So the Thailand trip has officially begun! Finally, after months of waiting and thinking September was never gonna come, it did. So we'll just begin with the fabulous 28 hour flight schedule I had.
I slept about 5 hours on Wednesday night (8th) to get up at 3:00am. Woah. It came quick. So I finish packing, and head over to the airport and get there around 4:10ish? Sounds good considering I have a 5:40am flight, right? Wrong. No one even showed up there to take my luggage til 4:45am. I about crapped my pants. I was so irritated, but then again it is Chattanooga, so people aren't bustin down the doors because the airport is so crowded. So I go to check in and I'm holding my breath because I'm worried about my luggage being over weight. Well, Christin's bag was 37 lbs or so, no big deal. Well, my suitcase was 55. AH. I about crapped my pants. The guy put a heavy tag on it and said, "We don't care here, but Japan might." But then he says, wait, why don't you put some stuff from that suitcase into this one?" What a novel idea! And it worked, so no baggage fee for me. Yay! Ohh and he also informed me that since i wouldn't be getting to Tokyo until the next day technically, I couldn't get my boarding pass until I got there. WTF is that? I tried not to worry about that just yet.
Anyway, as I'm sitting there waiting, Emily and Carter walk up! How funny. I had no clue they were gonna be there and they were going to Atlanta too, but on a different flight. They were going to a wedding in Seattle and were shocked when I told them I was going to Thailand of all places. Let me just make a little side note about that, I absolutely LOVE to see people's faces when I tell them I'm going to Thailand. It ranges from shock, confusion, and envy. It's great. No one understands why I'm going haha. Anyway, I fly to Atlanta, no big deal right? Wrong. I've never been in Atlanta airport alone before and I got lost at a time when I didn't have the luxury to get lost. I had about 20 mins to find my gate before boarding began. So I got off the plane and booked it. Well, I had to take that stupid subway, concourse changer thing. So I think I get to my concourse and walk all this way and I end up right back where I had started. How does that happen? I went back again and saw where I had missed the escalator to go upstairs, dumb people put it where you can't see if you're walking from the opposite direction. Anyway, I made it in time and all was well. Well, then I started to worry that my luggage wasn't gonna make it with me since I didn't have alot of time between planes. Ugh.
So I get on the plane and have an exit row seat on this flight. Success! I forgot I had picked one out. It was so nice and roomy. Well, I had this semi-cute guy, who got less cute as the plane ride went on, sit next to me. He didn't say a word to me for about 10 minutes and I was like, okay, this is gonna be an ipod flight. Well, I was wrong. He started talking and did not stop for like an hour. I heard his entire life story, more so than I wanted to know and all kinds of other stuff. Ah. But he was nice none the less. So, that flight to Minneapolis went by quick, it was only 2 hours. Well then I get to Minneapolis airport and have 6 hours to kill. Bah. So as soon as I walk off the plane I turn right and see, A. A gate screen B. A bathroom C. Starbucks. Life is good right? Everything I need right there together. And to top it off, the Starbucks had a sitting area with it that had outlets to charge your stuff! So I basically parked myself there and ate breakfast at 10am, when I had been up 7 hours already. I was hungry. I called the folks and reassured them I was okay. 2 flights down and not even 3/4 of the trip was over. Boo. So I sat around and then wandered around for a while. Marveled at all of the Brett Favre/purple Viking stuff that was everywhere. Those people are just as bad as TN with orange. Haha. So I find my gate that's suppose to be my gate in a few hours, I was a wee bit early, and took a seat. I had the chance to sit and listen to all of the Minnesotan people talk while I tried/pretended to read my book. I actually listened and tried to keep a straight face since I wasn't suppose to be listening obviously. It was great. Sounded like something straight out of Fargo. Oh, so while no one was around, I walked over to the stewardess and told her about the boarding pass drama for Tokyo and she printed one right out for me. Apparently I had waited enough time to be able to get it. She sure did save me some worry. Thank you lady!
