The actual journey to Thailand has started with a slow trip to Los Angeles International Airport in morning rush-hour traffic. I felt a bit anxious, but arrived as planned three hours before departure time. And I was one of the first passengers to arrive. The LAX International terminal is pretty quiet in the morning, so I am relaxing a bit before the scramble to board begins.

I am traveling on Korean Air flight KE18, from Los Angeles to Incheon, S.Korea on an Airbus A380. The airbus A380 is the world’s largest passenger airplane, designed to challenge Boeing’s near monopoly in the large-aircraft market. The A380 is a wide-body, four-engine, aircraft with a second deck extending the entire length. This is a really large airplane! First introduced in 2005, there are now over 120 in service and Airbus has an additional 140 on order or in production. And they only cost $250 million US, but for that, you get to choose Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, or GE engines (the same choice Boeing offers for the 777, but for the 747-8 Boeing only offers the GE engines).

Arrived in Incheon, S. Korea after what seemed to be a very long flight, as sleep eluded me. We were a little late, which caused a bit of a scramble for connections as all incoming international passengers must go through another security check.

Left Incheon a little late, on a full Boeing 747-400 bound for Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok (also known by the airport abbreviation, BKK) after a somewhat choppy, turbulent flight. I’m exhausted after 20+ hours of travel and no sleep. I have four hours to sleep, then I’m off to the Bangkok train station to get on the train to Chiang Mai.

Bangkok to Chiang Mai is about 75-80 minutes by air, and 12 hours by train. By plane, one does not see the country, but on the train, I’ll really see the countryside. Something like flying from Los Angeles to Las Vegas — 75 minutes by air, 4-5 hours by car. But when driving, you really see how large and expansive the desert is.

Welcome back to Chiang Mai tomorrow!