Showing posts with label Pocari Sweat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pocari Sweat. Show all posts

Friday, May 29, 2009

Travel to Thailand



Hello family and friends~

We’re here! We made it to Bangkok. A shout out to Adam “Babyface” Grimes for driving us to the airport. Our flight was a longy to be sure- we left just after noon on the 26th and arrived nineteen hours later on the 27th. The movie selections were choice- apparently ANA has a major fondness for Clint Eastwood as his collected works were on display, with a smattering of “Thelma and Louise” (it holds up!) and “In Her Shoes” (mmm, not so much…) thrown in for weird measure. Oh but the food! 

Bento-style boxes with a confusion of potato salad/ proscuitto with melon/ ham in one bowl, rice and salmon in another and a side of noodles and a bun. Somehow this combination came together with the quarter pint of Hagen Daz that they served for dessert. Four movies, two meals and some beer and sparkling wine later, we landed in  Tokyo. 


We had an hour and a half to study all of the fun candy, treats and places to shop in the airport. The shopping really was first rate: Hermes, Coach, Cartier… what more could a traveler with too much money and just enough time need?


 


Ween and Totoro in the Narita Tokyo Airport


 They do have stuff with crazy stuff on it!


Thirsty? There's a Pocari Sweat with your name on it!


We boarded once more and one meal, one movie and a three hour sleep later, we landed in Bangkok. The airport was way bigger than we expected, but very organized and easy to maneuver. It sort of reminded us of the Vancouver airport. After crossing through immigration, we found our luggage, a taxi and off we went. The taxi driver had a shrine around his rear view mirror with necklaces, beads and feathers, and on the ceiling was a picture of a monk, decorated with swirls of while paint. Taxis drive FAST here- I’d say even crazier than New York cabbies. Or maybe it only feels that way because they’re on the other side of the road. We got lost for a couple of minutes and weren’t able to communicate the address of the hotel to him, but he stopped in an alley and found an English-speaking friend who was able to instruct him. Ends up we were in the alley directly behind the hotel.  Luckily, Josh had a semi Thai translator on his phone and was able to say the address in Thai, Sorng Hah Gao Sukhumvit road (259) which the cabbie then happily sang to himself for a bit until we got to our destination.  45 minute cab ride?  500 baht.  That’s like twelve dollars.  We checked in: we’re staying at the Westin Grande Sukhumvit (Mark Healy, thank you for the suggestion!) and it’s gorgeous. It’s Western in everyway, which is a nice way to acclimatize to our surroundings. We’ll be staying in more traditional accommodations in the days to come.

That's that for day -1!  Or day 0.  Travel day 1.  Whatever, get off our backs mutha truckers!!