November 3, 2022 @ 5:05 AM GMT+7
Well, I am off on another adventure. Thailand. Thailand is one of the places on my top ten locations to see from around the world. From amazing Buddhist temples to floating markets, elephant sanctuaries to exquisite dishes, this and much much more is all waiting for me.
I am traveling once again through EF Ultimate break (3rd trip). The conveniency that comes with traveling through this company is well worth every penny. All I do is show up to where they say at the time stated. From someone who’s everyday job requires planning and scheduling it is nice to turn my brain off and have someone else worry about it for me. But enough about EF, that will have to be another blog for another day.
Please understand for reference purposes, I DID NOT sleep at all the entire day leading up to my departure. I figured I would get all the sleep I needed on the plane rides. I woke up at 7:30 AM CST on Tuesday, went to work and stayed at the office until midnight. I kid you not I worked through both 1st and 2nd shift just to make sure I had everything in order before leaving. I know I can not foresee or solve every problem before leaving but I damn near tried. I then went home, worked on some school stuff, finish packing, then drove to city around 5:30 AM CST to beat rush hour traffic. Once there, I dropped my car off and headed to the airport. So, you can image the minute I got on that airplane, I was out like a light. Didn’t even hear any of the safety announcements.
Ok, let’s review my flights shall we. The airline was Korean Air, and the flight path was from Chicago to Incheon, Incheon to Bangkok. The flight to Incheon was planned for 14-hours. Our pilots, however, did the trip in 13 hours and 20 minutes, so they were moving. I was able to change my seat from a middle seat to an aisle seat AND there was no one in the middle seat next. It was the next best thing other than having an entire row to yourself. Granted I was the last passenger to check into my flight at the gate desk because I was too busy stuffing my face with food and drinks. But hey I did not know if the food would be the best or not on the plane; you gotta stay prepared.
While on the flight, we were provided 3 meals: dinner, snack, and lunch. I requested a vegan/vegetarian meal option when EF booked our flights. I requested this for two reasons, first dairy does not sit well with me especially when flying and two I sometimes question the quality of the meat options provided nor do I eat beef/pork in general. Also, did you know, if you request a specialty meal, your meal comes out before everyone else’s, so you get to eat and be done by the time everyone else eats. Dinner’s main course was veggie pasta with yellow squash, mushrooms, red peppers, and green peas. Sides included a cold salad with lettuce, peppers and mushrooms, bread with butter, and non-fat yogurt. This meal was just ok, nothing special. The pasta however was quite bland.
For snack, I had a vegetable sandwich with peppers, humus, and lettuce and a banana.
Lunch was my favorite meal by far. The main course was a delicious spicy vegetable curry and yellow rice. Sides included a cold quinoa salad with red and greens peppers, garbanzo beans, and parsley, bread with butter and non-fat yogurt.
Overall, this plane ride was not as bad as I thought it would be. I guess since I’ve travel to Asia before back in 2019, that was my first exposure to a 12+ hour flight. I prepared better this time around. I will say, the entire flight my stomach did not want to calm down no matter how much water, tea, and sprite I drank. We made it through though. We landed in Incheon/Seoul at 5:17PM GMT+9 / 3:17AM CST.
I had a 2.5-hour layover in Incheon, which meant I could not explore South Korea, maybe next time. South Korea’s security check was one of the most efficient ones I’ve seen. It is also one of the cleanest airports I’ve experienced too. Incheon Airport has several shopping stores like Hermes, Gucci, and Prada as you are walking to your gate. It looks like a mall was dropped directly into the airport. It felt like I had walk O’hare twice just to get to my gate. While waiting for my flight to Bangkok, they announced a flight delay due to ground support. The delay was an hour. We did not take off for Bangkok until 9:05 PM GMT+9 / 7:05 AM CST.
We again took Korean Air and the flight was 5 hours. We were offered one meal on the flight, and I again had a vegan meal. The entire was some sort of rice/corn mash square with marinara sauce with sweet potatoes, zucchini, and mushrooms. The sides were marinated cucumber, mushrooms, and tomato, bread, and fruit. This meal was actually good too. I could make out the mash stuff exactly, but I enjoyed it.
The rest of the flight I slept because I was too excited to take a shower, wash my face and brush my teeth. When you have a travel day of over 20+ hours, you really only have one goal and that is making it to your destinations bed, well at least for me that’s how it was. The plane finally arrived in Bangkok at 2:15 AM GMT+7 / 12:15 PM CST. By the time I got through customs, exchanged money, met up with the group and drove to the hotel, it was 3:45 AM GMT+7. I am now exhausted and ready for a new day. A day filled with adventure, sight seeing and great food.
Overall, my two days of travel went really well with only one delay. Only having carry on items really helped. Ill must do a blog post of what all I packed on the trip.
Until tomorrow friends 😊
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