The Long Road to Thailand
February 2004
I headed out from Calgary on a foggy Saturday morning. Joanne dropped me off at 5:45 A.M. and of course the 7:35 A.M. to San Francisco was delayed until 12 noon. It actually took off at 1:40 PM. Therefore I missed the connecting flight from San Francisco to Japan. United airlines rebooked the Japan and Bangkok flight for 24 hours later, so I lost a day. The woman at the United counter in Calgary told me that because weather was the problem, they were not obligated to put me up for the night in San Francisco. When I arrived in SF, I was ready for a fight, but I asked the United counter for a comp'd room at a hotel, and I got it. No charge and no fight!
Once the hotel shuttle dropped me off, I went straight over to the hotel barber to clip my mop. (Thought you should know.)
The next day my flight to Japan took off at 1:05PM. On the flight I was stuck beside a gigantic American man and his wife. What do they feed their people in that country, human growth hormone?? This guy was so huge he couldn't use his own space in front of him, as his knees didn't have the room. His legs invaded the space on either side of him. Granted, he was a pleasant enough guy, but Geez! To top it off, later in the flight he spilled a can of 7-Up all over his lap, and some got on me!
Ten hours later, I arrived at the Narita airport, about 20 miles from Tokyo.
Above, the only photo I have of Japan, and man, I made it agood one, eh?
The flight from Narita airport to Bangkok is five hours, and I slept most of the way. They showed the movie 'Seabiscuit' on this flight.
I arrived at Bangkok at 11:15 PM but the immigration lineup was to the moon. Buddy Ken Austin was supposed to meet me, but it was long past midnight when I finally got through. Sure enough, no sign of Ken. I wandered around looking for him, then looked around for an airport kiosk to check my email in case he left me a line of some sort. Ken's email acknowledged that he had received the news of my delays from Joanne, but that he would definitely be at the airport to greet me. Sure enough, I went back down to the arrival level, and I saw his red head bobbing out of the crowd. Hard to miss him since he towers over most of the locals.
Total Flight Time: 2 hrs to SanFran + 10 hrs to Japan + 5 hrs to Bangkok = 17 hours
Total Airport and Delay time: 8 hrs in Calgary + 21 hours in SanFran + 3 hrs in Japan = 32 hours
Grand Total: 49 hours !
Last year it took me 23 hours total, and that was with -you won't believe it- Air Canada.
This photo of the Bangkok International airport was taken a few days later in the afternoon, when I took off for Southern Thailand.