We are moving to China tomorrow! We are very excited, I am excited and scared shitless!
Anyway, a week ago, I said to my family, "It's our last week in Thailand!!! What do you want to do???"
We had already done some fun stuff. We made it to a beach, we found new things to do in Bangkok, tried all kinds of interesting restaurants. Little did I know our last week in Thailand I would be spending 4-6 hours a day trying to sort out a travel document the cats needed to come with us to China.
Our flight is August 7. On August 2 I had a last appointment with the vet for a health check up. The vet is a relocation specialist, and she's really good! She was looking over all the documents. Rabies vaccine, rabies titer, microchip documents, vaccine records, and lastly she de-wormed and gave them Revolution for fleas and tics. Each document has to have all the correct corresponding numbers and information, any little discrepancy could mean the pet can't travel.
She noticed a few mistakes on the microchip documents. They had the cats listed the wrong color and the vet forgot to sign the paper. Things I didn't even know to check for. I thought the vet was the professional.
The real issue is that I'm now in Bangkok, and the vet is in Hat Yai.
Now there is a serious time crunch. It's August 2 and I need to get export documents from the Thai export office NO LATER than August 5.
The vet carefully, as to not upset anyone, began talking with the vet in Hat Yai and explaining the problem. The Hat Yai vet agreed to fix it, but didn't seem to be concerned with the time constraints. They just wanted to pop it in the regular post.
That vet visit took me over 5 hours. 1 hour to catch a Grab Pet car, 1.5 hours working with the vet and another 3 hours to find a Grab Pet home. 3X drivers would accept my ride, but cancel after 30 or 40 minutes. I was beginning to think I might just live out my days at the vet office.
The following day I contacted the Hat Yai vet and at 10am the documents had not been corrected. We also had to wait until 3pm for the doctor to arrive and sign the papers. 3pm came and went and I asked for an update. I have expressed my urgency, that the paper NEEDS to be in Bangkok on August 4th. Early August 5 I need to go to the export office.
Hat Yai vet still wants to pop it in regular mail. I am begging and pleading and crying, PLEASE use DHL, FedX, Flash Express, anything that will get it here next day. Even Nok Air. a parcel can be sent by cargo. I spent hours stressing and pleading and begging, telling them I would pay the costs, but it had to be here tomorrow, August 4.
After several hours and 2 or 3 meltdowns later, they agreed to send it on an overnight bus.
The following day, August 4, I get a Grab across town to the bus station. The bus station is huge! It's a mall and convention center, they were having a cat show upstairs. I couldn't find where to go to retrieve the envelope. I have a photo of the company name and I'm showing it to a variety of employees. The first person I showed it to pointed me left, then the next person pointed me down, the next person pointed me across the bus parking area, the next person pointed me up, the next person pointed me up, and finally the last person pointed me to a shop window to the right of the first person I spoke with.
That person said outside. I said I was outside, but they told me to come inside!
She was so kind, she offered to show me where to go. We walked out of the bus station/mall, across the parking lot, through a PTT gas station, and down the sidewalk 100 meters, where I found my envelope waiting for me!
I called another Grab and chased him around the gas station parking lot until I finally told him to stop driving and I could catch up to his car.
This entire episode took about 4 hours.
August 5, I have hired a pet taxi to take me to the airport where the export office is and then to bring us home. He was wonderful and very helpful. Once we were there, he got me the forms and a queue number, something many didn't know to do because there are no signs or instructions.
I was number 18. I waited anxiously, making awkward and uncomfortable small talk with anyone that made eye contact.
After about 2 hours, finally my number was called. I didn't realize Charles needed to be with me, so I told them he had to stay with my son because he was vomiting all over the place, he wasn't. I started to panic, but they let Charles write a power of attorney letter, send a photo to me that I emailed to them, paid 15 baht for some stamps to make it legal and I had power of attorney over Charles and his cat.
Once they have the papers, we enter another room where a vet inspects the cats and take a picture of us together. It's a quick look and they feel for weird bumps.
Then we wait another 2 hours for the documents to get processed and we get even more documents that let us leave Thailand.
Mee, our pet taxi, took the cats back to Charles and I just waited by myself for the documents, again making awkward conversation with anyone that was willing.
I was called in and they started to verify and go over the documents when all of a sudden he stopped and left to speak with someone. My panic was starting to rise. He came back and said they had spelled my name wrong, but they could easily fix it. (Exhale)
He went over all the papers, I waited a bit for mine, paid and we left.
That was about 5 or 6 ours of drama.
We are almost there. We still need to get the cats on the plane tomorrow and pass through Chinese customs, so we are not in the clear yet, but there is a finish line in sight.
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