Thailand Day 0 - Stream of Consciousness Style

It is currently 2:14 AM on May 27, 2009 in Bangkok.

Check-in at IAD was surprisingly quick, so I walked up and down the B terminal, looking for stuff to buy. Basically this turned out to be nothing much, so I purchased some food, including a Five Guys burger for an experiment. As my landlord in Grenada has asked me to bring back Burger King for him, I thought that I would do one better and get him a Five Guys burger. As such, I needed to know whether it would keep over the 12 hour trip to Grenada. 24 hours later, my experiment is entering its final phase as I am eating said burger. Granted, this may be a bad idea, but I think that I've eaten worse.

The flight to Narita (NRT) was full and I had a center seat between an elderly Japanese man and an elderly Japanese woman. Many people, including the flight attendants, wore surgical masks (surprisingly, the flight attendants on the NRT-BKK leg did not wear anything on their faces). The masks made the normal safety demonstrations a little more interesting, as it looked like ninjas were putting on life vests. Furthermore, there was something we were supposed to do in the event of an "emergency vacation." I was remembering Neha jiji's advice not to touch any pigs while abroad, but I really doubt that that will be an issue.

The 777 had a 3x3x3 configuration in economy, and smelled like Five Guys fries at the start. However, this smell either dissipated or I got used to it. While taxing ANA has a video channel that shows a feed from the nose of the plane. You can see the runway and what's in front; the camera also runs while in the air. I had not seen this feature before and thought that it was kind of neat.

I thought I would sleep, but being in the center made this difficult so I watched six movies instead. Whoever chooses ANA's movies must really like Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, and Jim Carrey because these were the predominant stars.

- Seven Pounds - good. Can't really say anything else without giving away the plot though.

- Slumdog Millionaire - I had not seen this yet. It's good but ghastly in some parts, although having been told what happens to little kids in the slums it wasn't really surprising. I watched this after Seven Pounds so that may have colored my view.

- Dirty Harry - there is a lot of full-frontal female nudity in this movie. If this is the airplane cut then I can't imagine what goes on in the unedited version.

- Ocean's 12 - Meh. First one was better. Catherine Zeta-Jones was not her usual alluring self either. I thought the fourth-wall break with Julia Roberts was great though.

- Ocean's 13 - Less meh than 12, but still not as good as the remade Ocean's 11. Bernie Mac is awesome though even though he is in the film only briefly. The man has charm and class.

Which brings me to:

- Ocean's 11 (1960) - the original version. This movie sucked. Maybe it was good when it came out but apart from Sammy Davis Jr. and Normal Fell (Mr. Roper), it blew big time.

I'm looking through my notes and I must really have been bored because I talk about the way that the lines on the runway merge together and split away from each other.

In the air to NRT, we were told to fill out health questionnaires due to the "pandemic influenza." These were supposed to be collected at the airport but I still have mine. Maybe I'll make a paper airplane or something.

ANA's food is borderline awful. They get high marks for presentation but everything else basically falls flat, save for a bag of rice crackers that they serve as snacks.

NRT is a decent but otherwise unremarkable airport. The B gates are like a small Tysons Corner Center as there are stores for Hermes, Cartier, and a bunch of other high-end luxury brands that I don't remember. You can buy tech stuff but it is expensive. There was a store selling digital cameras from point-and-shoots to professional-grade DLSRs.

BKK is a rather remarkable airport, if only for the architecture. It is very open and all concrete and steel. I got my bag and headed to the airport taxi service, where a driver (attempted) to take me to the hotel. The problem was that when I told the taxi desk people where I needed to go, neither of them knew where it was. Hence I had to look it up on the Internet. Then the driver was unable to find the hotel without stopping three times and asking. It turns out that the hotel is down an alley off a main road and we were passing it in the search. Although he didn't know much English, he knew enough to tell me that he didn't understand my questions and to ask if I wanted a "lady friend."

Anyway, I've checked in now. The room is small but otherwise clean. More later.