Hello from Bangkok!

Hello from Bangkok!

 I finally arrived!  I just got to my little hotel room and it is clean, but really different than an American airport hotel.  I am exhausted, but I made it in one piece.   Unfortunately, my luggage did not make it and is currently still on the ground in Atlanta thanks to the cuckoo lady who checked my bags in yesterday and put the wrong date on them.  Supposedly, my bags will take the same flight to Bangkok tomorrow night and get to Chiang Mai some time on Saturday.  Keep your fingers crossed for me because I only have one change of clothes and no toiletries right now.

 I left Atlanta on July 22^nd on a 2:20 PM Northwest flight to Tokyo.   I’ve never been on a double deck plane before, but I got first class and was on the upper deck so that was really cool.  I essentially flew across the world on a cruise ship- it was the most spacious plane I’d ever seen.  It definitely made the 13 hours easier.  When I boarded I was still a teary eyed mess from saying good-bye to Mom and Dad, but I got settled in my seat and the flight attendant brought me champagne which I downed to take away some of my anxiety and celebrate the start of my new adventure.  However, since I was seated in an exit row, for the peace of mind of those around me I got an emotional grip and had to stop with the free alcohol. I ordered my dinner (shrimp scampi and beef tenderloin), watched some movies and was fine until somewhere over northern Canada when I had a minor freak-out – as in, I’m completely alone on an airplane headed to Tokyo right now what in the heck am I doing.  I decided to pop some Tylenol PM and go to sleep, and I got a good six hours which was nice.  It was daylight the entire flight, but everyone had their shades down so it was easy to rest  I also didn’t have anyone sitting next to me so I got to spread out.

I got to Tokyo at 5PM July 23^rd local time.  I went through security and then headed to my gate.  I got business class on my Bangkok flight too.  The flight was uneventful except for some scary turbulence somewhere over Vietnam and the large black man sitting next to me who ate an entire bag of pork rinds during the flight.  Gross.   

So now, here I am in the early morning hours of July 24th at my airport hotel in Bangkok with no luggage.  I leave for Chiang Mai about lunch time local time tomorrow/today.  Then I am going to have dinner and drinks with one of my sorority sisters who has been living in Chiang Mai since she graduated last May.  That will be fun and it will be so great to see a familiar face. 

 Anyway, I will try and keep everyone posted on what I’m doing, but I’m going to try not to use my computer much until I get my adaptor in my luggage.  I can’t charge it right now so battery time is precious.

Anyway, I’m here and everything is good so far!!  I'm going to finally get some good sleep.