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Published: September 23rd 2005
MSP Airport
We had two whole hours to sit and stare at our plane.When people talk about how much they enjoy traveling, I don’t think they are referring to the time spent getting to their destination. At least when I say that I enjoy traveling I mean that I enjoy visiting new places and cultures. I certainly don’t mean that I enjoy hellishly long flights, or the cramped conditions, or the overwhelming fatigue that accompanies 27 hours of traveling in coach. The trip was filled with delays, near misses and all sorts of other nonsense which I will describe briefly, but now that I have that behind me I can start to enjoy our trip.
The trip:
Because I know that some of you who are reading this will be making the journey Thailand to visit within the next year I want you to know that the general crappiness of our journey is not common and should not be expected when you head to Thailand.
Leg 1: MSP airport.
So we arrived at the MSP airport around 8 am for a 9:20 flight. To make a long story short, rain in Chicago (where our connection was) created substantial delays for all flights. Despite being placed on a flight that was theoretically set
Chocolate Em
Emily enjoyed a piece of chocolate during the first leg of our trip. We were'nt able to enjoy much of anything by the final leg. to depart at an earlier time we still didn’t take off until about 11:15. The flight was short, but the guy next to me smelled as though he had just been drowned in cologne. I turned my air-flow-thingy to gale force and tried to blow as much of the stench away from me as possible.
MSP to Chicago In Flight Reading Materials:
I had just purchased a used DSLR camera for the trip (Nikon D100) and had packed the massive manual as my in flight reading material. Soon after take-off I discovered that the manual that had been packed with the camera was the Spanish version, the previous owner had likely lost or kept the English one. So I now had a camera with about a million buttons and options, all of which were explained in Spanish. No me gusta!
Leg 2: Chicago:
We arrived at Chicago with 5 minutes until our connecting flight departed. We ran through the terminal and arrived at the gate just as they were about to close the doors on the plane. The guy checking our tickets was a real asshole and held us there for a couple of minutes while he issued
outside
Outside there was sun and fresh air. Inside there was a man with too much cologne sitting next to me. new tickets for our next flight, which seemed a little odd but we didn’t think anything of it at the time. As soon as he was done delaying us we started heading for the doors he shouted “Hurry!” at us just to prove that he was a total dick.
Chicago to Narita Japan:
The flight from Chicago to Narita (40 miles outside Tokyo) is 13 hours long. Thankfully the flight was nearly deserted. We later learned that this was due to over 200 people missing thier connection because of flight delays. I still think they may have missed their connection because of that asshole at the gate holding them up. Anyways, the lack of passengers on the flight meant that we could stretch out a bit, which was rather nice when we wanted to take naps. Sleeping on an airplane is more difficult for me than linear algebra is to a kinesiology major. I find sleeping sitting up is nearly impossible. So I was thankful that I could spread out and relax a little on this long flight. Although, I noticed that the seats were so incredibly uncomfortable that I surmised that they must have been designed by the
Narita Airport
The ultra-super-mega-modern-ultimate-mega-airport-of-Narita-happy-fun-time. marque de Sade or his great great grandson Karl Rove with a focus on maximizing human suffering. I managed to get about 2 hours of sleep total, which really helped with the later leg of the trip. So while the flight lasted forever nothing very eventful happened, unless you count every single muscle in my back and neck going into spasm from trying to lie across the seats as something worth mentioning. So we landed in Narita, Japan a little late and a lot tired. It was now 2:00AM back home and I was starting to feel pooped.
