Friday, December 26, 2014: I am off to Thailand!

Arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport International Terminal at about 8:15 AM for the Korean Air flight KE18 from Los Angeles to Seoul’s Incheon airport, scheduled to leave at 11:00 AM for the 13  hour, 40 minute flight. This is same flight I took last year, on an Airbus A380-800, the largest passenger airplane made. The model 800 is the largest of the A380 airplanes, and Korean Air has them configured with 407 seats (12 first class, 94 prestige class, and 301 economy class; the whole second level is prestige class, also known as business class). I have been on many different airlines, although not many for international flights. The Korean Air flight attendants are the best; they even have a slight edge over the Thai Airways crews for their efficiency and general kindness.

But I could not sleep, and because I was in the last day or two of a cold, I did so much want to sleep. But wanting to is not enough, and sleep eluded me once again on a long flight. I watched three forgettable movies, and maybe dozed off a few times for 10-15 minutes. The flight was uneventful other than my being somewhat restless. Our arrival in Incheon was 15 minutes early. The challenge when transferring on international flights is that one must go through international transfer security, essentially, another security check. Because many flights arrive at Incheon at about the same time, and most of the passengers are transferring, Incheon’s international transfer security is busy, slow, and people are a little tense — tired from their first flight, and worried that they may miss their next flight if the line does not get moving. My connection time was originally scheduled for 80 minutes, but was reduced by Korean Air to 55 minutes a couple of months ago. Arriving early was good. I made it to the second flight to Bangkok five minutes before boarding started.

The second flight was also uneventful, but I was still unable to sleep well. I think I slept for about an hour, but mostly read, hoping for the 6-hour flight to be over. Our arrival into Bangkok was also just ahead of schedule. Immigration in Thailand is very busy because there are many flights arriving from Europe and North America between 10 PM and 2 or 3 AM, so the lines for immigration scrutiny can be almost an hour. And there are 12 or more Thai immigration officials working. Once through immigration, there was another delay for luggage, but that too finally came.

I had arranged for the hotel to have someone pick me up; the Thai taxi drivers can be a challenge, and after a long flight, I was pretty sure I did not want to deal with them in the middle of the night. Having a car from the hotel pick me up is a luxury and does cost some money, but it was great. The car was a beautiful large BMW, the driver was nice, and with light traffic, we were at the hotel in 45 minutes.

I am staying at the Intercontinental Hotel Bangkok, and this is a very nice hotel. My room is on the 32nd floor, and it is a good room, large, comfortable, very nice.

The goal was to get settled quickly, get a shower, and get some sleep. It all happened.

Next: Back in Bangkok