Chapter 4: We arrive on the Golden Land

We landed at Suvarna Bhumi International Airport at 04: 00 AM on the Fourth of June.

It was drizzling outside. A gentle shower, as if Lord was showering His grace on our Jet Lagged bodies.

We were all excited. We have finally made our international voyage by air across the sea – successfully, and have reached the land of Rudra yagna. The Land ruled by Rama IX.

It was an elevating feeling for me personally.

Though very early, it was already dawn and the shower was super pleasant, Saieshwara showering His grace, we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Airport was beautiful and was well maintained. Huge statues, glass panes, and wall designsof Jaya and Vijaya welcomed us. It was a Saiva-Vaishnava abedha feeling, of entering Vaikuntha, flying down from Garuda, to perform Rudra Yagna! Paintings of scenes from Hindu Epics were decorating the walls of the airport, clearly proclaiming the culture of the land.

Bangkok is one and a half hours ahead of India.

We proceeded to obtain our visa

We were all asked to wait in the airport lobby till further instructions. Kumar garu was trying to get in touch with the people from Bangkok. A few of us were with Kumar Garu. I was curious to see how would we get customs clearance for our huge luggage. By now all our pieces of luggage had arrived. We piled them up onto a huge trolley and were ready to pass through the green channel.

The nagging customs officer was not in a mood to let off our luggage some 40 odd pieces without a few Baths filling his pockets.

I was sure Swamy was with us. I was just watching how the events would unfold. The customs rules that were displayed on the board there clearly stated the rules, which said:
Taking cooked food into the Kingdom of Thailand was prohibited. We had two cartons of Pulihora and Idly Sambar for consumption in Bangkok.

Two ladies arrived at the scene, just at the nick of the moment and spoke and explained about the event to the customs officer.

 They never let the customs officer speak a word!! She challenged him to show even a pin that was against the customs, and asked us to push the entire luggage into the scanning machine.

The customs officer stood there like an idol as the luggage passed one after the other.

I was looking at the screen, and telling what the contents were as he enquired whatthe strange things were…
All the items were cleared under green channel.


We piled up our entire luggage into a huge trolley, higher than me. And towed it out.

Ah! Towing that huge trolley and getting it into the airport lobby after getting customs clearance was something like winning the world cup! Else we were not sure and how much we would have had to shell out.

There were about 100 of us in the airport and equal number of pieces of luggage.

By now, the batch of Acharyas from Bangalore also had arrived. We were all waiting at the level three.

Just imagine hundred odd Indians with huge baggages waiting in the airport longue!

Most of us were strange looking with Shikha and traditional Indian attire.

We were subjects of wondrous stares, who we were and where from did we arrive in such huge numbers?
There was some kind of binding force and our entire batch was protectively sealed in an invisible shield.
Somehow were invulnerable. It was still raining outside.

Local devotees arrived and helped us out.

The airport lobby was dominated by one word “Sairam” with soft classical music in the background, it was like assembly before Darshan!

They asked us to go to the level one where our busses were waiting.

We moved down with our huge luggage, and had Chennai made Polihora and idly for breakfast.

It was a comic sight. Remember we were about a hundred people eating cooked food brought from overseas (which is actually prohibited to enter into Kingdom of Thailand). The cups and tins got piled up in the waste bins of the airport!

The loving local ladies brought in jars of hot Indian filter coffee and tea, which all drank with gusto.

The Sai hospitality was slowing blossoming in (Th) Sai-land. Packed lunch boxes containing Upma, Button Idly, chutney, and sweet Banana fruits were also brought for our breakfast by the hosts who received us.

Finally at about 11:00 AM three busses arrived for our pick up and transfer to Chiang Rai.

Again the feel of ONE family was strong. Arrangements were elaborate and for so many people...it was simply awesome, Smooth as silk – the tag like of Thai International Airways. There were no hiccups what so ever

We exited the airport, and the local devotees waiting outside lovingly welcomed us. We were all enquired about our breakfast and tea etc...

Our mega busses were waiting for us!