Keep On Reading. Really!

The "Final Update" got emailed to Jordan for her trip and forwarded to me. I figured it was the usual old boring confirmation we're-ready-to-go, be-happy-to-see-you crap, so wasn't really paying attention at first.

Earlier this month, Rustic Pathways canceled its first four departures of the month for Thailand.

Oh yeah, heard about the unrest, wondered what they were going to do and whether it affected the kids. But cancelled? That would be the elephant program, the piece that made the whole thing worthwhile for Jordan! Yikes! Oh wait....

Almost all students who were booked on Thailand programs scheduled to operate in June have...

Whew! Not affecting us, then. Her trip starts in July. It's still on, but what did they do with the program? Are they planning that the unrest will be over by then?

While we operate almost exclusively in very rural areas of Thailand that were unaffected by the Bangkok protests, we believe that the most prudent course for us to follow at this time is to cease virtually all of our Thai operations north of Bangkok for the balance of the summer and continue with what has become a successful program of moving all of our students onto parallel programs in neighboring countries.

OK, they've planned for the whole season. Good thinking. But what about THE program? There followed a long list of all the programs operating in Thailand and what decisions had been made and what the options were. Sort, sort, sort....

This program has moved to an elephant camp in beautiful Luang Prabang in Laos. ...Students will wear the same uniform, undertake the same training and have the same wonderful experience here as they would in Thailand.

OK, cool then. Oh wait, how about the southern coastal Island Hopping and Diving experience? That's also Thailand, her next scheduled two weeks.

...will run as originally scheduled in Southern Thailand. The only change in the program is that students will now fly from Singapore directly into Phuket (Southern Thailand Islands Area) at the beginning of their trip, and fly out of Phuket to Singapore at the conclusion of their trip. Otherwise the program is the same.

OK, that sounds fun. Problem solved. Enough reading for now. Time to go about the rest of my business, and there is certainly enough of that to keep me busy right now.

Of course last weekend while she was up Jordan raised a couple of logistical questions about the flying part of the trip, trying to get it all together in her head so she's prepared for her first completely solo flying experience. She'll get on the light rail near Steph and Ben's house and ride to the airport on her own in the wee hours, find her airline check-in, and do all the usual to get to LAX. And then what?

I promised to find out for her, and sent both an email query and made a call earlier this week to get some info. Yes, she needs to claim her bag herself at LAX, then head to .... and join her group, all of whom will be wearing the same shirts as she will have on. It's all in the packet sent out with her shirts - she did get them? I confirmed she had, since she mentioned that they were a bit large which was just fine with her.

I called Jordan and let her know she already had most of the info she needed to answer the questions she'd raised with me. Just read it! Again, job done, get on with life.

Then I got the email info in response to mine, saying they would send a repeat of her flight info from LAX onward, with a quick query: was she taking the Laos option? She needed to tell them ASAP. A quick email to her with a heads-up, job done. Move on.

Yeah, well, not so quick. This time she called me, just tonight, letting me know that there will be an extra $150 charged for the change in countries, with them absorbing half of the cost change. In other words, it was a $300 change. I went back over the email Jordan had sent me detailing the trip change. Sure enough, there it was, down at the bottom, a bit after the point where I'd stopped reading. Yep, me this time. No biggie, I'll send off a check. Oh yeah, and continuing further, it was due to be confirmed by June 4th!

Oops.