EVE
As you may know, I nearly pulled the plug on this trip as several events unfolded, which served to really make me think my mind wasn't in this trip and the karma was all bad. I would be better served by delaying the trip for a couple months was the thought. I packed and went to sleep at 1:30 AM still not knowing if I would hop on the plane or not. Mind you it didn't leave a lot of sleep time to decide, as I had be on the road at 6:15AM in order to catch my flight to JFK. Before retiring for the night, I checked the hombre Asia disc thread and chuckled over the replies.

On one side was EPI Pork, kjh, etc saying essentially to just get my ass on the plane.

On the other side, master saki, km, merl saying perhaps wait till the stars are in alignment.

I am definitely an alignment of the stars type of guy, but after last year and my 1-year absence from LoS, a part of me insists on leaping on any opportunity that presents itself as the next opportunity may be a long way off despite the best of intentions. However, I went to sleep still not knowing. Instinctively, when I awoke, there was no thoughts of canceling-- I got my behind outa bed and showered off quickly. Since I packed in an hour at midnight, I've no idea if I forgot anything. I have my passport, a few credit cards, and a small assortment of condoms, so the essentials are covered.

DOD
That morning, the karma was all bad once again. I had reserved my SEA flights using some misc. US Air miles collecting dust. Having reserved the tickets at the last moment, one of the things I had to do today was take a cab to LGA from JFK to get to a US Air counter (US Air does not have a presence at JFK), pay for and get my tickets, and take a cab back to JFK and catch my NRT flight.

Time was tight, I walked into the JFK terminal at 9:05AM and my flight for NRT was departing at 11:25. I ran out to catch a cab and lo and behold I was stuck in traffic. The drive took 30-40 minutes--ack!. Once at the US Air ticket counter, things deteriorated rapidly. One segment was oversold/I was on standby, the processing wasn't complete, and the on-line award agent didn't populate all the needed info. After 30+ minutes standing there while the agent was on hold, the agent started to annoy me saying, "you missed the flight at JFK--you need to check in 2 hours ahead of time for international flights!¨ My patience was growing thin, but I held back from telling her to shut the F up and get me the damn tickets! At 10:20 I had to pull the plug and tell her to forget it. I made up my mind then that if there were any glitches checking in/catching my flight to NRT, I would be back on a shuttle heading home for the holidays rather than SEA.

Now I had to run back to JFK and see if I was able to catch my flight. Luckily traffic lightened up and I drew a quick driver--I arrived at JFK at 10:40AM, boarding was starting at 10:55 AM, and departing at 11:25AM. I breezed through the check inˇXbeing an ELITE comes in damn handy at times like this!!! I approached the security line at 10:48 and got to the gate at 11:00. The boarding had not started yet, and I had a stroke of good luck. My name was called and I was comped a free upgrade to business class--NO CATTLE Pen for me after all!! The Japanese gate attendant handed me my new ticket and said merry xmas! I was actually feeling ok about my coach journey as I landed the best coach seat on the plane (www.seatguru.com), but hey the worst business class seat beats the best of coach. I could now drown my morning stress in a few Kirins.


The good: I made my flight to NRT, got comped
The bad: there's no US Air in SEA = I have no tickets anywhere!

Dm is on his way to SEA.

NRT!!

Headwinds put the flight around 20 minutes behind schedule + an hour shuttling around the NRT runway led to me missing my connection. My heart sank when I entered the terminal and the girl simply said, "you missed the connection, sorry rebook for tomorrow"!!! I tried my best mai ben rai, BUT my blood pressure was rising rapidly.

Foolishly my agent booked the trip as two round trip trips instead of 1 flight with a connection. The flight to nrt was on AA, the nrt-sin was JAL. The JAL ticket was also non-changeable/non refundable. When JAL told the AA ticket lady, "sorry ticket is void". I pressed the AA girl and she decided to offer me a flight the next day to SIN and comp me a hotel room. NOPE sorry I want to be in SIN tonight!! This resulted in an hour or so of her dialing every airline looking for flights--NADDA. While I was waiting, I got a bright idea that since my sin-bkk-pnh-bkk-sin ticket was null and void and I was scheduled to run around SIN and book a new ticket, why not just try to go directly to BKK from NRT? I figured the worst case scenario, is that I would be stranded in LoS for 3 weeks. Well after a lot of haggling and persistence, we found 1 seat n a JAL flight to bkk and got me on it (center seat in cattle mart hell. It was hell, but I was in BKK at 1230AM. Although this was a stressful and wasteful use of 2 hours, I do owe her (the AA ticket girl) a big thanks for all her help under less than idea customer conditions.

