Jay and I are off on another adventure. This time I let Jay pick the place and plan the trip. He picked Thailand. Jay did his research and decided we should visit Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket. I was able to use the points I had accumulated over the years on the plane tickets. That saved a lot of money. We were to leave out of Jacksonville, FL on Thursday, May 14 at 6:00 AM. Since we had to leave so early, we decided to drive to Jacksonville Wednesday night and spend the night. The total trip over was to take about 30 hours. We were flying from Jacksonville to JFK in New York. The from JFK to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Bangkok.
We were supposed to drive my SUV to Jacksonville, because we had to drop off our German Shepherd at his kennel and our cat at my brothers. But my SUV started having major problems and would not be fixed in time for us to drive it. So instead we had to drive Jay’s Ford Mustang. We managed to get 2 large pieces of luggage and 2 carry on bags in the trunk. Shadow, the dog, was able to get in the back seat. Max, the cat, was in her crate under my feet. We only had to drive about thirty minutes like this before we dropped Shadow off. Then I was able to move Max to the back seat. This was also the first time I sat in the passenger seat. Jay decided since it was his car, that he would drive. I was able to sit back and relax on the trip over.
The flight from JAX to JFK was uneventful. We had a three hour layover at JFK, so we decided to eat breakfast. We both had scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes and bacon. We were supposed to have a diet coke and orange juice, but they were never brought to us. After we ate breakfast, we found our next gate.
The next flight from JFK to Tokyo was almost 14 hours long and it was a full flight. I sat next to the window and Jay had the aisle seat. There was someone sitting between us. This is also a first, Jay usually sits by the window and I sit in the middle. Apparently that is the theme for this adventure – everything is a first for us. They fed us two full meals and a sandwich. They also gave us a bottle of water. I watched two movies, read and slept. We were in coach, so it was not that comfortable.
When we arrived in Tokyo we had to go through immigration even though we were just changing planes. There was a long wait. Then we found our gate. The next flight was only 6 hours. Again, I sat by the window and Jay sat in the aisle seat with someone between us. They also fed us a full meal, I had the pork and rice, salad and cake for dessert. They also gave us ice cream and bottled water.
We had scheduled a driver to pick us up at the airport and take us to our hotel. Our plane was arriving at 11 at night and I knew we would be tired.
We were staying at the Chatriun Hotel Riverside Bangkok. They were very friendly and welcoming when we arrived. After checking in we were escorted to our room where we were shown everything. We were staying in a one bedroom suite overlooking the river. I was very tired when we arrived after traveling for 30 hours, so Jay and I went to bed.
