I want to thank Cliff of Pop-Pop's Net and Shop for taking the time on Thursday to meet with my wife, Jack, and help her understand some paperwork that she received earlier in the day from the Canadian High Commission in Singapore. Her visa allowing her to finally come to Canada was amongst the documentation, so it appears that I'll probably be seeing my girl for the first time since the early morning of June 18/2005. And she's so anxious, I'll probably try to set her up with a flight in very early May--she wants to come before the end of the first week.

It's all very exciting stuff, but it's also daunting. How long will her emotional high last? And then what? I'm going to have to work at communicating and understanding to a degree that I have never had to do before in my life. But I believe that she and I are both determined enough to make this work for us.

My only regret is that she will not get to meet my mother. The dear old girl was unable to hold out long enough, and died unexpectedly alone in her home on March 15 of a brain aneurism. May 6th would have been her 90th birthday. Oddly enough, it could be the very day that Jack takes flight to join me here in Canada....

Very sorry to hear that your mother passed away.

Good luck to you and Jack. Just remember this is new too both of you and patients is a virtue. Be there for her and take it slow, once the culture shock wears off, things will start clicking for you both. (from past experience with my first Thai wife (MSRIP)). The CORP is for 3 years, so you have plenty of time to really get things in order and her understandings the way things are done there. You will see the improvement of her english also, the longer she stays there and the more you work with her.

Again good luck and happiness to you both.

Pop's

www.udonmap.com/poppops

Hey Garnet - congratulations!! You made it through the Canadian Government Bureaucracy that we both know makes if very difficult for Thai applicants. It has foiled me two times for short term visitor's visas but you and Jack made it through!!

Very happy that she is coming over just when the "Wet" Coast weather is due to turn to sunshine and warm climes.

although she will probably think it is very cold, at least she won't be getting a total weather shock, as if she arrived in winter. the culture shock should be enough till it starts snowing, lol, good luck.

Congrats Garnet,

I know how much this means to you. I hope the next few years fly by and are happy and memorable so that you can start to live the second part of your dream.

Gary

Congratulations Garnet & Jack!

Glad to hear that your bureaucratic nightmare is finally over and you can be together again soon. Wishing you luck and happiness in the future.

Having walked the same path so many years ago when wife and I moved from Thailand, what words of advice can I give you? Find a good oriental grocery that stocks items from Thailand. She's just gotta have her hot peppers, kow niew (sticky rice) and nampa (fish sauce).

Garnet,

Wishing you and Jack all the happyness in the world. Good luck and a big blessing on your family.

Brian

Garnet --

How wonderful for you and your lady -- best wishes as you launch a new life together. (And yes, spring weather won't be as great a shock, but our new Thai daughter-in-law hasn't taken her jacket off since she arrived in January -- and we're in Georgia!)

I know this event is bittersweet in combination with losing your mother, and my thoughts are with you in that sadness.

Please keep us posted,

SHARA

Best of happiness to Jack and you.

The communication part is all good fun. There is a bit of everything in that part...misunderstanding, learning, laughter, hurt, and heaps of that good loving when making up.

Advice?...hell you've been here long enough to read all the thoughts on making life easier for a thai girl in a new country, so I'll come from a different angle - my thai girl equivalent for the western girl question that buggers us all up "Sweetie do I look good in this?" and you desperately trying to reply to how a Bedford bus or Sherman tank rear view can look good in a mini skirt.

The one that sets my sweetie off everytime (you think I would learn) is the isaan food that she sometime cooks. For western food that I eat, it generally looks and smells good. But hells bells, some of the thai food that gets cooked in this house, gets the stomach turning, and I love thai food....when the jars and bags of dried squid, pickled Gouramy fish, and other strange and very aromatic (a very diplomatic way that you will need to learn of thinking but not saying your thoughts of "hell that stinks") favours, one can see the "how do I look in this mini skirt sweetie?" dilemma is right with you. Here the stakes are higher - on one side her food and culture, on the other you just bloody well know you are going to be invited to taste .....the joys of thai culture.

The thing I have learnt most from my thai wife and thai people is rather than let silly little differences drag on for days, and when your thoughts or comments could be right on the point of going to the evil side, just think back to what made you fall in love with Thailand and Thai people and more importantly her...and "smile" at her...

I warmly appreciate this encouraging response from all of you folks--you're truly a good bunch to be affiliated with, and to have the friendships with some of you that I do!

It is without doubt a very good thing that Jack will be coming here as the weather warms up. She has in fact previously expressed what approached actual fear in relation to dropping into Canada during Winter!

It's still almost too much to put credence into--her most probably being here in just two weeks from now!

