In Transit

The last time I left you I was about to go to bed in china. Well we left that morning for the airport and arrived early and were first in line at the checkin counter. We checked in and then went straight to security. It took less than 5 minutes to go through security. No shoes had to come off, no liquids came out of our bags and no pat downs occurred. It was painless.  While we were waiting for our flight we went to the business class lounge for Thai Airways. Remember we are flying mostly first or business using airmiles so we are enjoying the perks. We had a little morning snack since we had not eaten much before getting to the airport. I had a very nice "brookstone" style chair massage while we waited. My mom asked if it was free. Well it was all in Chinese but it didn't ask for a credit card so I went ahead and made myself at home. The lounge restrooms were interesting. That is all I will say, haha!

Our flight to Bangkok was about 5 hours and pretty nice.  The business class seats reclined and had foot rests that came up. I don't really remember what I did.  I think I read on the flight and maybe slept. It was pretty painless. The Thai airways people were very friendly and bowed as we got on the plane.

Once we arrived in Thailand we were greeted as we got off the plane immediately by a lady who took us away on a golf cart. She took us to some security area where we were screened and then took us to the first class lounge. We got some food, rested some, and then we still had time to each get an hour massage in the Thai Air spa.  It was quite relaxing. After waiting for another 2 hours it was time for our flight.

We were in first class for the 10 hour flight. There were 9 people I think in our cabin. I realized after we took off that my entertainment system that you can watch movies and stuff on was not working and they couldn't fix it.  I was really bummed about that because I couldn't get y iPad or iPhone to charge and I thought they would die on me.  I guess that pretty much meant that I would be sleeping most of the flight and that is certainly what I did. I read a little it on my iPad but then I went to sleep. They made up my bed and I passed out. I woke up a few times but the last time they woke me for breakfast.

After breakfast I was sitting there and one of the flight attendants came over and apologized for the inconvenience of the entertainment system not working.  She offered me anything in the duty free catalog complimentary up to $200. I had only a few minutes to make my decision.

Shortly after my nice parting gift we landed and found our driver from the hotel that we scheduled to pick us up. The airport was crazy crowded but we were able to get people out of our way and make a quick escape. Our driver was great and gave us lots of good info on the city.  After he dropped us off at the hotel we checked in and lucky me, we got an upgrade to the Horizon Club which means that we get some extra stuff free like free Internet, free breakfast, and I don't know what else.  I'm sure they felt sorry for us because they knew we had been traveling for 2.5 days and we were exhausted :)  Whatever the reason I am extremely grateful.

Once we got to our room, rested some, and showered, we headed out to explore.  We found a cafe to eat at outside. The weather in nice here...in the 70's.  It did get a little toasty walking around though. After eating we walked around and the. Eventually came back to the room.  We eventually went back out and searched for some shopping.  We will do the touristy stuff when we come back after the cruise.

We probably won't do a whole lot tonight.  I'm sure we are going to try and get acclimated to our new time zone. I will say that even though I was pretty exhausted after all of our flying, I'm doing pretty good.  My energy level isn't like it normally is but I've also been in transit for the past 2.5 days.

Tomorrow is ship day and we finally will get to be rocked to sleep each night with the waves of the sea...such a great feeling :) Stay tuned for more!

*disclaimer....I'm aware that there may be plenty of typos in each blog post. Bear with me if you will.  I got a great portable keyboard for Christmas to go with my iPad and I tried it before I left home and it worked just fine but when I arrived at our first over night stop I discovered that it was no longer working. So I'm having to do the best I can under the current  conditions :)