100 Days in Thailand :: Day 1

This will be the beginning of my “100 Days in Thailand" blogs! I’ll try to post as frequently as possible and include stories, videos, or pictures from the day. Some days might be deep, meaningful blogs, others might just be funny stories or “bullet points” of my day. I’ll try to keep it open and honest and really let you in on my experiences. I’ll also try to include fun/interesting details for those of you who’ve never traveled overseas (or just never been to Thailand!) There will probably be a lot more of that kind of blog here at the beginning (sights, sounds, experiences, etc) while my eyes are fresh and everything is new and different to me!

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Well, day one was really night one, since our plate got in late on January 19th. And technically we didn’t get out of the airport until after 12am, so I guess that would be day two. BUT, for blogging purposes just humor me, okay? Great ☺

So, here are the highlights…

• We flew the first leg of our flight with a messed up engine. Yup, you read that right. We boarded on time in Detroit, but then we sat at the gate for 2 HOURS while they worked on the plane. The pilot said it was something about the hydrolics in Engine #2??? We assumed they fixed it considering we took off and we were thankful to be on our way. About 7 hours into the 14 hour flight Rusty and I went for a walk to stretch our legs. We ended up standing at the back drinking juice and talking to a Flight Attendant about how glad we were that they fixed the plane and that the flight wasn’t canceled. She then informed us that they DIDN’T fix the engine, and we took off anyway. WHAT?!? Yeah…. you can mark that down on the list of “things you should not tell a passenger on a 747 while cruising at 35,000 feet halfway through a 14 hour plane ride.” AGH!

•  I had a War Eagle Moment boarding the airplane in Tokyo!!! We found each other again once we arrived in Thailand….he was a very nice guy from Florence, AL who went to Auburn in the late 90’s for a Building Science degree, and then came back in 2003 for his Masters. Sadly we separated before I got his name, but it sure was good hear a WAR EAGLE half a world away! (and to chat about our NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!)

•  I got stuck on the 3rd floor of the airport in Bangkok. Rusty was on the 2nd floor and sent me up to look for food options, and for the life of me I could NOT get back to him. All the escalators went UP (all 4 sets of them). There were no stairs. I finally found a glass elevator, got on it, and it would NOT stop on the 2nd floor! I could see Rusty through the glass as I rode all the way down to the 1st floor….then couldn’t’ find any stairs or escalators that went UP either! UGH!! Rode back to the 3rd floor and yelled over the balcony at him that I couldn’t get back down…it would’ve been hilarious on a normal day, but after a 27 hour travel day (24 of which were spent on a plane) it was just really frustrating. I walked the equivalent of maybe 6 blocks before I found a “DOWN” escalator and could get back to him. *sigh.

• We had a quick dinner/breakfast at 1am in the airport. I forgot how different overseas coke tastes! Almost every drink is different in every country… if you’ve ever been to the World of Coke in Atlanta and tried all the different soft drinks then you know this. If you’ve done that then you also know that some of them are NASTY! The sprite I had in the Tokyo airport was NOT tasty. Blah.

• The cabs here are HOT PINK!!! How much fun is that?! Well, actually, they are a lot of colors, but the pink ones are my favorite. It’s like seeing Barbie cars everywhere! Some of them are hot pink with white stripes! I’ve also seen green/yellow striped, blue, bright green, red, orange, and purple cabs. I wish I’d had my camera out when we walked out of the airport and saw the line of them all together….it was like a rainbow! I also saw a hot pink bus today and a hot pink motorcycle. FUN!

• Our refrigerator is a Mitsubishi. Yup, like the car. Same symbol and everything. It’s blue. Interesting, right?

• I almost set our room on fire last night by blowing up my fan. Seriously….it was not my night. First getting stuck on the 3rd floor and then this?! It was late – 3am late - and Rusty commented on how the lamp plug looked like an American plug in, so maybe we could just plug other stuff right into the outlet? Of course, this is the same man who assured me that I did NOT need a converter (to convert the electricity), just an adapter. Except that the lamp didn’t work… but we just assumed the bulb was blown. So I got out my little travel fan that I take everywhere (I struggle to sleep without one), plugged it in, and TADA! It worked! I was so excited!!! But then, just a few seconds later I smelled a funny smell. I was about to ask Rusty if he smelled it when we heard popping and saw sparks and smoke flying everywhere!!! I gasped and immediately jerked the cord out of the wall but it was too late. My fan was ROASTED and our room smelled like burning plastic. Not a good way to end the day! (and I guess now we know what happened to the lamp!)