It's Tuesday afternoon and the train to Bangkok leaves in 45 minutes. We really need to get a move on if we're going to catch a ride and beat rush hour. But Lian dawdles with her makeup, clearly stalling in hope that Dao will come home in time to say good-bye. At last we lock up and double-time it to the road to flag down a Red Car. The driver is a clever fellow who navigates back roads and drops us off at the station with 10 minutes to spare.
Lian's sister and her family will be waiting at the other end in Bangkok's Hualamphong Station. Lian is carrying train tickets for them as well, for the second leg of the trip to their hometown of Nasan for their niece's wedding -- the event for which Lian has planned my ensemble oh-so carefully. The event we've both been anticipating for weeks.
I carry Lian's bag down the platform, put her aboard the dilapidated second-class sleeper car, and wave bye-bye as I watch what should have been our train pull out of the station.
So here's what happened ...
Rewind two days to Sunday evening, when I learn that Bank of America has sent loan documents to my Portland address -- originals that I must sign, notarize and return to BofA by August 23. No extensions, no excuses. Problem is, I'm not due back in Oregon until early September. Hell, I planned to be on holiday down south until well past the 23rd.
I quickly arrange for my brother to FedEx the documents to me in Chiang Mai ... which means I must remain in town to receive them. So much for blogging my big adventure at the traditional Thai wedding.
Lian takes the news that I will be missing her niece's wedding with Buddhist serenity. "Maybe you can come later and we still go to Krabi?" she asks. The loan docs are scheduled to arrive sometime Thursday, so we push my departure back to Friday.
But a problem arises: the only place in town to get a U.S.-recognized notary stamp is the American Consulate, which offers this service only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Which means if I don't retrieve that FedEx package in time, I might have to fly back to America three weeks early! Just to process some stupid damned loan documents.
For two days and two nights, laptop beside the bed, I am clicking the FedEx online tracker relentlessly, following my package through the system. Lake Oswego ... to Memphis ... to Hong Kong ... to Bangkok ... and Thursday morning it is in the air on its way to Chiang Mai. I hike over to the FedEx business center to greet it.
"We should have it for you at 2 p.m." chirps the FedEx clerk, all smiles. But mid-afternoon is pushing it way too close: the Consulate is open only until 3:30. The clerk suggests a brilliant solution and minutes later I am bound for the cargo terminal of Chiang Mai International Airport. Shortly before noon the FedEx ground crew plucks my package off the pallet as it moves from plane to van. I race to the Consulate, pay $100 bucks for two freakin' notary stamps, and get my return package shipped before 3. By now I am a sweat-soaked obscenity. The FedEx clerk takes pity and offers me a drinking glass and a liter of cold water. He is goggle-eyed to watch me drain the entire liter and most of another.
After three nights of sleepless worry and the prospect of my next two nights in train seats -- I couldn't get sleeper cars -- I am ready for some serious ZZZs. The solo adventure begins tomorrow.
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