Uh-oh! The Bangkok Turnaround!

In the spirit of full disclosure, we decided to tell the whole story, even when it makes us look negligent and foolish because it is all part of the journey!

As we were landing in Luang Prabang five days ago, we begin to assemble our paperwork and local money for entry into the country. George’s jaw drops, he turns five shades of pale and he mumbles something like, “Oh My God!” I asked what was wrong and he asked me if I knew where our money was. I proceeded to say, “No, what money?” “All the money we have”, he responded. We had a large chunk of American money and small amounts of foreign money from nine foreign countries. He responded, “It’s in the safe in Bangkok!” Rationally thinking me, I responded, “Check your pockets and your backpack. You must have it!” Well, he didn’t.

Some way, we managed to take passports, jewelry, cameras and electronics from the safe but failed to take the money. What a nightmare! We managed to check into the country of Laos, quite an affair unto itself, but dimmed by this latest finding, and made our way to our hotel. We assessed that we did have credit cards, some emergency American money and leftover Thai money, which we learned in the airport, was useable in Laos.

George started calling the Bangkok hotel. We were quite proud of ourselves that we could make that international call rather painlessly. The Sleep Within receptionist was so helpful in her broken English. To our dismay, she said the new guests had already checked in and the safe was locked. She asked us to call back in 2-3 hours We did. She needed our code. Or was it the code of the new guests? We were losing hope at that point. We called again and were told the new guests were still out and she wouldn’t go in the room without their permission. So, hmmmm, now our code is out there and we are getting no help. It is getting late and I have given up hope convincing myself that life will go on pretty much as usual without this money but knowing we’d rack up a lot of debt. Pleasant dreams, right? George makes one more call at about midnight, Kai, the receptionist said, “Mr. Spier, you are a lucky man. I have your money! When do you want to pick it up?”

Happy, yes! But, now what? We talked to both hotels about options for shipping the money here. We briefly considered DHL. Our hotel advisor said, “If it is a large amount of money. Maybe, no. Maybe it not arrrive”. So, it is back to Bangkok for a day! I decide to stay behind in Laos. I’m cool with that until the thought passes through my brain that I am in a communist country, alone and with limited resources. I fixed that by spending the morning volunteering at the school and spending the afternoon at the local spa where, by the way, I had a wonderful 1/2 day treatment for $24.

George had quite the trip. He left the hotel in a tuk-tuk that would barely top the hills to the airport. He had to take Laos air, an airline we’d been avoiding. He got to witness first-hand the broken seats in the plane and the rough landing. Bangkok Air, back, was woderful! Lines we short but traffic was tough. He was stressed about getting back to the airport for his return flight. Kai was waiting at the hotel and George didn’t even have to identify himself. He thanked her profusely and left her a parting gift! His biggest hassle was checking back into Laos. We had each bought a $32 Visa two days earlier but they declared his ‘used’ and he had to stand in the long lines to purchase another one. OK, it does make his passport look impressive. He arrived back to Pangkham Lodge about 5:30 pm, a happy camper. We celebrated by going to dinner at The Blue Lagoon, a great restaurant in town, where instead of the usual $14.00 meal for two, we spent a grand total of $27 excluding wine. Amazing!

Actually, isn’t the whole story amazing. This is a reminder that the world is full of good people wanting to do the right thing. There were so many people that could have made different decisions and produced a different outcome, but they didn’t! And, this time, we are better off for it! Here’s to hoping we can pass on the kindness to others.