Wednesday April 13th….Day 1
I found myself quite excited about the trip. This was the land of ancient Siam. The architecture would be unlike any I had seen before. The women would be unlike any I had experienced. With this in mind, I headed to the DFW airport and then into the Red Carpet Club for coffee and a cigarette. I enjoyed the last American TV I would see for 2 weeks in the lounge and headed for the gate to board. Having arranged for an upgrade to Business Class on this trip, I was aboard and comfortably relaxing on the 757. As there was no actual Business Class on this plane, I was seated in First Class. When under way, I pulled out my beloved Wide Screen Laptop and watched an old classic film on DVD. AS “The Bridge over the River Kwai” came to a conclusion, I pulled out my current reading material and indulged myself for the last hour into LAX. Did I mention that I do not like the LAX Airport. There is no smoking even in the private club lounges, everyone there seems to be far more important than everyone else, and the food and beverage prices are far higher than the usual rip-off rate.
I made the trek to my gate and waited for the 767 to be ready. Taking my seat, I prepared to settle in for a nice long nap as is my custom on long flights. The personal Entertainment system had some good flix, so I just popped on my Bose Headphones (Can’t say enough good things about the Bose Noise Canceling Headphones, they are awesome). Anyone who travels a great deal should buy themselves a pair. I got mine at a kiosk in Denver Int’l. After a mediocre meal I dozed off into slumber. For some reason I could not stay asleep for long on this flight. Dozing in and out, I listened to music and watched our flight progress on the travel map on the entertainment center. It was an uneventful flight.
We arrived in Tokyo on time. Here are a couple of pics of the arrival in Tokyo.
Shoreline, Rice fields, Golf Course and Airport
Made a trip to the bathroom. If you have never been to Japan before you will find the pic amusing. You do all your business in the squatting position J. They did have western standard toilets as well. I retired to the Red Carpet Club for coffee and a smoke, and to watch some CNN Int’l. It was nice to be able to stretch and walk around for a bit.
Here is where I found an interesting cultural conflict. Later in the trip, I saw a report on the news about a train driver in Tokyo that was running 1 ˝ minutes behind schedule, and so he took a corner at excessive speed and derailed, piling into a building and killing a bunch of people. The reported explained that running 1 ˝ minutes behind was rare in Japan and a cause for concern, expressing understanding for the foolish drivers actions. My plane was delayed TWICE. Though an AA code share flight number, it was a JAL flight. Several other JAL flights out of Narita were similarly delayed for reasons unknown. We were over 2 hours behind schedule, and all around saw no concern for the timeliness issue at all…..go figure.
This was the first time in probably 6 or8 years I had been on a 747-400. I had forgotten how big they are. This prompted me to try and envision what the newly released Airbus Mega Liner would look like as I understand it is considerably larger than the 747 series. It must really be a monster!
The flight to BKK was uneventful and I was on the ground at 2:05 a.m.. Going through Customs and immigration was like any other trip I had made, and I grabbed a metered taxi from the stand. 350 baht included the airport exit fee, the drive to the Dynasty Inn and the Freeway toll charges. There was no traffic so I was at the Dynasty by around 3:15 a.m.
It was late, even the NANA hotel parking lot was empty.
On with the report…