I went and had some Subway later on even though I wasn't hungry. I didn't know how long it would be or when I would eat again on the plane. After a while, I noticed people trickling in for the flight to Japan. I guess I never thought about it, but most people were Asian. Duh Cortney. I think I assumed that would just be on my flight to Bangkok. Wrong. So I board the plane, which let me tell you, is usually 30 mins before on domestic flights. Well, for international, boarding time is an hour before. Well holy crap, if you think you have a lot of time in between flights, you don't, unless you've got like 5 hours to kill. So I didn't have to wait as long at the airport. Yay. I was worried the entire time about this flight, not because it was 12 hours, but because I picked a window seat that had 3 people to a row aka I have to crawl over 2 people to pee instead of just one. Boo. I hate doing that. But luckily, the 2 ladies next to me were UBER nice. One was a Christian too! Praise Jesus! Well then she ended up moving seats so me and the other lady had an empty middle seat which was the best possible option really. We weren't crammed in together. It was great. This flight did suck, but not nearly as much as I thought it would. I didn't watch any of the movies though and they played effin 4. I didn't wanna see any of them, not even a little. Boo. Ohhh and I was planning to have my own personal tv on my seat. Didn't happen.
12 hours later I arrived in Tokyo. Yay right? Yay wrong. If I thought I had little time in Atlanta, I had even less time in Tokyo. I was kinda sad about that too. I wanted to people watch a little and look for a Harajuku girl haha, plus I wanted to stand and not sit for a while. Well neither one worked out for me. It took so long to actually get off the plane that when I got into the airport, my next flight was already loading. BOO. Oh and to make it even better, the Japs think it's best for some reason, to make everyone who has a connecting flight, go through security AGAIN. WTF is that? I'd already been through, why do I need to do it again? Ugh. That took more time and they took my water which pissed me off since I had bought it in an airport. Whatever. So I'm practically running to find where to go, which is not easy to find btw. I had someone white and American help me. Ha. So I make a quick pee stop and then as I get to my gate, I'm one of the last people to board! Ah! So all is well, minus me worrying about luggage transferal again. Oh, and each seat this time had a personal tv. That was a welcome sight considering it was a 7 hour flight. Well I sat next to Kim Jong il's brother, also known as little Elvis on this flight. He had these gold glasses with this detail on the side that looked remarkable Elvis like. I don't know, but it was funny. He didn't say a word to me. Ha.
So this was by far the WORST flight out of the four. No joke. I kept thinking it was a different time then it was and I was wrong. I thought I had 2 hours left and I had 4. Oh the distress I felt at that was awful. After an eternity, I made it, only to see the pouring rain and no thing to connect our plane to the airport. Great. We had to get on a trolley that took us to the airport, then go through Customs, then go get baggage, then exit. This airport is insane and I don't like it. Christin kept saying how it wasn't very big. Negative my friend. I disagree. It's got the oddest layout ever. So as I finally find my baggage claim area and find my luggage! YAY! That was the first task, now the second was to find Miss Christin. So as I walk out, she just happens to be walking by. Lucky me, she said she had been pacing because there were several exit areas. So I stopped and dropped my luggage and we had our airport moment like she likes to talk about so much. It was so great to 1. See her since it's been a while and 2. To FIND her so easily. I was truly worried about getting lost there. It all went so well I couldn't have asked for anything better. PRAISE JESUS. So we make our way out and get a taxi. Yes, they have those pink taxis everywhere that I saw while she was student reaching. Unreal. And let me tell you, she said she can't speak Thai. She lied. She was awesome at it. We had this funny cab driver too. So we head to her apartment and I had someone carry my luggage for me to the elevator. How nice! Kop Koon Kah!
