Traveling to Beijing and Bangkok with Kids
The last thing that was going to happen to me was to be stuck at the Beijing International in the dead of winter breathing potential bird flu strains with no ride in the middle of the night. Long gone are the backpacking days of my 20's. Researching, planning and confirming are my new norms. So when I was planning this trip I asked myself, "how am I going to deal on a 24 hour plane ride with 2 kids and a sleeping husband and not freak out?" My first answer was simple. Don't go. But I wasn't willing to let parenthood rob me of an adventure so I got us there slowly by not flying directly to Bangkok, but somewhere closer first, Beijing. A 12 hour flight, instead of the 20+ hour ordeal with layovers and plane changes to Bangkok. We stayed at the Peninsula Hotel in comfort for 5 nights while we got through jet lag. The mall lobby is lame, but throw in the fact that no one speaks English and getting a cab is impossible (take this seriously and plan for it) made ...
