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BKK – PEK – ORD – IAD

Thomas2 Comments

It has been a great trip to Thailand and Cambodia but now we are headed home. I have Elinior Lipman and Margaret Atwood to keep me occupied on the long flights.

We first fly Thai Airways from Bangkok to Beijing (BKK-PEK) a mere 4 hours 40 minutes. And we aren’t on this 747, we are on an Airbus 333.

Then we hop onto a United Airlines flight from Beijing to Chicago (PEK-ORD). Although we flew a 747 on the way over we won’t be on a 747 like this one, we will be on a 777.

And thanks to the miracle of frequent flyer miles we will be in these fantastic 6’6″ lay flat sleeper seats for the 13-hour flight. These are actually their old sleeper seats. The 777 fleet has yet to be converted to the new and improved versions that we flew in on the way over. Still, I am not complaining.

And then we arrive at Dulles International Airport just outside of Washington, DC. Designed by Eero Saarinen, it is certainly one of the more iconic (if not efficient) airports in the world.

Arriving in Phuket (and Boy, do I miss you book bloggers…)

Thomas15 Comments

As we get ready to board our Thai Airways flight from Chiang Mai (where the extremely nice check-in agent upgraded us to Business without us asking) to Phuket, it might be hard to believe that I would miss anything about my normal life. But I just checked into my Bloglines account (the tool I use to keep track of all of you bloggers out there) and I saw that there are literally hundreds and hundreds of fabulous blog posts on the 189 blogs that I follow. On the road I don’t have much time online so I can’t really dip-in to see what all of you are up to. But I did look at a few posts here and there and I can’t wait to get back to the U.S. to catch up with all of you. Of course I am sure I will enjoy our six days on the beach in Phuket, but don’t think that means I don’t miss all of you.

I haven’t done half as much reading as I thought I would. I finally gave up on A Weekend with Claude by Beryl Bainbridge. I got to page 65 and just felt it was a waste of my time. Since this book also made the trip to France this summer without being read, I decided the best place for it was the library at our hotel in Chiang Mai. I don’t need to bring it back to the U.S. Another book that made the trip to France this summer that was also in the suitcase in Thailand was Colette’s Cheri and the Last of Cheri. However, since I first took it for a spin to France we saw the horribly boring film of the book with Michelle Pfieffer. So, when I tried to read it on this trip, all I could think of was the lame movie. So it will remain unread and in the hotel library in Chiang Mai as well. It is a little disappointing since I really liked The Ripening Seed.

After jettisoning those two books (and finishing two others) I still have War and Peace, an Elinor Lipman, and a Marge Piercy to keep me company. Should be fun.

NOTE – I did NOT take this photo.

Gasping for Air in Bangkok

Thomas2 Comments

Yesterday we had a great visit to the Grand Palace in Bangkok, but then couldn’t find a taxi willing to drive us to our hotel. That meant about a 5 km walk before we got to a Sky Train station. Wouldn’t have been a problem except traffic was crazy and the air pollution was out of control. By the time we made it back to our hotel my lungs were tight, my head was killing me, and my throat felt like raw meat.

And then Traveler’s Tummy and its associated unpleasantness showed up last night. It actually might be a side effect of my anti-malaria medication, more likely food/water related. But John, thankfully, is fine. And we have eaten all the same stuff.

We went to a bookstore today. Thankfully prices and my small suitcase kept me from buying anything. Can’t wait to do my book review of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. It was wonderful. But that won’t be for a couple more weeks. Too hard to blog from the road.