A Farangs’ Tale… Feb-18&19-09

Farang is the Thai word for any foreigner of European descent (white)…  So here’s my tale.

It begins on February 18th, 2009 when I arrive at the Toronto International Airport at 6:30am for my 8:30am flight… the airport was a flurry of activity and as exciting as it was the following will outline the “time traveling adventure” of simply getting to Thailand…  This is unedited and the straight goods – enjoy the read!

Thai BLOG – Feb.18.2009 – 9:30am (EST)

And so it begins….

I arrived at YYZ bright and early – 6:30am…and then the hurry up and wait process began. Traveling to Thailand I figured the line I needed was International flights… apparently not :oi I was instructed that because the flight to Tokyo goes through Vancouver I needed to line up on the opposite end of the terminal for domestic flights :oi No biggie I had lots of time!

The process was pretty smooth – and I was at gate 124 by 7:30am… Nothing to do but wait… and grab a tall, soy, no whip, cinnamon dolce latte ;o) Unfortunately the Starbucks was on the other side of the terminal – but with an hour to kill I went for it and grabbed some supplies (Photography magazine, book-mark and water).

I booked it back to the gate and only had a few moments before final boarding call… I popped a Looney in the payphone and called Blair (no answer – left a message) and then called home (chatted with Mom & Dad)… final good-byes!

Made it back to the gate just as they called for the final boarding call… perfect! I got a great seat with extra leg room :o)

The funny thing about airports is there’s lots of people all going in different directions and 2 of the people I saw in line and around the terminal are sitting within eye shot…

The sky is blue above the clouds and it’s sunny and plus 1 in Vancouver – high of plus 5 – and only getting hotter from there!!!

This is all still a bit surreal – I am sleep deprived and listening to the Jazz stylings of Cannonball Adderley – good stuff!! I may watch a movie – they have a great selection on these high tech touch screen monitors :o)

O&O… more later….

Thai BLOG – Feb.18.2009 – 10:30pm (EST)

Wow – what a day… so I watched How to Loose Friends and Alienate People – with Simon Pegg – it was pretty funny :o) It was a good way to round out the nice 4hour or so flight to Vancouver… as we were descending we were informed that we would have to change planes due to the on board entertainment system being down – I guess a 10 hour flight to Tokyo with no movies would be pretty dull!! I’m covered either way with this wonderful laptop :o)

The YVR was beautiful – indoor ponds, aquarium & shops reminiscent of a shopping mall – BC style! We were there for 2 or so hours before boarding the same type of plane – 777 – and thankfully I got the same seat :o) I started to read my new book The Shack (so far so good) and ate my sandwich after take off – I was pretty hungry… I also got a bag of chips at the airport (after Ingrid my brother’s girlfriend got it stuck in my head that chips are good on plane trips – indeed!!). We got drinks shortly after take off and then about an hour into the journey we were fed dinner… I selected the vegetarian option ahead of time – and got Channa Masala with a side bean salad and desert fruit salad & white bread bun with margarine – I ate most of the main course and all of the fruit – but left the hockey puck like bun and most of the bean salad which had lima beans in it – YUCK!! I guess it was okay – a bit dry and overly spicy but good none the less. Everyone else had a choice of either chicken with pasta or beef with rice and a beat salad (which I would have preferred to the bean salad) and a bun and cake desert.

I watched and episode of CSI (which I haven’t seen before and it was good!!) then fell asleep for who knows how long – awoke feeling refreshed – had a snack of dried mangoes that I brought along with some raw nuts… and a ginger ale and then watched the movie Appaloosa – a gunslinger movie my Dad would love (if he hasn’t seen it already).

After realizing I had been sitting for so long I decided to get up and stretch – I noticed a woman at the back of the plane doing some yoga – so I went and joined her and found out she’s going to Thailand too – doing a Yoga retreat on one of the islands. We had a nice chat and a nice stretch and then here I am back at my seat enjoying an episode of Pushing Daisies (that I have seen already) and blogging.

I realize that I had totally underestimated the length of this trip… I was thinking with the time shift it would seem like 26hrs and not actually be 26hrs ;o) A girl can dream can’t she!! So the tally so far is 4hrs to Vancouver, BC (2hrs layover) and now 10hrs to Narita, Tokyo… not sure how long the layover is 2 hrs I think and then 7 hours from there! So it’s now 11pm EST and it feels like morning – so I’m thinking the jet lag won’t be a problem :o)

We will be landing within 2 hrs – so enough time for a movie – more to come once I get to the airport….

Thai BLOG – Feb.19.2009 – 12:15am(EST)

Dinner was Vegetarian Briyani – not too bad – much like the Channa Masala – and it came with a quinoas salad and a fruit salad desert (and bun which I ate this time and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be :o)… watched Wall-e on my laptop and now going to nap until we land… so tired!!!

Thai BLOG – Feb.19.2009 – who knows what time it is anymore!!!

The landing in Tokyo sucked! I felt so sick to my stomach – it was very bumpy and it gave me a slight headache :o( I couldn’t believe that I had 7 more hours of flying and 2 hours to wait around in the airport… this has been one heck of a journey!

The Tokyo Narita Airport was pretty lack-luster – I’m not sure what I was expecting – but there was definitely not enough Hello Kitty stuff around although some interesting vending machines and washrooms – it was a bit high tech but not WOW high tech.

Check out this video! http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=132215680021&saved#/video/video.php?v=132215680021

The plane was much smaller and although I got a window seat I was cramped – I thankfully took 2 gravol before boarding to combat the motion sickness and passed out for most of the ride – I even missed dinner which looked pretty gross anyway :o)

We arrived 15mins early around 10:45pm Thailand time… February 19th… which would be 10:45am EST. So that’s from 8:30am February 18th – 10:45am February 19th – do the math – WTF I’m on the other side of the world (LITERALLY)… I mean check the globe – for real!!! :o)

After wondering around the airport a bit – checking my e-mail and calling Mel to let her know I made it (we’re going to meet up tomorrow) I went to Starkbucks (just had to) so that I could be coherent enough to find my way to a guest house… I met a nice lady who offered me a fancy hotel and such and I said I just need a taxi to this place (Shanti Lodge) and she hooked me up with a taxi – I was just too tired to find a cheaper way to get there… 900Bht later I made it and got a nice single room with a fan for 400Bht – not the cheapest accommodations around but this place has the right vibe and I know it’s going to bring me good luck and friends… more tomorrow going to try and sleep now – although it’s close to 2am – it’s really 2pm in my head… YIKES!!!