August 31-September 1
Thursday and Friday
We thought we had everything planned out to leave for the airport. Tickets and departure times were checked and double checked. Rory was kind enough to drive us the couple hours all the way to the airport so we knew what time we had to leave his place - we were ready. Rory was checking the website for our airline Thursday morning which is when we found out that we needed to be there three hous ahead of time instead of two since ours was considered a "long haul" flight.
The long haul part of the flight began at the airport when we were standing in line forever just to check our luggage. Apparently, there were many people who were not taking the 20 kilo per person weight limit to heart which was making the check time longer. Then there was the security lines and let me tell you I got a VERY thorough pat down after passing through the metal detector.
The flight to Dubai was just over six hours. For some reason I didn't have the attention span to watch any of the movies. I didn't want to buy a book at the airport because, quite frankly, I was tired of the crummy exchange rate. I couldn't concentrate enough for computer work so I ended up watching about three different movies at once, flipping from station to station. I was able to snooze a little bit during the last hour of the flight. The inflight meal was actually really good. We had chicken with a pasta salad (ok, the salad was totally bland) cheese and crackers, a cold hard multi-grain roll, water, fresh fruit (Jon didn't eat the melon), a little square of chocolate. Later in the flight we would have coffee and cake or ice cream. Since there was no chocolate ice cream Jon chose cake at which point he was given a Spicy gingerbread cake whereas I got the chocolate orange brownie. I like gingerbread and knew that Jon didn't, especially if he knew there was a brownie nearby so, I swapped with him.
We got to Dubai just after midnight their time. It was a bit of a bummer since we couldn't really see anything beyond the plane although I suspect a lot of the landscape would be varying shades of brown. There airport was nice. A real mix of cultures, the languages, and dress were great to look at, listen to and just take in. We walked around trying to get the blood pumping a bit and hit the duty free area. It's amazing how many different forms of chocolate they had for sale - we stuck with water and a trailmix bar. We were both a little hungry and had no idea how long our flight to Bangkok would be or if there would be food served. The duty free stores were also selling giant containers of Tang, Necafe instant coffee granules - you should have seen what they were charging for Nutella! We checked out the jewelery counter as Dubai is reknown for their gold - the prices were really good and they had some really nice stuff but didn't have the piece I was looking for. It was about time to check in for our next flight which is when we found out that the flight to Bangkok would take six hours and fifteen minutes so there would be a meal - cool. Our seats were a little closer to the front. Jon was on the aisle and I sat in the inside/middle seat. The movie selection wasn't much better which was fine because I could hardly keep my eyes open. I woke up in time for some water and "savory biscuits" and then later on for the main meal about three and a half hours into the trip. We had a choice between an fish congee or a more english breakfast with eggs, sausage, beans, etc. I had the congee and Jon had the eggs. We also got a really pathetic looking croissant, cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, orange juice, a chocolate muffin. We ate everybit. I don't know about Jon but my stomach was growling. It was back to sleep after that - I was really wiped out. I think Jon tried to sleep too but he doesn't sleep well on planes.
Arrived in Bangkok by early afternoon and hired a cab to take us to our guesthouse. We both felt like crap from the flight and just wanted to be settled. It took over half an hour to get to the guesthouse. It looked like every other asian city you see in the movies or on TV, not as many people or buildings as Seoul but definitely bigger than Seattle.
