20, Wednesday  &  June 21, Thursday   &  June 22, Friday

Wednesday – I take off early today from the Viengtai Hotel to make my way to the Canadian Embassy to file the papers for my passport renewal.  I grab the envelope where I stashed the completed application forms and passport photos and find a tuk-tuk for the trip downtown.   I’m almost there when for some reason I start rummaging through the envelope only to discover that my ID cards (Driver’s licence, birth certificate, health card, RCMP retired CM card)  are not in the envelope ! ! !   @*$&%^#* ! ! ! 
I was certain that I had placed everything I needed in that envelope before leaving for my Indo China Loop excursion.   There is no way I can make it back to the hotel and back to the Embassy before noon when their offices close for lunch.  Plus, no applications accepted in the afternoon !    OH WELL !(Big sigh)   Might as well make the most of it while I’m downtown, so I head back to the Au Bon Pain bakery at the corner of Silom road and Rama IV for brunch.    I get a taxi back to hotel and call it a day.   At 6 pm I meet John, Mike and Karsten for dinner.  Lindsey arrives just as we are getting ready to leave.  I say my goodbyes to John and Karston who will be leaving later tonight and say good bye to Lindsey as well, but hope to see her again on June 28 when I pick up my Kindle from the Bangkok hotel where she will be staying with her parents prior to their trip to Myanmar.

Thursday – Another trip to the Canadian Embassy downtown, this time with all the required paperwork.  It only takes a few minutes to confirm that everything is complete.  When I ask about getting an extension on my Thai Tourist Visa, I am informed that the Canadian Embassy does not take care of this (bad assumption on my part) and that I will have to take my passport to the Thai Immigration Department to get this done.   Although these offices used to be located just a few streets from the Canadian Embassy, this year they moved their offices near the Bangkok domestic airport.   I know that I can’t make it there and back before noon and I’m advised that I can drop the passport off this afternoon after 1:30 since my paperwork with them has already been accepted.  It takes me about one hour to get there and obtain the extended tourist visa.  The hitch is that they will only give me an extension of 7 days (over the 7 days I already have from the land crossing from Cambodia).  When I enquire as to why I cannot get a total of 30 days (granted when you fly in) there is no explanation other than “You came back into Thailand by land”.  If I want a longer extension, I have to leave the country and come back in again ! ! !   I FAIL TO SEE THE LOGIC, but manage to keep smiling at the two officials and keep my cool.  {I know!  the people I’ve worked with in the past are not believing that I kept my cool ....  but this is the new “retired” me !  :-) }    I explain that I won’t be able to leave the country since my passport is heading back to Canada and I’m waiting for my new one to come in.  They aren’t sympathetic at all.  No go, no extension past the 7 extra days.   So on July 10 I’m technically in the country illegally and will be fined 500 Baht for every extra day I spend in Thailand.  About $16/day. So be it !  I have no choice in the matter.   By the time I leave Thailand, I’m not planning to fly back in.   With the extension stamped into my passport, I grab another taxi and return to the Canadian Embassy to drop off my passport. 

To return to the Viengtai hotel I decide to try out the elevated train system and make my way to the Sala Daeng Station near Silom Road.   Not too difficult, there is a map of the system, showing which stop you are at and indicating how much it costs to get to the other stations, based on distance.  I’m heading to the National Stadium stop (end of the line) which happens to be near the Novotel Hotel where I will be moving to when I return from the River Kwai excursion.  I check out one of the huge malls in that area before getting a taxi back to the Viengtai hotel. 

Have I mentioned yet how bad the traffic is in Bangkok, or how long a red light lasts?  Un-flipping-believable.  It takes forever to get anywhere; so I’m glad the metered taxis aren’t that expensive.  It still costs me about the same amount I paid to get all the way to the Embassy this morning to cover about half the distance.  

 Although I saw Michael in the morning before leaving the hotel, I did not see him afterwards and did not get to say goodbye.  Sorry Mike !   Hope you have a great time on the beach.

Friday – I relax and prepare my bags for my 3-day excursion to River Kwai.  I’m leaving both my suitcase and backpack at the Hotel and only taking 2 cloth bags with a limited amount of clothing and toiletries.  Should be fun!