Day 1: To Bangkok

This is a huge trip for us. Back in 2008, Zach and I had planned a trip to Thailand but then found out I was pregnant with Melina. Feeling it was probably safer and easier in my first trimester, we switched our trip to Eastern Europe instead. Since then the long flights have kept us from traveling to Thailand and the rest of Asia. But now that a few things have fallen into place, we felt like it was finally time to take that trip that was so many years in the making. First, the girls at 10 and 7 are now old enough to read and watch movies on a plane for hours on end without crying and whining. Second, they are also still small enough to be able to stretch out in the seats enough to get some sleep. Third, we have amassed enough vacation time at our jobs to make the long trip worthwhile. And fourth, (and possibly the most important reason of all) we finally seem to have a handle on Diane’s motion sickness. She hasn’t grown out of it, but we have developed a routine with Dramamine, lollipops, and Ziploc bags that has kept puking (and damage from puking) to a minimum for the past few years. Even so, the potential for disaster on long flights, buses, boat rides, and even trains is not lost on us, so the idea of flying halfway around the world has at times seemed like an incredible risk to our sanity. Needless to say, we decided that this year it was a risk worth taking.

After all the stress about our flights, we had an amazingly easy day today! Our stay with Tina and Doug in Woodbridge made it painless to get to Dulles for our midday flight, and after 21+ hours in the air (in coach) we are not only less bleary and wobbly than I expected, but actually still smiling and in good spirits. My worries about flying on United turned out to be totally unwarranted on this trip as our seats were comfortable and the full plane somehow didn’t seem so full. The in-flight entertainment was much better than expected, and Melina was on cloud nine catching up on the Marvel and Fantastic Beasts series that we hadn’t let her see before now. We all squeezed in a couple of hours of sleep here and there on the first flight, and enjoyed the bits of Japan we were able to experience during our short layover in the Tokyo airport: futuristic vending machines, sumo wrestling on TV, and public toilets with all sorts of crazy cleansing options that we were way too timid to try out. While we sat at a cafe and shared a surprisingly good bowl of beef udon, I even heard an airline paging “Christopher Zeigler” over the loudspeakers, but couldn’t hear which gate so wasn’t able to find out if it is the Chris Zeigler I know!

Resting in Tokyo

Delicious udon!

Our connecting flight to Bangkok was on ANA and turned out to be fantastic. We had two unoccupied seats next to us so there was room to spread out. When Melina switched seats to be next to Zach, he reminded her that even though the seat next to her was empty, she still couldn’t put her backpack on it and needed to stow it underneath the seat in front of her. “Dad, I know,” she replied, rolling her eyes, “I’ve been travelling almost as long as you have.”

We also marveled over the intricate and plentiful Japanese airplane meals. See below for a picture of Diane’s kids meal, which included fruit and vegetable gelatin, fried potatoes and meat both fashioned into smiley faces, two different kinds of prepackaged cookies, and a beautifully presented cold meat salad with a teddy bear toothpick. Oh, and also tiny balls of a pale yellow substance that were wrapped like candy which Melina assumed were taffy until she bid into one and discovered it was some kind of cheese.

The adult meals were just as generous, although not quite as beautiful. They were full of things like smoked salmon, potato salad, and cold unidentified meats and veggies. We barely made dent in any these items due to the aforementioned udon and the fact that none of the above are appealing on a plane.

Upon arrival in Bangkok the customs line was not bad at all, and Melina immediately pointed out the “no fresh durian” signs. We have been anticipating those signs and are looking forward to trying the notoriously foul-odored fruits on this trip. She was so thrilled to see the signs right away especially since an episode of Carmen Sandiego she watched on the plane had referenced the stinky but delicious fruit.

After some searching, we found the driver we had arranged in advance and embarked on our 40 minute ride through Bangkok in the middle of the night to our hostel. From the road and in the dark Bangkok didn’t look any more exotic than parts of DC or New York, but we still caught glimpses of the exotic. Even at 2am, tuk tuks (open air motorbike/van hybrid vehicles) carried tourists between bars, food trucks were still operating, and intricately gilded signs state, “long live the king!” I also somehow missed in all of my planning that they drive on the left side of the road in Thailand. Since Thailand was never under British rule I looked up why, and it turns out that everyone used to “drive” (walk or ride) on the left in order to keep their sword or lance on the right where they could attack an approaching enemy. Japan also still drives on the left, which we had figured out quickly when we kept running into people in the Tokyo airport!

Arrival in Bangkok

I honestly don’t feel like this long day of travel was any more taxing than a flight to Europe, which is good considering we will have to turn around and do it again in two weeks!

Zach’s note: this was a looooong trip door to door. Left Thursday and arrived Saturday long. But we did ok.