When I arrived at DM Airport (I wonder if they named the airport after me?), I knew it was getting late and I had no hotel plans. I thought for a moment on going to bkk, but didn't want to risk my usual hotels that I stay at being sold out and scurrying around at 3AM looking for a bed. At 1:15 AM I was in a cab heading to the heartland--PATTAYA. I pulled up on Flippper Houseˇ¦s doorstep around 3AM, they had a room.

I have a ton of logistics to figure out such as where I'm going, how I'm getting there, where I'm staying once there, telling Ben in PP I need to change my arrival date once again (poor Ben!), etc, etc. I was looking forward to meeting those X'ed up Indos with MX, but that will have to wait--at least a week or two. At least I can deal with all those details while planting my ASS in arguably the single greatest locale on Earth.


(Message edited by donmarco on December 16, 2004)

I do believe the airport is called Don Muarco- or somthin like that.

Say Hi to Som for me-- if you can free your mouth up long enough . LOL

I was trying to hold off on nam som, but the spy network is in full bloom. I strolled by soi 3 today and soon after som was pinging me with texts, " I want Mahhhkk!"

I'll need to go shopping for viagra, cialis, and levitra before she gets her grips on me again.

DM, I can just visualize the ear-to-ear smile as you posted. If I really think about it, there never is a perfect alignment of the stars when we make these trips, right? Just gotta bite the bullet and go and let things happen and fall into place.

Ya this is a stressful trip... in fact I better go walk over to Lólita's in 5 minutes to relieve myself...how wonderful is that?

You gotta like when the hardest part of the day is where to plant your seed... damn I love LoS.

Incredible how word gets around when you return. Even if you try to stay low they seem to always find out you're back. Happened to me more times than I can count.
See -- If you had waited until February I could have supplied you with a ton of all of the above vitamins. Som would have been SOOOOO happy.
I guess she's glad you're back sooner. Say Hi for me- What a sweetheart she is . I am muy jealous she chose you and not me .

I'm in the doghouse big time after blowing her off last night.... The last i heard before her cell went dead was mahhhkk f-u!

Somehow I think she will be banging on the doghouse door soon.

"Maaaaaaaahhhkk !!! I wan boom boom you NOW !!"
I can hear her screeching voice now .

She came crawling back after a long bitch about me ruining her night and crying herself to sleep. We had a rocking time last night in bed before I blew her off again tonight for a soi8 beer bar gal who shines brighter ever minute that passes by. Like I said, I can't stand anything resembling a steady fling. Som is on the way out as anything that gets in my way of doing what I want when I want, aint going to be around long.

I was wondering how long you would tolerate her. She's more clingy than socks fresh out of the dryer. Not your style.

Still very nice ,talented socks.

Well as I wrap up this report, I figure I'll circle back and provide some closing thoughts on the whole "bad karma" notion I had prior to leaving.

Concerns before leaving:

timing of trip- job: I got back the 5th and my manager said, "I thought you weren't due back until this weekend?" grrrrr!!! Fine, I got another trip booked smart ass This trip worked itself in fine, no negative effects.

timing of the trip- holidays: I enjoyed getting away and not doing the usual holiday routine. My new years eve was a let down, but that was due to my poor planning and going thru dao withdrawals.

timing of trip-- family members' health: they are fine.

bad karma-- travel plans: My flights/reservations were mucked up from the get go. I did what comes natually... get my ass to LoS ASAP and chill. I still ended up getting to visit Batam, so the only stop I missed out on was PP. No biggy.


So what ended up different: well there was the quake/tsunamis and I ended up getting "involved" with a bar girl beyond the normal BF and then Boom Boom relationship.

Conclusion-- the fact that I booked my next trip while still in LoS says it all. Traveling/Mongering is a lot like Nixonian voting; book early, book often.