Roadman, Jack has always announced unashamedly that she is a good cook. Yet I have never sampled anything beyond perhaps a quick snack, or perhaps some meal in which she was merely a group particpant in the preparation thereof! So to discover just what she may or may not be capable of has already had me wondering on numerous times to this point. But I'm not sure that we'll readily be able to locate the Thai-familiar components of the sorts of meals that she would be adept in preparing. Naturalized Asians I know who are of Chinese, East Indian, and Philippine origin recommend a supermarket chain known here as T & T, and there is an outlet perhaps a mile from where I live that recently opened. So I'll probably introduce her to it. Heck, even Wikipedia has a description of this chain, although I've never set foot into an outlet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_%26_T_Supermarket

But I imagine that it will ultimately be necessary to find Jack some Thai Canadians--I have only knowingly ever met one, and that was on the final day of 2005. If there is an actual Thai community, it seems well obscured. As a result, I'll undoubtedly lead off with renewing contact with that one lady whom I do know of, and see what comes of that. She has been here for at least 20 years, and also is only about a mile distant, at most.

However, I've still got to work out the logistics of getting Jack here! I suppose I've the leave to save worrying and planning about what comes thereafter until she is actually here. My only big plan at present is to perhaps have my sister involved in picking Jack up at the airport--she can video tape the reunion of Jack and myself, and Jack won't realize! That should be something to watch in time to come!

Thanks again for the well wishes, everyone!

The videotape is a wonderful idea! Her face lit by her beautiful Thai smile when she sees you would be a very special captured memory.

My mother -- 80 years old -- met our new daughter-in-law at our wedding in February. Somying was too shy to say more than "I'm Thai. I don't speak English very well" (she understands a LOT more than she's willing to speak), but my mom sat with her and my two stepdaughers (good interpresters) at the reception and was so impressed with their sweetness and attentiveness and, yes, beauty. I feel as if my three new "daughters" are such a gift to my parents at this stage in their life.

It's all a gift. Every day of it.

Brilliant news Garnet, hope things work out just great back in Canada.

Again, I thank you all for your kind thoughts!

And for whatever reason, all Sunday long here in West Coast Canada--or probably from about mid-evening Sunday in Thailand till maybe mid-morning Monday--the site has been unavailable. I sure needed help, and still do if it's not too late.

Jack is leaving for Bangkok Tuesday evening. Her flight out of Bangkok for Canada is 6:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. She is thinking that it is best that she spend the night right there in the airport to be sure of being present in plenty of time to make her outbound flight. But I know that she will fare much better in a comfortable bed with a shower awaiting her in the morning--even if she has to rise at 3:00 a.m. like she believes she must. I can scarcely believe that she is willing to travel this whole distance from home without means of a shower--she is fastidious about that sort of thing!

Anyway, I thought that I had booked on-line a room for her this morning (Sunday evening in Thailand) at the Airport Suite Bangkok. But this evening (Monday morning in Thailand) I got an E-mail as follows:

"Dear Mr. Barcelo,

"Regretfully we are unable to confirm your reservation at the Airport Suite Bangkok (Thailand - Bangkok ) as we have used all our room allocation for this hotel and for other hotels during this period.

"We sincerely regret to inform you that we are unable to make a reservation for you because our contract rate is not applicable for local residents according to the hotel's policy."

So evidently Thai nationals do not merit the same respect that a Westerner does at the tourist hotels--not a huge surprise, I guess. I have a couple of other E-mail enquiries going at hotels near the airport, but no replies yet.

Would anyone have a fast, emergency solution? I'm not expecting success here, but it's a wild card I'm sure willing to play.

Thanks, all!

I book hotels thru this link with cc.

hotels

but they all say

not applicable for local residents

meaning the prices. So maybe she will need to call and to get room, or maybe you can try calling direct to the hotel?

So, not much longer. Best of everything to you both

One of my enquiries may have paid off. I'd filled in a registration request that had a field for further information as follows:

COMMENTS: This is not a flight for me--it is for my Thai wife. She is arriving in Bangkok on the evening of May 9th from her family home near Udon Thani; and she will be leaving for Canada on the early morning of May 10th, at 6:00 a.m. I would only like to obtain an accommodation for her for that night of May 9th. Can this be done?

An E-amil reply was awaiting me this morning as follows:

"Dear Garnet Barcelo,

"Thank you very much for your reservation request at Grand Tower Inn Rama VI.

"We are pleased to arrange one Superior/Deluxe room single for this period required,which will cost 1300 baht/night incl breakfast & tax. & service charge.

"Kindly if you agree to proceed this booking, please confirm and secure the room as your earliest convenience. Therefore you can find the online payment system at the below secure site.

"Yours Sincerely ,
Nid."

This Nid seemed to have a good command of English, so I am believing that she must have understood my point that the customer will be Thai. Anyway, I've sent off a payment as she directed. Her link to the payment site resulted in many of the fields having been pre-filled for my convenience by her, obviously. Even a reservation number that she had quoted in her message. So, since the secure icon was on display at the bottom of my browser, I accepted that this must be the genuine thing and went ahead with the booking. I imagine that I'll receive confirmation at some point today.