THE NEW ADVENTURE BEGINS

There was nothing remarkable about the three flights, except their length. It's only an hour and a half from Tucson to LAX; then 11 hours to Narita International in Toyoko. A short layover there (just enought time to find my flight to Bangkok) and then another seven hours.

I started and finished the book, "Daddy's Girl" by Lisa Scottoline. It's a good airline book, as it does keep you turning the pages. I had never read this author before, but may look into some of her previous publications.

The only NEW thing I learned was to NOT order special meals. I had ordered diabetic meals, and they gave me potatoes, rice, raisons, croissants among other things that I normally wouldn't eat. For one breakfast, I opened it up, and it was a mount of something white, and a mound of something green. After tasting each, I closed it back up.

It was about 74 degrees F on arrival, and raining. Not hard, but continuous. I had no problem getting through either immigration or customs, and found my way to the "legitimate" cabs.

The information I had from my landlord was that it would cost approximately 470THB. The actual cost, including tip was 360THB. The Baht is worth .032 to the Dollar, so 360 THB is approximately $11.20. It was a 45 minute ride; however, I couldn't see much of anything due to the rain and the time.

SO WHAT DAY IS IT?

My FIRST miscalculation was the Time. I misread the arrival time as 12 Noon, but is was 12 Midnight. Not to worry. Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport is a very busy place. I first exchanged some more money so that I could pay my rent, and then got the taxi.

I left my watch set on Tucson time, thinking I might have a clue as to when to go to sleep.
Normally, I can sleep on anything that moves, and, true to form, I slept most of the way to LAX. Then, for the next 11 hours, no sleep; of course, it was only coming up on midnight when we arrived at Narita, so I took a sleeping pill before we landed, and am happy to say that I slept most of the way to Bangkok. It sure does make the flight go faster.

On arriving in Bangkok at midnight, my Tucson watch said it was 10AM on the day before. So I missed the superbowl game and the Super Tuesday election results.

BANGKOK

I took another sleeping pill when I got to the apartment, and slept through till about 8AM. Walked down the street (don't ask me which one) and came up on a lot of "home based" food outlets, ( I don't think they could be described as either restaurants or cafes)and selected one where a women was cooking breakfast by the sidewalk. I stopped and had an egg, and some noodles. They don't seem to do coffee here, so I settled for a carbonated water. I don't know what was in the noodles, but they were good, and the meat "tasted like chicken".

I found the Bangkok Post, after breakfast, so I can get caught up on the news. The only problem was that I got lost. At least, this time, I couldn't blame it on the map, cause I didn't take a map with me. After wandering around for a couple of hours, I found I cab to take me home, and HE couldn't find the condo either. So I didn't feel so bad.

I have some pics, but right now, my Blog page is in Thai, and I haven't been able to figure out how to change it. I'll post some pics as soon as I overcome that hurdle. jw