We're here, we're here, we're here!

Monday, high noon on September 15^th.

We’re sitting in a restaurant in New York’s JFK airport, sucking down a Bass Ale, licking hummus, sour cream and guacamole on chips at a cost unheard of in old middle-America, while watching the cost of oil at 97.31 per barrel, and talks of immense failures in some of the most well-respected financial and insurance mega-companies. Companies like Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Merrill Lynch, touchstones of the financial health of the US. The question becomes: what effect will this have on our trip? On investments we have and were counting on.

It’s been delightful traveling with Mika and Karina. Other than a snotty nose, she’s been nothing but precious and curious. She’s interested in the air jets overhead in the cabin seats.

JFK is a seriously confusing place. We had to go through security in RDU; then again in JFK. Long walks, bad signage, multiple levels, and trains make the configuration to get from “here” to “there” very confusing.

More later. It’s after lunch at 12:30 pm. Off we go on Cathay Pacific leaving about 2:00 pm. Next stop – Hong Kong.

September 17, 2008 – 10:50 PM

It feels like forever since Hong Kong. Truth is, it’s not been very long. Subtract 11 hours from the above time – and you get Bangkok time – which is where we now are.

The ride from New York to Hong Kong felt like forever on the plane. It was only 15 hours – but felt like 30 in the last half of the trip alone. A very tired Karina slept in my arms some of the way – in Mika’s the rest of the way. Seeing the incredible 1^st class seats – lounges really – made the skinny little seats in the economy class feel even smaller. Cathay Pacific was definitely a great choice. The stewards were friendly, food was good – and very hot, but, be warned if you’re travelling with children, they have a seat belt you MUST use for them that extends from your own. Karina was not happy about that one. Poor little girl has a cold and/or ear infection and just felt miserable.

Great news about the airplane --- my medication took great care of my RLS, the worst problem I’ve ever had on a plane.

Hong Kong was just a brief stop – a few hours. Enough to get a drink of water, buy a coffee, see part of the airport, leave the secure area to go back into the secure area, to leave the secure area again. We felt very secure.

Our flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok only took a few hours, not like the marathon from JFK to Hong Kong. Even so, they served a meal (I think) on the plane. Karina, by this time, is thinking that her life is now just boarding and unboarding, gives up being fussy and rides the last leg to Bangkok worry free. I, however, am pretty exhausted after not having slept since the day prior to when we left. (It’s a problem I have…) Finally, as we circle over Bangkok, I start to doze a little.

Our plane got in about 11 PM Thai time. The dollar is lower against the Thai baht than we had hoped. 32.93 per US Dollar. We got a taxi willing to transport us, our four bags and carry-ons to the Shanti Hotel for only 800 baht, (about a 40 minute ride) where I now write this. By the time we were fully ensconced in our rooms it was 3 am here and I was so ready to “fall out” I could hardly climb up into the bunk bed. We have nice hard ceramic floors and I was really worried about cracking them if I fell out of the bunk.

Up at the crack of dawn (4 PM here – 5 AM there) and hungry for breakfast, we go down to the restaurant here for … no breakfast. They wisely stopped serving it at 11 AM. So, I happily munched on some great pad thai for 75 baht, with a sprinkle of minced peanuts on top. Then, it was off on a walk around our area of town – near the Thai History Museum – to tour the many rows of shops along both sides of the sidewalks offering clothes, material, strings of lamps, tattoos, on-street massage, hats, watches, bananas, rambutan, durian, pineapple, small bottles of the world’s best orange juice (which Karina thought was nummy and smiled really big after her first sip), and many other fruits and veggies I’ll need to look up later because I can’t yet identify them.

Had a bit of Montezuma’s revenge (Mao’s here?) and needed to stop in a restroom we found in a department store. Be warned – toilet was free, but the paper was 2 baht – and I had neither paper nor bahts in there – and the toilet-keeper was not about to hand it out free. I was trapped until a kind stranger paid on my behalf. I told her I’d find Mika (who had all the money) and pay her back, but she said that it was her treat. (Memo to self: make sure to carry my own money).

We walked past a McDonald’s (full of foreigners), and stopped for a coffee for Mika and water for me. Leaving, we ran into a small procession on the pedestrian mall with two dragons and a drummer passing out coupons for Thai Air fares to Chiang Mai. We bought a great picture of a line up of VW’s for David (230 baht), then hurried back to the Shanti for supper. Taste of Siam for me (65 baht). Yum!

I’ve heard no news since we left, and then it was about Lehman Brothers and AIG needing a bail out from the bank of Japan – which didn’t sound like very good news for the economy. I have no idea what is happening on the world markets now, but Bangkok appears to be prospering and a classified section of a newspaper carried a host of ads for employees. Now, I’m off to catch my 40 winks of jet-lagged sleep before tomorrow’s adventures.