When we got to Dallas we unloaded off the plane and found our next gate. We only had roughly 45min before our next flight, but everything worked out well. I was excited and full of optimism, except for the fact that we were about to be in the air for 13.5hrs from Dallas to Tokyo, Japan. Oh well, looking back on it, it was without a doubt worth it.
When we got on the plane Rachel and I found our seats and sat down ready for take-off. If anyone has ever been on one of the larger planes that generally fly further distances, international or transcontinental, then you know the setup I'm about to describe. We were the third section back, basically at the tail-end of the aircraft, with two seats next to the window on either side and in the middle there were five seats. Rachel and I were in the second row middle seat and the seat to the right.
Now, I tell you this because if you have ever sat in either of those seats then you know what a bear it can be to get up if you need to use the restroom or anything of that sort. Well the man sitting next to me was a very friendly Vietnamese fellow named Viet (I think that's how you spell it 'cause he was a little difficult to understand). The thing that made this flight rather amusing to me is this man would speak to me for a solid 15min then there would be a 10 second pause to which I would put my headphones in and as soon as I was watching a movie he would start having a conversation with me. I was unaware of the fact that I had been roped back into conversation until either he would nudge my arm or Rachel would tell me "Hey, he's trying to talk to you." Thanks Rachel.
Every so often we would look up from what we were doing (when Viet wasn't talking to us) and notice he was missing. He would be gone for 10-20 minutes at a time. I later found out he was back at the flight attendant station eating the remainder of the snacks that had not been passed out and just overall hanging out with them. I later found out that he had it right mainly ‘cause you get to get up, walk around, stretch your legs, and get refills on water.
Around 13hrs later we arrived in Japan and the Narita Tokyo Airport. It is a simple airport, which was nice because we didn’t know which gate we were supposed to go to, we hadn’t slept in about 24hrs, and we were hungry. Once we figured out where we supposed to be we went and found a tiny restaurant just to try some authentic Japanese food. The food was good, but what really got me is what I discovered when it came time to pay. I was handed the check, which came out to 2,280 yen, which I think is between $27 and $28 USD (US Dollars) and like some restaurants you have to go to the front and pay. Now, if you ever find yourself in Japan remember this, they do not tip in Japan. I asked were the spot to wright in a tip was and was informed they don’t tip in Japan.
The trip from Tokyo to Bangkok was pretty uneventful. We tried to sleep on the plane, but I don’t think either of us did that great of a job of getting any sleep. Anyway, 7hrs later we landed in Bangkok and I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I was. When we landed it was a little after 11PM so it was a little after 11AM for everyone back home. We were tired and felt really gross; a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
When we got off the plane we were supposed to be met by our driver, which was going to be really nice since we didn’t have a cell phone to call anyone to let them know we had arrived safely. Well we didn’t see him at the gate and were quickly hurried away to the immigration counter. That was okay since at that point I was thinking we would find him after we collected our bags. Well, we breezed through immigration and waited for our bags, which actually took longer than walking to and waiting at immigration.
Once we collected our bags we pushed them to the front of the airport with the hopes of finding the person taking us to our new place. Well that would have been way to convenient to find him on the first try; plus everything had gone quite smoothly up to this point. We walked from one end of the airport to other looking for a sign with our names on it, which we never found. So we doubled back trying to avoid all the people popping out and asking us if we needed a ride in broken English. We ultimately decided we should just walk up and down until we found him. Fortunately for us we walked about 50ft and there he was. Good eye Rachel.
We walked outside while he got the car/van and waited for him. Rachel was really cute thinking every van that drove by would be ours. Our van was the ONE van she didn’t say that too. It was supposed to be about a two hour drive from Bangkok to Pattaya, normally. Our driver must be training for NASCAR because he definitely got us from Bangkok to our hotel in right around an hour. Speed racer is now his new name.
Anyway, I do apologize for the lack of pictures. They weren’t the first thing on our mind having not slept in a while. But, we made it safely to our room and couldn’t be happier to be here. We miss everyone back home and can’t wait to hear from you all. If you would like to send me an email you can reach me at cush737@gmail.com or if you have Skype my user name is cushman317. Hope everyone is doing well and I’ll post again soon to let everyone know what’s going on (with pictures next time). Everyone take care.
Cheers
Cush
SO happy you guys made it safely!! We'll have to skype super soon :-)
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