Traveling to Bangkok

We started our journey on January 8th with a 7AM flight from Dallas to LAX. Thank goodness my sister Francine met us at LAX because we had a 7 HOUR LAYOVER before our 13 HOUR flight from LAX-Taipei. The flight itself was smooth but long. I took a sleeping pill and didn’t fall asleep… how did that happen? Breakfast was a choice of eggs (that were NOT eggs) or chicken porridge (which I chose… because I couldn’t understand the stewardess). 

Is this for humans, or...?

(Delicious snacks on the plane)

Once we landed in Taipei the local time was about 10:30PM and our flight to Bangkok wasn’t until 9AM the following morning. Francine didn’t come meet us for this layover (rude) so we tried to sleep in the airport. The airport was freezing and nothing was open until 6AM. Ensue crabbiness. We couldn’t sleep because it was sooooo cold, so we walked around the empty airport before taking refuge in a prayer room because it was a few degrees warmer. 

Can you find Ian? 

What religion is this?

The Taipei Airport is really a great airport, minus the cold. There are museums, art installments, computers for use, free Wifi, water refill stations and rest areas everywhere. All the toilet paper and paper towels are made from recycled material and everything was super clean.

At 6 we went to the food court and ate a bland meal and talked to a great couple from Australia who was on our previous flight. The girl had just finished working in NYC a few blocks from where Ian and I lived last, so we had enough to talk about. We parted ways and headed to our final flight at 9AM. This flight was 3HR 40MIN long but rather empty. Ian and I got a whole row to ourselves but sleep was not in cards for us. By this time we were just so excited to be there! We kept mouthing “We’re SO CLOSE” to each other- but we weren’t really. Longest day(s) ever.

The immigration line took well over an hour and Ian and I split up as the line trickled into smaller ones. Ian got through about 30 minutes before I did- he has dumb luck like this all the time. We took a cab to our hotel (if you travel in SE Asia, always negotiate a fare price before hand or ask the meter to be running). The drive was pretty awful but not unlike any NYC cab I’ve ever been in. 

Then… magically… I started recognizing the streets! We were in the Sukhumvit area! We turned on Soi 2! We pulled up to the Atlanta Hotel and we were HOMEEEEEE!!!! The Atlanta Hotel is amazing and I’d highly recommend it to anyone visiting Bangkok. It seems like all the people working here are the same as before, and so of course they remembered Ian (not really me, lol). It’s about $32USD a night for a room with air-conditioning. The hotel has a ton of history, please check it out: http://www.theatlantahotelbangkok.com/ Also, part of Eat, Pray, Love was written here!

Coaster with some rules on it... SLEAZE FREE ZONE!

It was about 2:30PM on January 10th, and with all the time zone changes and layovers from Texas to Bangkok I really could not tell you how long it had been since we started. We were SO TIRED but SO HUNGRY. We already knew where we wanted to eat. We hopped in the shower for a rinse, and down the street we went, to gorge on the best Lebanese food I’ve ever had. (http://www.beirut-restaurant.com)

Day 3 of our journey and minutes before our epic sleep

We knew we were just going to sleep when we got back to the hotel, so we walked up and down the main road for a bit, visiting our old haunts from our trip three years ago. We bought some waters and headed back. We slept from 5PM to 5AM and now we’re at breakfast and ready to start our day!