Happiness Comes in Odd Packages

Thailand - and sleep - are achieved!

After all of the drama getting to Seattle, the boarding and flight across the ocean - ocean! - were fairly uneventful. I watched more movies than I thought humanly possible - 500 Days of Summer is cuter than expected - and found out that I have difficulty sleeping on airplanes. (I will pick up some Tylenol PM at the local 7-11 before I leave; thanks for the idea, Jess!) Arriving at Narita, we went through airport security again on our way to the International terminal for our Bangkok flight. Whee! Lines!

Once at our gate, however, there was time for bathroom breaks and a little duty free shopping - had to get an orange lucky cat to watch over me since my orange monster is at home. Then back onto a huge plane and off for the last leg of our trip.

Julie had the window seat from Seattle to Tokyo - my choice because I knew that I would be entranced by glimpses of the ocean and quite annoying to those travelers around me who did not know the back story. Instead, I took the window for the Tokyo/Bangkok leg. I made the right choice.

Taking off from Tokyo, it was already dark, so the first knowledge I had of being over the ocean was that the lights from the land ceased to be below me. Instead, we were low enough that I could see the lights from the boats running hither and yon still - and their reflections in the ocean. It was a surprisingly magical sight that will stay with me for a very long time indeed.

The next sight that I won't be getting rid of anytime soon was that of running away from the sun. For the first three hours of the trip I could look out towards the back of the plane and watch the light across the horizon - in fact it would seem the entire horizon - shrink, until it was just a thin orange line that disappeared between one breath and the next. Stunning and lovely.

Flying over Thailand was much like I would imagine flying in the space shuttle is like. At our elevation and the time of night, only small specks of light were visible as we flew over homes and villages and farms and temples. It was like the constellations had left the sky to dance on the earth.

The airport in Bangkok was surprisingly full of life for 11PM. There were people everywhere! Getting our passports stamped was a relatively simple process of standing in line and then getting our pictures taken after 28 hours of being up and in either airplanes or airports. I'm sure that picture is every bit as lovely as my passport photo itself. We then picked up our checked baggage - both bags having made the trip none the worse for wear - and went looking for the driver that was to take us to our hotel. Despite feeling like we had walked half way across Bangkok proper, we found our guide easily enough and she called the van. Then it was off to the hotel - a brief 30 minute drive away - and sweet insensibility (i.e. - sleep) for me.

The beds are small but very comfortable at the Chon Inter Hotel and I feel as if we are off to a good start. More later - perhaps with pictures as well!