The first flight from Phoenix to LAX was easy, quick, and smooth. Once at LAX, we had 4 hours to get our luggage, walk to international terminal, recheck bags, and get through security again. Our flight left at 12:40am with 13 hours in the air. My first mistake was to only bring one glass of water onto the plane. I should've brought the biggest bottle of water I could find. We all slept as much as we could on this first flight, but there was still 4 hours to waste. They served a meal and we played some cards before landing at Beijing Capital International Airport at 5:30 local time.
My next flight left at 1:40 - 8 hour layover. It was a surprise that it was only 25 degrees outside in Beijing, but it was definitely still dark. When I left Phoenix, the sun had set and only after 2 hours in Beijing did the sun finally rise. That was about 23 straight hours without any sunlight.
Beijing airport had free internet, but because it's China I couldn't post anything to Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger. Trust me, I tried. Skype works and I talked to my parents.
We ate at a Pizza Hut for breakfast. Eggs, bacon, and toast. Awful in every sense. It must've been powder eggs and the bacon was barely cooked, but the toast was edible. The only reason we choose Pizza Hut was because they accepted US dollars and to exchange any amount of money had high exchanges fees.
The wise thing I did before leaving LAX was to buy a travel toothbrush and toothpaste. After the wonderful breakfast at Pizza Hut I brushed my teeth and it felt awesome. We walked around the entire terminal and saw about 10 duty free shops. They have water dispensers spread throughout the airport so I was able to drink plenty of water. The smart thing about these dispensers is that is has cold water, warm water, and hot water. The hot water is very popular with various airport employees because they can add the hot water to their tea and they can make their instant noodles.
The final flight from Beijing to Bangkok was only 4.5 hours in the air. I had the window seat with Jeff Berkshire next to me and Jeff Burton across the aisle. Shortly before we pulled back a mother and daughter asked to switch seats so her daughter could look outside. We said yes and the daughter gave us an orange, which tasted great. After another airplane meal, we played some more cards, before fighting off sleep for the rest of the flight.
At last, we were in Thailand, with only a 3 hour drive south to Hua Hin. We got through immigration quickly and all of our luggage made it safely. Our van driver was waiting and as soon as we got on the road, I fell asleep. We stopped at a 7-eleven for some cases of water and then got into the hotel at about 10pm. I was too tired to even shower. I brushed my teeth and slipped into my travel coma.
Waking up the next morning, we had a huge breakfast buffet at our hotel and then we walked up and down the beach for a bit. Ever since I arrived in Thailand, it's been an awesome adventure, but the trip over here was taxing.
I'll talk about Thailand in the next post - female caddies, tropical temperatures, motorbikes, fishing boats.
Check out Facebook or Twitter for pictures. I'll post some on here in a bit, but the internet is slow and it takes a while to upload to blogger.
Neil
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