I was apprehensive about today. Not because I do not want to leave here, but because I do not enjoy big cities. Yet Bangkok is something I am told I must see, and yes, there are things I do want to see. so off we go.
MJ does not like Bangkok either, which I am positive is shaping my opinions of the city, but Gabby was so enthusiastic about it and gave us a list of where to stay, what to do, and will be joining us in a couple of days. It always makes things better when you have an enthusiastic guide who wants to show you the wonders of the area. I am so lucky to have them on my trip.
I spent the morning catching up on blog, and packing. And I discovered despite shipping that darn box, I still had a lot of stuff.
I paid extra for cabin baggage, which took me from 7kg to 14 kg, but my checked bag, according to the scale at the hotel was still 2 kg over weight.
After great consideration, I decided to just go with it. If they charged me extra, so be it. They did not. He wrote it as 20kg when I checked my bag through.
I had a fast pass because I bought the extra cabin weight, but MJ did not, so we stood in line.
She is having difficulty walking with her current health issues, so I gave her one of my walking sticks that I brought to climb mountains. I only need one, really, so one will go with her to Europe and the other with me.
Like splitting up a set. What will the ‘travel besties’ do without each other? Probably a lot of really neat stuff.
The baggage clerk noted the stick and asked if she needed a wheelchair, and she said yes.
That was nice, because I pushed the luggage cart and she was zoomed from point a to b by a dedicated person.
At the airport in Chiang Mai, they do not take your bags after you weigh them, like I am used to. They ask you to take the bags you are going to check and put them through the luggage xray yourself.
So I did. Learning new things every day. And, side note, I love the airport luggage carts. I’m too old to ‘be strong’ and ‘tough it out’ anymore. First class easy all the way.
They stopped MJ’s bag and had me open it up. Apparently they wanted to see the lighters she had purchased.
I’m not going to argue. She was already whisked away to the next spot in our journey, and the attendants were very professional, so we opened the bag, he pulled out the lighters and tested them.
2 of the 3 showed a blue flame. I saw it. The guy saw it. These lighters were not leaving the country.
Of course, the language barrier struck again. I had no idea what the issue was, other than I did see the blue flame, even if it was for a second. He tried to explain it to me. His supervisor tried to explain it to me, and all I understood was ‘blue flame. No go.’
MJ and her man appeared. The lighters were empty. The lighters were brought from other countries so have already cleared security and customs. The lighters… were not going to leave this country, no matter what was said. I think. I really have no idea what was being said. It was a very confusing scene. Short version, 2 of the 3 lighters, the 2 she actually cared about, were left behind.
It was a traumatic start to our journey, but after that, the security checkpoint was easy, and with the help of her personal assistant to whisk us around, all went smoothly.
I triple checked to see if I had everything. I think I do. I am not feeling like I left something behind anyway. And as we know from losing Leo, that does not mean I did not leave something behind, I just feel like I picked everything up.
We were wheeled right to the gate to wait. When the plane started boarding, MJ was wheeled to the front of the line and I followed with the baggage. We were moved toward the front of the plane for her convenience. All first class service. The plane did not have a first class, but the getting on, as with any individual with physical challenges, was very nice.
Another flight, another meal. I will never understand it, but I ate. Always eating when traveling on this trip. I don’t think I can eat without being in motion anymore.
The flight left late, arrived from what I could tell, early, and thus defied any schedule or physics or something. It felt like a normal flight.
Bangkok Don Mueang airport has a golf course between the runways, by the way. MJ told me to look for that. It in fact does have a golf course, and people were playing.
But in Bangkok, as with may places in the area, the plane does not always get a nice gate where you can roll off and directly into the airport. This plane was parked away from the gate, a set of stairs delivered, and a bus waiting to take everyone to the terminal.
MJ did not think she could do stairs, so we waited for 4 bus loads of people to get off the plane, and they essentially opened the opposite door and put her on the cargo truck that delivers the meals to the cabin.
There was another woman with us on the cargo truck who gave MJ a good luck amulet.
We saw the backside of the terminal. It has a lot of air conditioning units. About one every 100 yards apart on average. I thought there must be a more efficient way, but 5 minutes into the trip I gave up on my thoughts.
I know the busses probably took a similar route, but I did not get to see inside the terminal at all. Until we were wheeled quickly to baggage claim, and we did see the route to the taxi stand.
I am not a great explorer of terminals, so inside or out did not matter. It was simply different. Plus, I fly out of here in a few days. Alone, so kind of wanted to get the lay of the land, but honestly, you follow the cue and don’t explore a lot when in airports. And now I have something to do while I wait for my next flight to leave.
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