Deported?

It's been a crazy start to 2017. With some things going as expected, and some surprises. We knew our 90 day volunteer visa was ending February 3rd but had been of the understanding that we would be able to get Mike a work permit in Thailand then we could extend all of our visas for another 90 days. January 30th we found out that Mike couldn't get a work permit; we had to leave the country by the 3rd of February or we would be permanently kicked out of Thailand. Yikes! Amazingly, (thank you Jesus) we were able to get flights on points to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with only four days notice to get our new visas. So just like that, we packed our bags and left the country!

We had very little time to research the city and prepare for our trip, and maybe would not have chosen Kuala Lumpur as a vacation destination for our family, it was a great time to get away and do some fun things together. It was a big change of pace going from our rural village in Chiang Rai to the big bright city of KL. In many ways it was a glimpse back into our familiar Vancouver. While obtaining our new visas was our main objective we also wanted the boys to have a great time. Our most frequented location was KLCC park which is right in the centre of the city beside the Petronas Towers. It has the biggest playground I have seen anywhere and a large, shallow splash pool. It was nothing like the steel drum playgrounds we find in Thailand!

Arriving on a Friday, we had the weekend to explore the city before we were able to go to the Thai Consulate on Monday. We walked many many kilometres around the city. Overall, the boys did very well. Walking around in the heat, sometimes it was just a bit much  and there were races to see who would get in the stroller first. Sometimes this happened.

We arrived shortly after Chinese New Years and the boys enjoyed checking out the decorations and performances. 

Monday morning comes around and Mike heads over to the Thai Consulate with all of our paperwork to apply for the same volunteer visa we had the first time. Thankfully, the apartment had a pool the boys and I headed down for a swim while we waited to hear back from Mike.

To our surprise, when Mike finally gets to the counter after waiting for a few hours, he is told that we cannot get that same visa without our marriage certificate and the boys' birth certificates. What? We didn't need these when we applied in Vancouver. Worse, we did not have any of them with us here, they were trapped back at home in the storage locker, or the barn or maybe the trailer. Who knows! We weren't even sure where to ask someone to look. We couldn't ask friends or family at home to locate and scan copies of these documents to us as it could take days to even find out where they were! After some panicked messages back to Thailand with Rob, he recommended applying for a tourist visa which would be for a shorter duration, maximum 60 days, less requirements and still adequate for the help we were doing. So the next day we all piled into an Uber and went to the consulate. The boys smiled, bowed, and "sawadee-cup-ed" the people at the consulate, and dropped off our documents. We would have to wait until the next day to find out if the visa was approved.

Next something fun for the boys after spending the morning in line ups we went to the KL equivalent of Science World. It is even in the same partner organization as Science World in Vancovuer, so we were able to enter for free! The boys loved it, we spent nearly five hours there that afternoon.

24 hours later it is nearly time to collect our visas which can be picked up between 2-4 the following day. After a quick lunch at the mall the boys and I headed back to the splash pool at the park and Mike went back to the Consulate. Seeing as I am writing this blog post sitting at our home in Chiang Rai, Thailand, you can probably guess our visas were granted. And better yet, for the month of February, Thailand is waiving the fees for tourist visas so we even got them for free! Praise Jesus, He may keep us on our toes, but his plans for us cannot be thwarted.

We spent the last three days of our time in KL relaxing, (well, as much as you can with 3 small kids!) and eating as many different types of food as possible. We love Thai food, but really enjoyed the variety we were able to find in KL. We even did a night of peanut butter and jam sandwiches for the boys, and after tucking them in to bed, had a quiet dinner of cured meats, imported cheeses, and some fruit of the vine!

One last kid focus destination was the aquarium. We did not spend nearly the amount of time there as we did the Science Centre, but it was still a big hit.

We had a great time in Kuala Lumpur, but are happy to have made it back to Thailand!