Visiting Saai...

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It’s Tuesday, January 30 and I’m in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

What has happened these last 4 days? Let’s rewind…

I arrived at Bangkok’s new airport, Suvarnabhumi, at 2:30 a.m., Sunday, January 28. Considering I left Los Angeles on Friday, January 26, that sounds like a lot of flying. However, the time change represented a good chunk of it (Thailand is 15 hours ahead of Los Angeles). Suvarnabhumi is Bangkok’s controversial new airport that opened last fall. In Bangkok’s continuing efforts to compete with Singapore as the central hub for all transportation in the region, the government spent mass baht (translation: lots of money) to build a modern airport east of the city. The old Don Muang airport was completely shut down, although reportedly the government just gave approval today to re-open it. The reason? Pressure from discount airlines. As you can imagine, the landing fees for the airlines are much higher at Suvarnabhumi than at the old airport. Supposedly, many of the discount airlines will soon be able to operate domestic flights from the old airport. Air Asia has even pushed for international flights there too. We’ll see. Connections through Bangkok may soon get really complicated as passengers get shuttled between the two airports.

What’s Suvarnabhumi like? Well, the structure seems to be a heavy mixture of exposed concrete and glass, giving it a very modern but sterile feel. In terms of navigating through it, I didn’t have any problems. There are a fair amount of signs in English.

After arriving at 2:30 a.m., I went through customs (free 30 day entry), picked up my checked bag, and by 3:00 a.m., I was at the exit to find my girlfriend Saai and her friend Si waiting for me. It had been way too long since I had seen Saai - 7 months. Daily e-mails only go so far, you know? It was so good to see her.

By 3:45 a.m. I was at my hotel, Samran Place, near Siam Square, and Saai and Si were off to their dorms to get what little sleep we could before church the next day.

Later that morning, I was up and off to Saai & Si’s church near their university campus, named Covenant Church. It’s a church that primarily ministers to students at the university across the street, and therefore, the services are in Thai. I didn’t understand the sermon (other than a few Thai words here & there), although I was able to sing some of the songs in English while they sang in Thai. They use many Western worship songs. They also had a small group time at the end of the service, and most of the people in my small group of 8 spoke English. Included in my small group were a couple of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) students (1 Thai and 1 Japanese), and a Campus Crusade staff person (Thai). I’m familiar with both of those organizations (www.ywam.org and www.campuscrusade.org), and I enjoyed talking & praying with them, and the others in the group. Granted, the 10:00 a.m. start time could have been a little later for me. 😊

After church Saai took me to her campus and helped me to see what her daily life looks like. We ate lunch there in the canteen where she often eats ($.50 for chicken & rice - not bad either), and walked around the school where she teaches Math to middle-school students. There is a primary, middle-school, and high school within the grounds of the university, and many of the education majors student-teach there for their final semester at the university. Saai has 2 more months of student-teaching before she graduates in March.

I was thankful to be able to put pictures to words. Along with the initial reunion, this day consisted of seeing her regular surroundings, and meeting many of her Christian friends.

The following day (January 29), we met up around 9:00 a.m. to head to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai. And that's where this entry will end.

Chiang Mai coming soon...

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Photos

Group photo at Covenant Church
Me, Saai, and Si in the middle

Saai
In front of the Canteen (university eating area)

Chicken & Rice
50 cents? I'll take it.

Heading to the airport
Saai and me in the taxi on the way to Suvarnabhumi airport for our flight to Chiang Mai