It's about 1:30/1:45am by this time. So I call my mom on Skype and she screams with joy when she finds out it's me Hahaha. It was great. She goes, "Are you in Japan?" Japan mom? Really? I was like no, I'm with Christin. I'd shoot myself in the face if I was just now to Japan. So I talked to her for a few minutes and then played on the computer. Well then it was 2:00 or 2:30 and I was informed we were getting up at 5:30 to go to the Tiger Zoo with the other student teachers! Success! So I worried about only sleeping 3 hours, well I slept 2, maybe. Jet lag is fun my friends. I was up at 4:15am, staring at the ceiling. I just knew I was gonna keel over by 11 or 12 that day, but amazingly enough I didn't! So Christin and I get a tuk tuk to take us to her school. Now, that was fun. That's a good way to travel. So we meet Prateep at school, our tour guide for the day and the other student teachers. There are 5 of them, 4 girls and 1 boy, but someone was sick, so there were 6 of us for the day and they were all SUPER nice and the boy was cute too. I'm still trying to see if he's single, I'll keep you updated :) I'm really glad we got to go with them. So, in a nutshell, I got to experience all of Thailand in one day. It was amazing. If I had to go home the next day, I'd be satisfied. I got to see that much. So we sat on the bus for a while and drove out of Bangkok to Pattaya for the beach. Well we stopped to pee along the way and my first experience with Thai bathrooms had squatty potties. Yes, squat over the pot. No comodes. I about crapped my pants, I forgot Christin mentioning this a while back. Well, I sure am glad I had been practicing squat peeing at home anyway just for hygenic purposes because it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Then we headed to the beach, which wasn't much of a beach really because it was road, sand, water. Not much to see, but it was nice. Christin and I went picture crazy. Prateep got us cute little chairs and a table to eat at and he ordered all kinds of Thai food. Woah. We basically had 'lunch' at 9:00am. It was all great though. I was surprised I liked so much of it. We cleaned up and headed to the Tiger Zoo!
So the Tiger Zoo was amazing. There aren't other words to describe it. It was just amazing. Oh and btw, I've noticed, most Thai zoos will cater to one animal type, but have 50 million more. Like there were elephants, crocodiles, pigs, bunnies, etc. here, even if tigers are there main animal. So we first went to the elephant show. That was funny and kinda sad. I don't think they have animal cruelty laws here like they do at home. A lot of the elephants had been branded with a number or symbol. So sad. But it was like watching Dumbo haha. The show was good and then we headed over to see some tigers! They were all in pens obviously but I was kinda bummed because I thought they would be more out in then open I guess, or more accessible like when Christin went before. But we found baby tigers in a separate area. They were in pens too and they had bottles to feed them through the cage and I was like, ohhh no no no. I want to hold them. But they had one over in another area where you could pay to hold it and feed it so that's what we did. Christin and I did it and split the cost, then they took it away and we paid again so I could hold it and we got a little baby one! SO PRECIOUS! AH! It was adorable! By far the best thing ever. It gave Christin a sloppy kiss haha.
After that we went to the Crocodile show. How boring. Those people are dumb. Those crocs wanted to do nothing but eat their faces off. We looked at our tiger pictures instead. Then we went to the tiger show. Now that was good. Very entertaining. After the show we went to see the monkeys! SO funny! Naturally, we had to get a picture made. Then we left to go back the city. Christin and I made a pit stop outside Paragon to check on her iphone. Holy crap it was typical Asia! I've never seen so many people! We took a motor bike back to the apartment. I was VERY apprehensive about it at first but it was actually quite fun. We came back to her apartment and crashed afterward. So, funny story, kinda. I was on the computer and saw the time was 9:00pm. All of a sudden the jet lag and only 2 hours of sleep hit me like a ton of bricks and I was about to pass out. So I told Christin I was gonna go to bed and she said, "Cortney, it's only 8." I said, "Is that a cruel joke?" I realized the time on my computer was from home, not here. I wanted to die. So I forced myself to stay up later so I wouldn't wake up at 3am. I finally went and to bed and Christin said I was out cold. I didn't move. I don't remember moving either until about 6am this morning. It was the best sleep I've had in a while. Yay. On to day two!
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