One night in Bangkok

Marathon done. Stockholm to London to Bangkok legs of the trip are done. About 13 hours of flying in total. British Airways definitely gets a thumbs up from us. The flight to Bangkok was about half full, so we had three seats between the two of us (the 747 had a 3/4/3 layout), so we could stretch out and sleep.

Two scares though. Miranda's confirmed case of bronchitis and sinus infection lead to some pretty unpleasant landings for her. The 20 minutes in London without any hearing and the subsequent pain of popping her ears to regain that sense led to a lot of anxiety about the second flight. It went better, but was still a rough.

Another scare - went to withdraw money and the ATM ate my debit card. After completing my transaction with PIN code, amount, confirming the extra fee, etc. it briefly flashed a message that said "card suspended" and on the next line "card retained". No money, no receipt, no card, nothing. Had to call my boss, get the bank's telephone number, and was getting worried for a bit. Not fun to be in a foreign airport, unable to pay for the 30 minute ride into the city. And of course we didn't want to use Miranda's card for fear of it being taken too. Seriously, I can understand "transaction denied", but "card retained" really had me worried. Thoughts of sleeping in the airport for 8 days just didn't sit well with me.

Turns out I had lent my card to Miranda last week to finish a purchase, and she didn't notice it was my card since they look identical. She used her PIN code, and after two tries the bank automatically blocked my card. The error on the machine just said "chip not working" which is a common error, so we just switched cards to finish the transaction. I usually use a credit card, not a debit card, so I didn't even notice it wasn't working the last few days.

Anyway, we're now settled into the hotel. Nearly 6:00 PM here, very hot. Dark clouds rolling in. Guess we might have to spend the night checking out the hotel's pools. I think one of them is indoor at least.