Arriving in Southeast Asia

Bangkok 6/9/11

I arrive in Bangkok at 9:30pm. It's pouring rain and lightning outside as we disembark the plane and enter a cramped shuttle bus. Outside is cooler than I expect, but my glasses fog up due to the humidity. Despite being half the distance of the global trip, the Thai Air flight is extraordinarily superior to AA. Attentive, numerous pretty Thai flight attendants provide endless free beer and wine (with smiles), plus more legroom, better blankets, AC, movies, and food.

I don't have a hostel booked, so I hop in a metered taxi to the backpackers enclave of Khao San Road. I have ideas from Lonely Planet and Let's Go, but that's it. The driver speaks no English, which is fine considering I'm quickly learning a few Thai words. Once we're off the highway, Bangkok comes alive, with rows of night markets, the roar and neon lights of tuk-tuks, small boys pushing wheelbarrows in the middle of the street.

Most of the hostels are sold out when I arrive in the pouring rain at 11pm. Others offer sweltering, windowless rooms, that while only a mere 150B ($5), evoke solitary confinement. After shopping around, I land at "My Guest House", a five minute walk from the main drag of Khao San. An extra 50B buys a $6 private room with fan, window, and private bathroom. Toilet paper and sheets are extra.

After dropping off my bags, I immediately tour the neighborhood. The scents of fish sauce, chilis, and tuk-tuk exhaust fill my nose. The chaotic traffic combining motorbikes, taxis, and tuk-tuks who weave through sea of thousands. Without any signs or crosswalks, the proper etiquette is to simply cross the street through oncoming traffic and hope you don't get hit. Khao San is filled with street vendors loudly hawking satay skewers, pad thai, fresh fruit shakes (made with coconut water and sweetened condensed milk), doner kebabs alongside Burger King and KFC. Fluorescent bars play predominantly American top 40 music with Western tourists to match. These foreigners ("farang") pack the bars, drinking cheap beer and cocktails out of buckets, laughing and smoking under signs reading "Strong Drinks, We Don't Card".

A 1/2 hour foot massage (100B ~ $3) is a great way to eases the stresses of a new culture and further diminish the jet lag. Chiang beer in hand. As it's already early in the morning, I can sufficiently say this is the perfect start to my first day in Southeast Asia.

Japan

Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan, 6/9/11

A six-hour layover would typically be painful if Narita Airport weren't so damn entertaining. Plus I should be thanking my lucky stars that I only have one. Hello Kitty paraphernalia and waving cat toys are everywhere, like fanny packs at Disney World. There is an entire airport museum devoted to origami, depicting scenes of Cinderella, Santa's Workshop, Noah's Ark, Little Red Riding Hood, and more.

Origami Santa

The toilets are so involved, I feel like I'm on the Starship Enterprise. If I had that not-so-fresh feeling due to lack of sleep and 13 hours on a junk American Airlines international flight, the surprising bidets on all the Japanese toilets certainly solve that. If one falls in love with these magical toilets, no worries, you can buy a ergonomic, electronic seat with multi-flush options for a mere Y50,000. Moreover, the futuristic bathrooms offer odd adjacent high chairs in each stall, so your toddler can relax and enjoy some entertainment of you getting rid of that noxious American Airlines forcefeed.

At an exchange rate of roughly Y1,000 = $7.50, I'm lucky I'm going to Southeast Asia instead. Especially when I think about going into Tokyo during my layover and a fellow traveler says the tariff is $350 each way.

Airport ramen offers welcome relief to the American Airlines dogfood. A big bowl of umami-rich buckwheat soba with mushrooms, okra, scallions, beans, and a perfectly poached egg is the ideal morning breakfast to help my cold and work off any residual jet lag.

To the Sky

New York, 6/8/11

After a date in my neighborhood, multiple goodbyes, and drunken packing in between, I go to bed at 3am. Up at 4. Catch the 4:54 LIRR from Penn Station to Jamaica, Queens and the Airtrain to JFK from there.

I'm flying American Airlines well against my will. However, it's the cheapest options and where I have most of my airlines miles. After flying AA to Melbourne, I know they offer the same level of luxury for round-the-world flights that they do on the commuter shuttle from JFK - Logan. I'm hungry after staying up all night. Great news is a cheese omelet quickly appears in front of me. Even better news is American Airlines knows I like my eggs served with an Elmer's Glue sauce. A cold ham sandwich, cloyingly sweet chicken teriyaki, and a cash bar follow. The movies aren't much better, although Johnny Depp and Isla Fisher are quite funny in Rango.

Not to worry though. I sleep almost the entire 13 hours to Tokyo's Narita Airport. So despite being an All-American Varsity Sleeper years ago in high school, I've still got it. Jet lag be damned.