Flight and arrival in Bangkok

I think it is Wednesday here in Bangkok. With the 12-hour time difference from Texas, I’m still mentally adjusting to the days. We didn’t have to change our watches, but we are still physically adjusting since I think we lost a lot of sleep en route to Thailand!

Ernest and Grace dropped us off at the airport. We boarded our flight, then we sat. And sat. After about 30 minutes, the pilot announced that a switch showed a malfunction, and they were determining whether it needed repair before we left, if it really was malfunctioning, or if the redundant systems would cover for it. With thoughts of our missed connection in Miami to Quito due to mechanical problems on our minds, Phillip and I just looked at each other and sighed heavily. Fortunately, the switch issue only caused a one hour departure delay. We made it to Tokyo in plenty of time to catch the connecting flight to Bangkok. Long, long flights. 13 hours to Tokyo, switch planes, then 6-1/2 more hours to Bangkok. Both flights had  personal TV screens in the seat backs, so Phillip and I watched movies and TV shows. “I am Four,” Tron Legacy,” the latest Chronicles of Narnia movie, and two episodes of Bones for me. Phillip saw “The Tourist” and “The Fighter,” and another movie during which he was laughing out loud.

We arrived in Bangkok last night shortly before David and Miriam did. Once we collected all the luggage – our two suitcases and their three – we took a taxi to the hotel. Since it was after midnight, the trip was quite fast. Miriam assured me the during the day, the traffic is terrible on Bangkok streets.

Our hotel did have our room reservations. Air conditioning! A city hotel, we are on the ninth floor. Breakfast buffet this morning. In addition to the obligatory scrambled eggs, they served rice, fried rice, vegetables, and soup. A different start to the day, but soup does make a good breakfast, just don’t add too much chili pepper unless you want a real wake-up.

Our hotel is near the shopping area where vendor stalls line the streets and cover entire blocks in buildings. Clothes are a popular item in the shop-like vendor areas. Along the street, fruit and grilled food is available about every ten feet. Phillip and David first exchanged some dollars for the Thai baht (about 30 baht to one US dollar). Phillip gave me my share of the baht he got. I made it about 30 feet before Miriam and I stopped to buy fresh jackfruit. Delicious! I had seen these huge fruit in the Asian market in Haltom City, but had no clue how to prepare it.  I like the canned jackfruit that I have eaten, but fresh jackfruit is so much better. It has a firm texture and isn’t quite as sweet as mangos and papayas.

We stopped to get iced coffee, 18 baht each (less than 75 cents US), made with sweetened condensed milk, as delicious as any Starbucks concoction. And more street food, some fried fish balls (regular fish, nothing exotic… yet). That’s Miriam selecting the food from the vendor, while David supervised. We saw the groups of monks walking thru the shopping area, blessing shops and accepting donations in the small pots they carry.

Humidity is the key word here. We walked around for about two hours this morning. Less than four hours of sleep last night. I am so glad I have this blog-writing reason to stay in the air conditioning this afternoon.