Bangkok Thailand - Fall 2015

As if Tokyo wasn't far enough around the world to travel, our next adventure takes us even further -- to Bangkok Thailand -- another 6-7 hour flight after Tokyo!  I have been to Thailand, in 2000 with my sister.  My daughter has said for years she wanted to go, so this year when she turned 13 I asked her which vacation destination she wanted to experience and Thailand was her choice.  We have Thai friends who will host us, show us around, and help with arrangements. 

This is our planned itinerary:
Friday Oct 23 - Fly to Bangkok
Saturday Oct 24 - Arrive in Bangkok  Travel delays due to weather
Sunday Oct 25 - City and Temple touring   Arrive in Bangkok
Monday Oct 26 - Elephant Bath and Tiger Temple Tour
Tuesday Oct 27 - Ancient City (Mueang Boran) Tour
Wednesday Oct 28 - Bus to Ko Samet island
Thursday Oct 29 - Ko Samet (Lima Coco Resort)
Friday Oct 30 - Bus back to Bangkok
Saturday Oct 31 - Chatuchak Market shopping
Sunday Nov 1 - Fly back to Denver

Flying to Bangkok we stop in Dallas/Forth Worth and Tokyo.
Denver to Dallas is roughly 2 hours and then we have a 2 hour layover.
Dallas to Tokyo is 13.5 hours and then we have a 2 hour layover.
Tokyo to Bangkok is over 6.5 hours.
That is 26 hours travel time!  We arrive in Bangkok at 11pm on Saturday after leaving Denver at 8am on Friday.  We lose a day.

Coming home  through LAX is a bit faster.
Bangkok to Tokyo is almost 6 hours.  Then a short 1 hour layover.  Yikes!
Tokyo to LAX is 10 hours.  Then a 3 hour layover.
LAX to Denver is 2.5 hours.
That's about 22.5 hours coming home.  We leave Bangkok at  8am and arrive in Denver by 5pm the same day.  We gain a day coming home.

Update 10/24:   Please remind me why I like to travel?  It's certainly not about the adventure of getting there.   We have Hurricane Patricia to thank for our travel delays.  After getting off and on the airplane 3 times in Denver we finally fly to Dallas and sit, waiting for a gate, seeing our connecting flight out the window -- the flight that takes off without us as we sit and wait 25 minutes for a gate.  We then are rebooked to fly through Qatar.  Not really a destination I desire, but we are desperate.  But our flight to Houston to catch that plane sits on the runway for nearly 3 hours.  Another missed connection.  We finally fly back to Dallas to spend the night sleeping on the cold hard floor.  We were supposed to leave Denver at 8am and arrive in Dallas around 11am, but we arrive back to Dallas around 11pm-- like a rat on a wheel we just ended up where we started.  It was a very long, hectic, frustrating and tiring day spent mostly sitting in airplanes that weren't moving.   We are now booked for flights through Tokyo to Bangkok.  If this works out, it will add a full 24 hours to our trip, making our travel time 50 hours.  50!  Fingers crossed that we start to have some good luck.

This was our bed for our night in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport.  

Update 10/25:   Our second travel day went quite smoothly and we reminded ourselves to be grateful for the opportunity to travel.  We flew from Dallas to Tokyo, 13.5 hours and the food was surprisingly good for airplane food.  We watched a few movies and napped a bit.  At the Tokyo airport we were able to switch seats to sit by each other on the last leg of our journey, the 6.5 hour flight to Bangkok.  Japan Airlines planes are fancy and new and just beautiful with amazing seats that recline so far and a very sophisticated video system for entertainment, but the food was so awful we really couldn't eat any of it!  We arrive in Bangkok at 11pm hungry and tired but so happy to be there.  It took 2 full travel days and we will have to forfeit our temple and city tour day, but we are ready for our Thailand adventure to begin -- 3 days in the city and 3 days on the beach.

Update 11/1:  Our trip home went much more smoothly although the connections were tight and our second flight was delayed not only because our first flight was late to arrive, but another flight was as well.  This meant a lot of hurrying around airports and a bright orange "Express Connection" pass to get us through customs and immigration at LAX quickly.  I've been through security x-ray scanners so much in the past week I feel like I'm glowing.  Since when does one have to go through them again when you're connecting on an international flight?  This happens at Narita in Tokyo.  You're already in the terminal but have to go through security again.  We are light packers and travel via carry on only which is really the way to go.  Helped a lot with all the flight delays and re-bookings we encountered to make our way to Bangkok.  I did pack an extra bag just in case we went overboard in our shopping, but our few souvenirs fit nicely in our regular bags.  Mostly I just brought home a nice case of heat rash!  Or was it heat rash?  We apparently both brought home a case of Strep Throat!  Strangest symptoms, just a sore throat for the teen and just a rash for me. 

It's always good to return home...