"Wait, so this isn't America?!" Ailyn exclaimed more than an hour after our arrival in Singapore and at least 20 minutes into our very Singaporean breakfast of kaya toast and soft boiled eggs. At first I thought she was joking, but then she explained, "I thought Singapore was just an airport not another country!" to which we all asked why she thought we flew almost 18 hours to get to it. Plus, she's been to Singapore several times including walking around and staying overnight. It's probably how modern Changi Airport is and how everyone speaks English and all signage is in English. Some call it "Asia Lite"
In truth, just 21 hours ago, the odds looked overwhelming that we would in fact be staying in the actual America. After an early and very quick shuttle bus to LAX, we walked in feeling confident that we had planned well and the situation would be easy. Until the Singapore Airlines gate agent looking at people's documents while they waited in line asked for our Thai Pass QR codes. I explained the we were using the new Thailand Test N Go program for vaccinated individuals staying at government authorized hotels. The very professional agent explained that there is a Thai Pass that we ALSO need in order to check-in and board. No documentation from Singapore Airlines had ever indicated this and neither did the Thai Tourism website I examined about the Test N Go program which had step-by-step instructions on how to enter the Kingdom correctly. (Two other families had this exact same issue too)
The gate agent offered little hope and said that it usually takes 7 business days to get a Thai Pass which is done through a Thai consular webpage which she provided me. Whether it was sheer denial or a reflexive disbelief in the advice of bureaucrats in Asian countries, I said that I would try applying online right then and there.
I left an aggravated Emily, frightened kids and confused Bailey by the Singapore Airlines counter in the Tom Bradley Terminal and sat on the floor against a wall (there are no benches or other seats available during COVID) with my laptop and a stack of passports. The online questionnaire was lengthy and detailed. It involved uploading scans of our vaccine records, QR codes from the electronic vaccine records, accommodation bookings, receipt of prepayment for PCR tests on arrival, passport images, travel insurance documents and to add insult to injury allowed only one dependent per adult – meaning that to process five people, I would need to complete the roughly 20 minute process three times. I also needed to create screenshots of certain things, crop QR codes, take photos of passport pages and covert some documents from PDF to jpeg because their system didn't accept PDFs even for insurance documents and hotel reservations. It was Thai bureaucracy at its finest.
Luckily, I know about Thai bureaucracy, am creative with converting files and have dogged tenacity in situations like that. I went to work and asked not to be bothered despite Emily's sincere doubts that anything would work and frustration with the situation. When the kids began to melt down that we would never go to Thailand, I had Sennen sit with me and convinced him to be my supporter and cheerleader. Once he understood what was happening, he stopped his anxious wailing and became a positive force. "We can do this! We're going to make it!"
When I got the first two QR codes back within five minutes of submitting the first questionnaire, I was elated. The Thai government was processing them in real-time and I did the application correctly. It seemed completely possible to get the other three QR codes in time for our flight. Only it wasn't. In short, Emily, Sennen and Bailey were rejected at least five times for lack of receipt for the prepaid PCR test on arrival. Only I included them each time – just as I had done with the application that was approved for me and Ailyn. Moreover, although only one small thing was wrong, there was no logging back into the application and correcting it. I had to start from scratch each time – although it got faster in subsequent runs because I had had my digital files ready. Since they kept asking for proof of PCR receipt along with the hotel booking – I actually took the receipt image files and merged them into the same file as he hotel reservation – sure that if it was all in one place, they couldn't possibly miss it. No go. Twice. It took me until the fifth time to realize that there was an email from our government approved hotel with aa letter of confirmation that mentioned our paid tests and names. Those letters – converted to JPGs – won the day. Never mind that the files I sent had all the same stuff in a slightly different format. They wanted THAT PARTICULAR document.
Only by the time I had 5 QR codes, the check-in for our flight had closed. Luckily, Emily had been garnering the support and sympathy of the Singapore Airlines ground staff and a kind manager named Nat felt he could indeed get us onto the next flight – leaving just 2.5 hours later than the one we missed. The mixture of anxiety and elation was palpable in our little group as we waiting in a special line that Nat told us to go to. After what seemed like an eternity he took checking in another family, we approached him and he worked magic to save our trip. We were miraculously moved onto the 10:45 flight I the same seats we would have had on the first one. It meant a later connecting flight from Singapore to Bangkok, but that seemed a small price to pay. Instead, we would spend most of he day at the Changi Aiport (one of the nicest and best in the world) instead of in a hotel room in Bangkok (first night you have to stay in the hotel until your PCR test comes back from the lab). We lost our Business Class upgrade we were given from Singapore to Bangkok (which I wisely kept a secret from the kids and Bailey). But that was the worst of it.
We were checked in with plenty of time for our new flight and despite all odds, we got some refreshments, boarded our flight and got out of LAX by air! It took us all some time to come down from the roller coaster of emotions and stress. But as I said to our little group, we succeeded because we all worked together as a team. I worked on the applications, Emily worked with the Singapore Airlines staff, Sennen was my helper, Bailey kept Ailyn calm with the clever use of her phone, and Ailyn stayed calm. And Nat saved the day.
As we were headed toward Security, Emily pointed out how lucky we were despite the odds. That the shuttle came early, that we didn't think we could get the QR codes, that we weren't sure if Nat would be able to help, etc – trying to instill how instead of seeing everything as negative, we can be grateful for how fortunate we were. After rattling off her Daiyenu list, Emily prompted the group, "So, what do take from this?" And in one of the random profound moments that are uniquely Sennen he said, "That we had bad beliefs!"
Mic drop.
"Sennen, that was an amazing thing to say. Maybe we did have bad beliefs. We were wrong about our beliefs," Emily admitted.
And if we hadn't been headed straight into a Security line, we might have chewed on that one a little longer.
The whole experience made the almost 18-hour flight feel less of a burden and more of a gift. After all, we were lucky to be on it at all. Which maybe made the 40 minute long detailed explanation of Jainism from the nice young Jain Purdue student sitting next to Sennen a little more bearable than it would otherwise have been. A quick, "Hi, this is Sennen who will be sitting next to you for the next 18 hours, and I'm Eric," sort of exploded into, "And the thing is that Rama, having had only ONE SIN, perfect in every way except for the ONE SIN for lust for Sita, now suffers in the lowest form of Hell, but in the next cycle will be created the top god." But whatever, he was a nice guy, we were on the plane, and it's not like Sennen might not verbally assault him at some point. So, I went with it.
The flight itself was relatively uneventful and smooth with lots of movie watching, eating and sleeping – as it should be for an 18-hour flight.
We are now enjoying our low-pressure day at Changi Airport which is the least busy I have ever seen. As a result, this culinary cornucopia of an airport has only five eateries open in all of Terminal 3 and many of the fun amenities like the movie theater, playground, spa, etc are closed.
Nonetheless, we managed to have a traditional Singaporean breakfast of kaya (coconut jam) toast and soft boiled eggs and introduced Bailey to not only these but also Malay/Indonesian Teh Tarik (pulled tea). After the first round when the kids were still hungry, they had some rendang chicken curry – which the man at the cafe was trying to explain to us, not knowing we make rendang at home frequently and the kids have had it in Bali as well.
Now we're alternating walking around, looking at the sights of the airport including the many kinds of large aircraft and resting in the nice lounge chairs sprinkled throughout the terminal. Oh, and enjoying VERY nice clean restrooms. Possibly the best public restrooms we'll enjoy this trip.
Three more hours here and then on to Bangkok!
