December 25, 2006

So I had to wake up around 6:30 before anyone had gotten up for Christmas presents and Santa Claus. My first flight left around 9:45 am so I had to the airport around 7:00 or so. I was able to open some presents before I left because Mom let me.

The coolest part about getting to the airport was that I was able to stand in the International check in with all these foreigners. A good percentage of them were latino but some of them were going to New York and then flying to Tel Aviv. I think they were most definitely Jewish because they had their special hats on their head.

The flight to LA was not bad at all. It was pretty short. I sat towards the front of the plane so I was able to de-board rather quickly. When I got inside, I knew I had another two hours or so before my next flight would take off. I began wondering the airport seeing what parts I could get to while remaining behind security. I thought that the airport was so cool! There were all these high end restaurants in the fifth wing I think. I got over through this long hallway where one of those guys with the cars took me over. He must have thought I looked lost or he simply realized I wouldn’t want to walk the distance because it really did look like a while hall out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie with the endpoint looking further and further away as you approach it.

Come an hour before the flight. I have looking at the Delta departures screen every 15 minutes or so to see where my gate will be. Since I have never traveled internationally, I, for some reason, thought that all the international departures would take off alongside the domestic airplanes. I don’t think I ever even thought of it as an issue. But the screen said “TBT.” I’m thinking “Okay, so they don’t have a gate for it.” I simply thought that it was some acronym for “We don’t know yet,” or something of that nature. I managed to exchange some American money for like 1500 baht, the Thailand currency.

I started getting really itchy 45 minutes before departure. I was holding myself to only resorting to ask someone what it meant at 30 minutes before take off. I know that sounds so stupid now but it just didn’t seem like an issue at the time. At 30 minutes till takeoff, I finally ask someone behind a desk what TBT was and if the airport still didn’t have a gate for the flight yet. Well, at LAX, that is the acronym for the International Airport wing which was about 4 blocks away from where I was at that moment. Now, international flights, you have to be there like 20 minutes before boarding or they won’t let you on. My mind was racing with such thoughts like “I’m going to be stuck in LA just because of a stupid mistake.” I didn’t want to lose all that money that we had paid for the flights just because I had flubbed.

I began to run. I had to exit out of security. That made me really angry that after going through security once already that day that I had to go outside of it. One of the guards showed me where the building was when we got outside. I ran over there. I found the China Airlines check-in counter but only one attendant was at the desk and they were all the way down at the other end helping someone. So I took my ticket and went over to the doorway to enter for the flights. One of the security officers said that I would have to change my paper ticket to a boarding pass before coming in. Thankfully, who appeared to be his supervisor, said to let me through because it was too late and they would have to do it at the gate.

I got around the corner and found that I would have to go through security. Again. I took off my shoes and jacket and went through the sensor. I am so glad there was not a line or I would have been out of luck. I hurried and threw my shoes back on and ran for the gate. Of course, the gate was down this long hall but they had moving walkways so I was able to run on the those and get there faster.

I pulled up to the gate as the last group to board were getting on. I got in line but was told I had to change my ticket to a boarding pass. Oh, that’s right! I must have been okay because they changed the ticket and put me on the plane. The plane was gigantic. There were stairs leading up to the business class and the rows all fit 10 people! The biggest plane I had been on up to that point was the flight when our Dad took the kids to Orlando, Florida. Each row held 7 people then. But the plane was huge and people were just put in their seats contently.

I sat by what looked like a grandmother and her grandson. They both spoke fairly good English but they were clearly Asian. The flight attendants were all fluent in both Chinese and English. All the announcements were made first in Chinese and then made in English. And we took off!

There was a small screen for the pleasure of watching movies on the flight. I was able to watch the edited versions of three films in theaters. So I watched Pirates of the Carribean, Little Miss Sunshine from Sundance last year, and I started another small film from China or something. Naturally, this was on and off with sleeping. I found that the airplane was equipped with water fountains everywhere so you could get up and have a drink whenever you were feeling a little dehydrated. My only concern was really just making sure that I had drunk enough especially when we flew in Taipei because you can’t drink the water in these countries and I didn’t want to buy any bottled water until getting to Bangkok. I didn’t have Taiwan dollars anyway so I probably couldn’t buy anything anyway.

We landed in Taipei and they made us go through security again! Third time in 24 hours. By this point, I had been traveling for 24 hours. I imagined how it was just beginning December the 26th in America. Christmas was officially over at that point. How depressing! This time, I managed to find the gate okay for the leg from Taipei to Bangkok. I sat for about 30 minutes before they started calling for the plane to board. The thing I got a kick out of in these foreign countries was how all the stores in the airport was all advertising that they were “duty free.” Practically every store I passed by was duty free. But all they really sold was perfume and that’s it. A few stores had a few more items but it appeared to mostly consist of perfumes and alcoholic products.

The flight from Taipei was around four hours. Again, I tried to drink what I could while on the flight because I didn’t want to buy any water until I actually had landed in Bangkok. At the end of the flight, one of the flight attendants gave me a toothbrush. I’m not too sure why, but I think he thought I was continuing on the flight to Amsterdam or something like that. So I brushed my teeth with the good water in the plane and exited the aircraft.

I walked through the expansive terminal at the Suvarnabhumi (soo-wan-a-poom) Airport. It only started receiving flights in October or so. It was relatively new and I thought it was so architecturally cool. I went through passport control and got my first stamp! I picked up my bag which had successfully made it to Bangkok with me.