Traveling to Thailand

"See you in China," I said cheerfully to Kendra as I watched her slip into the jetway. Once she was safely around the corner, I was finally able to succumb to the sweet siren call of the chocolate-covered granola bar in my backpack. The granola bar would sustain me through the remainder of my 5-hour tour of Denver International Airport before boarding my flight to LAX. Kendra was flying to San Francisco and would catch a flight to Hong Kong, arriving about 50 minutes ahead of me.

It finally came time to board and, wonder of wonders, I was situated in the very back of the plane. Sitting painfully far back in the aircraft cabin would be a consistent theme of my journey to Thailand. Compounding upon my impatience to depart the aircraft was the knowledge that I had the bare minimum amount of time needed to hoof it across LAX to the international terminal, check in to my flight, go back through security, and make it to my gate. Also. , I hate LAX. I had a bad experience barely making it to my connection flight on a return trip from Hawaii and I've held a grudge ever since. I would rather overdose on laxatives then fly through LAX. I would rather have flown the entirety of my flight across the Pacific sitting next to a hypercaffeinated Rachel Ray than catch a connection through LAX. But I had to take the hand that was dealt me, and this hand led me through an airport that I'm pretty sure was designed by an angry chimpanzee.

My frustration with LAX melted with its disappearance into the haze that sits like a dirty halo above LA as the massive airplane took to the night sky. We were served dinner at 1am (as the flight was operating on Hong Kong time), and I was to dine on the "salmon served over Ziti pasta with asparagus spears, eggplant, accompanied by salad and a cheesecake for desert.". Let me assure you that my meal was quite tasty, but it did not fully represent what I'd envisioned based on that description. The pasta was excellent, as was the asparagus, but there was a strange, tri-colored wheel of paste. The orange, green, and cream colors were, I think, the salmon, eggplant, and cheesecake, respectively. Kendra swears that she was served her desert separately and that it was delicious. I ate my colorful paste wheel with my salad.

 

A recreation of the mysterious tri-colored paste wheel.

I slipped into a paste-induced slumber as the plane flew 40,000 feet above the Pacific. When I awoke (for the fifth and final time), I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I'd slept for 7 hours. I would occupy my remaining time with watching a movie (District 9), two nature documentaries, and episode of Man vs. Wild (Bear was in the Dominican Republic), and studying anatomy from my new atlas. Kendra is quite jealous of my new atlas of anatomy, and I enjoyed having the opportunity to study without needing to dodge household objects thrown at me by a neglected wife.

A highlight of the flight occurred somewhat near the end when, looking out the window, I saw Japan. I'm used to seeing Colorado or Idaho from a plane window, so I just found it funny that I was looking at Japan.

Also, the nature documentaries are of honorable mention. They were two episodes of the 'Life' series and had absolutely incredible cinematography. I don't know about you, but if watching three cheetahs take down an ostrich doesn't make a transcontinental flight for you, then I don't know what will.

The plane began its descent into Hong Kong. All of a sudden, cargo ships appeared as the plane broke through the clouds and I could suddenly see the emerald water framed by the mountainous islands. During the flight, I'd browsed through the 'infotainment' section and learned that the minimum amount of time recommended by my airline for catching a connection through Hong Kong is 50 minutes.

I had 40.

So after everyone and their brother departed the plane before me, I swam (it was humid enough to) to security and made it to Kendra at the Gate with a surprising amount of time to spare. I smiled widely when I saw her and got an excellent hug, but Kendra soon developed a strong headache (strangely, her headaches seem to be correlated to my being present. Specifically, to my being present while talking). It was nothing some medication and rest on the plane couldn't fix, however, and we were soon on our way to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I was enjoying myself. I loved the movies and time to read on the plane, enjoyed the food, loved traveling through new countries, and was just drinking the experience in.

This shot of KL Inernational Airport's interior doesn't do justice to one of the indoor jungle sections.

After getting our bags at KL International Airport (which has incredible indoor jungle enclosures, shown just above), we needed to catch a bus to LCCT, another airport where our Air Asia flight to Phuket would depart after a generous layover. Unfortunately, we didn't have the RM 5.00 fare or anyway to convert our American dollars into the Malaysian RM.

Enter Karen. Karen, as we learned, is a Dutch traveler who is both an excellent conversationalist and quite generous. She was on an extended trip through SE Asia and was currently on her way to LCCT to catch a flight to Singapore after island hopping off Malaysia. She not only paid for our fare, but also gave us RM 10.00 to grab a drink and snack in the airport during our 9-hour layover. We're extremely grateful for her generosity.

The bus to LCCT was quite interesting as it was quite long. An approximately 20 minute trek gave us a nice view of the extensive palm forests of the interior and made us quite excited for our stay in Thailand. That is, until the layover from hell took effect.

We would take up residence in various locations of LCCT for 8 tedious hours. Malaysia (which is who we are ultimately blaming for our layover) would break me of my travel excitement as sleep deprivation took effect and kept me from enjoying my study of anatomy or any of the quirky things I care to occupy my time with.

  

Stare at this picture intently for 10 hours and you'll know how we felt. LCCT has all of the excitement of the DMV but without the option of leaving.

Kendra and I did tour the duty-free shops (complete with cigarette cartons displaying graphic photos of organs debilitated by smoking), and I had a very tasty sandwich from Cafe Expresso. Two interesting things of note were two 'interesting' young women near us and two Indian men who would take candid pictures of the other walking by women they deemed attractive.

After waiting an additional 2 hours due to our flight being delayed, we suffered through a game of 'musical gate' as the LCCT staff rapidly changed our gate from T8 to T5 to T8, then back to T5 again.

We did, against all odds, finally make it to our seats on the plane and were rewarded with the company of Tim Gird. A South African teaching English in Phuket, Tim was returning from a border run to Malaysia to refresh his Visa. We had a great time with him on the flight and hope to catch up with him and his girlfriend in Phuket.

Departing our flight into Thailand, we managed to stagger drunkenly through customs and into the open arms of Maow and Gai, two staff members from the Step Ahead Khao Lak center who were gracious enough to pick us up. We threw our luggage in the back and prepared for an hour long drive north along the Thai peninsula to Khao Lak. Maow and Gai - who you'll here more about in future entries - are wonderful and were very gracious company and quite accomodating of our exhausted state. Several times I found myself startled to wake up and see oncoming headlights as I kept drifting off to sleep while sitting upright. Driving on the opposite side of the road kept adding to my confusion. Looking back on it, it would've been quite funny to see the expression on my face each time.

When we made it to the center, we were directed upstairs to our wonderful room and the fresh sheets of a large bed that we haphazardly fell into, reaching unconsciousness on contact with the pillow.

Despite the minor difficulties of the trip here, if these last two days have been any indication of the quality of the next six months, I would gladly make it again and again to be able to serve, live, and travel throughout Thailand.