Leg 3: Narita, Japan:
The Narita airport was a nice change from the cabin of a 747. It had huge windows, high ceilings and the best massage chairs I have ever tried. We found our terminal and then I went off to go get some money changed so I could try out the cool looking chair massagers. After exchanging $20 for a couple thousand yen, I headed back to the gate and all three of us got a much needed massage. I couldn’t believe how awesome it felt. It practically undid all the knots and aches that the long flight had
Massage chair
Americans like to think of themselves as world leaders. Then why the hell dont we have these wonderful massage chairs at our airports? Instead, we have shoe shine booths. Who gets off of a 14 hour flight and thinks, "God, I could really use a shoe shine!" given me. It even had a strange footrest-type-thingy which gave a remarkable calf massage. I melted into the chair. After massage time was over they announced that our flight to Bangkok was delayed by half an hour. Feeling a bit hungry, we headed out to find some warm food. We stopped at a little fast-foodesque place and had an order of Udon noodles with some strange breaded deep-fried bog floating on top of it. I carefully extracted the Udon noodles from under the bog, making sure not to ingest any of floating stuff which looked a lot like assorted squid parts. We then headed back to the gate to board our flight. The automatic ticket reader did not accept our tickets and we had to step aside and wait about 15 minutes as they got things figured out. By now it was apparent that the theme for our trip was “delays” so I tried to relax and take the situation in stride. It appeared that the tickets that the butt-face in Chicago had issued for us were for seats that were already filled and so they had to figure out where they were going to put us. I was hoping
Bangkok Baggage Claim
Finally we arrive in Bangkok. We proceed to wait for our luggage for an hour and then learn that our luggage will not be joining us until tomorrow evening. When our luggage does arrive I find my computer is utterly smashed and will need to be replaced. But more on that in the next posting. first class, but I hadn’t slept in so long I was rather delusional. They put us in the middle aisle immediately behind the stupid movie screen. I hate coach.
Narita to Bangkok:
This flight was hell! I was feeling so exhausted and unwell at this point that all I could think about was getting the off the damn plane. There were no free seats to lie down across, no window to look out and no patience left in me. My stomach hurt, my head hurt, my whole body hurt. My headset didn’t work, so I couldn’t even watch the lousy movies that were showing on the screen 4 feet from my face. To those coming to visit, I strongly recommend taking a flight that transfers in Taipei rather than Narita. The flight from Taipei is about 2 hours, while the flight from Narita is 6. The difference between a 13 hour flight (Chicago to Narita) and a 15 hour flight (LA to Taipei) isn’t noticeable. But the difference between the two hours from Taipei and the six from Narita is huge. When we finally arrived in Bangkok I was about ready to kiss the ground and weep for joy. I have never enjoyed flying and the last six hours had been arduous.
Bangkok:
Stepping off the plain onto the tarmac was a little like walking into a sauna. The air on the plane had been very cold and dry while the air outside of it was very warm and humid. I enjoyed the change. We took a crowded bus from the tarmac to the terminal where we headed through a short immigration line and then on to the baggage claim. We waited at the baggage claim for over half an hour without seeing any of our bags on the carousel. It seemed apparent that our bags likely had not made the connecting. The people at the baggage claim counter informed us that our bags were still in Chicago and would not arrive in Bangkok until 4pm the next day. Considering how the trip had been going this just made things seem consistent. They said they would drop off our bags when they arrived tomorrow. I was thankful that Emily had packed our toothbrushes in our carry-on bags. So we met Suthep in the lobby, where he had been waiting for more than an hour. We loaded into the van and headed for his home.
I suddenly felt rejuvenated. Driving through Bangkok sent all the wonderful memories of our last visit rushing into my weary body. I stared out the window marveling at the mixture of buildings and jungle lots. I felt better. I felt excited. We headed back to Suthep’s house where he had an air-conditioned room with three beds waiting for us. We stayed up talking to Suthep until about 1AM and then went to sleep. The beds were thousands of times more comfortable than the airplane. Our traveling was finally over and now we could relax and get some much needed rest.
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Anna
non-member comment
¿El manual está en español?
Ai carumba! ¡Le encontraré y enviaré un manual inglés, para no temer! Hi John & Em! Glad to hear you arrived at your destination safe and sound, regardless of all the perils of airport food and baggage claim. Jen & I had a great time hanging out before you left! Oh, and just in case you didn't catch the Spanish preceding this: *I will find and mail you an English manual* Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime. And now it is time for me to make my journey... yes, the NEVERENDING journey to the place-that-pays-me-just-enough-every-two-weeks-so-that-it's-unreasonable-to-leave-yet-undesirable-to-stay. Take care!