The flight to Thailand

Well I enjoyed my 2 hours in the lounge and now that I have enough mile on EVA I will from now on be using the lounges when ever I fly EVA. I am also now addicted to getting more miles and moving up the ladder to the gold card. I think I've found the way to move up but that another story.

When you enter the lounge they tell you they'll call out the boarding of your flt, but you now know me, I can't be late so I left the lounge with way too much time on my hands. Next time I'll wait until they call.

On this flt I used some miles to upgrade to business, my first time, and I was excited to see how this would go. Long story short EVA does a very good job making you feel at home and some what special. As far as food goes we were served a five course meal which I will post pic of.

First was the snack, My choice was coffee for the drink and it was very good.















Next was smoked Salmon, wow, this was great.
















Next was the meal which I picked this a head of time on EVA's website. I liked the meal but I might have picked a better meal. My fault. This is lamb in curry sauce.















Next was cheese, fruit and port wine. Very good and the port was wonderful. My first time trying port wine.
















Next was dessert which I declined as I was so full I
was having a hard time breathing, no kidding. As far as the flt went I had a good time. The lady beside me was very nice and we had some long talks from LA to Taiwan. She was originally from Taiwan, went to college at Michigan where she met her husband. A nice lady and very easy to talk to. About half way to Taiwan both my TV and her TV went out we could watch some things but not the movies. The attendants tried t o get it fixed but it just would never work. So I read and slept. Which was fine with me.

13 hours later we landed in Taipei, late so I did not get to check out Taipei's lounge, maybe next year. Checked through security and it was off to my last leg to Bangkok. The excitement builds.

Thailand 2008

I've been to Thailand on my first of hopefully 2 trips for 2008 and I've posted a few things but today I'm going to jump to the being of the trip.

Thailand 2008

I didn't sleep much as usual, I was excited to the point of insomnia, but I did get a few anxious hours of rest. I left the house around 4 am arriving in K.C. with lots of time. I hate the feeling of being in a rush so I like being early sometimes very early depending on the importance of the function, and catching a plane for my vacation to Thailand is always very important to me. In all of my past trips I've left on the first flt out of KC to LAX as it is a nonstop flt. This trip I decided to leave a little later so I didn't have to wait so long for my next flt. Well that turned out to be a poor choice, one I will not make in the future.

I flew Southwest as I have for the last 6 trips. Southwest left late and we landed in Albuquerque almost an hour late on top of that one of the flt attendants became ill and we had to wait for her to be helped off the plane before we could leave. I made my way to the connecting flt thinking I was going to be late and my pea brain was worrying that I wouldn't make the LAX flt and that would be the end of my vacation. Ha, I forgot about the time change, I actually had about an hour before the next flt. Silly me. Here's a nice little coffee shop at the departure gate. Great idea, I love my coffee.














I made it to LAX about 3 hours before my departure. In all my flts going into LAX I have always walked from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. This trip I jumped on the blue bus and had a nice ride, why have I not done that in the past, Damn it's a long walk.

I checked in at EVA Airlines, I love EVA. I flew Business this time so after check in I made my way to the lounge. I think I've been spoiled I really like the life style with lounges in it. It is better way to fly, it's quieter and more relaxing being able to use a lounge and not setting around McDonald's eating a quarter ponder with 100 other people.

After I cleared security I found the Lounge sign and headed for the nice life.

Boat ride from Pattaya's new pier to Kho Larn

This is my Khon larn boat ride. It was really a nice experience and one that I would do again. I think the trip cost 150 baht and it was all arranged on the new pier. We just went to the new pier and there was a young man and young lady selling tickets for the boat ride over. We all bought our tickets and they placed an orange piece of tape on our shirts and off we went. Once on the island I just relaxed, laid around, napped, ate and took pictures, which I'll post later the lazy blogger that I am. This is my first attempt at posting a video on the blog, so here it goes. Oh, this video was taken with my new Canon SD900. As far as picture quality goes I really like the camera but, the videos in standard mode are substandard, this was taken is the High quality mode which does a much better job. But of course most of the videos I took were in standard mode.

I am now uploading a second video that is in standard mode so you can see the difference. The video is of us docking back at the new pier. Sorry about the camera moving around so much but the boat didn't stand still and my back packs top button popped off, that's when I turned around and you see the thai guy kneeling down, I'm picking up the button.

I thought it was funny when a young Japanese man knelt down to kiss the ground after getting to solid ground or I should say pier. It was a rough long ride, we stopped half way back to pick up passengers from another boat. That was something else, our boat was violently moving up and down, back and forth ; their boat was doing the same and at the same time the passengers were trying to go from one boat to the other. I really thought some one was going to get hurt or fall off the boat, but they made it after several attempts. That would have been a great movie to catch but I was so engrossed in what was happening I didn't even think of getting it on camera.

Some more pictures from Pattaya Thailand.

Here are a few more pictures from that open air restaurant on Soi Diana. It's located on the east end of soi Diana almost to soi Buckoaw, not sure if I spelled that correct but if you've been in the area you know where I mean. Another way to find it is it's across the street or just southwest of the Robins Nest Restaurant and hotel. If your in the area it is well worth the time and the dollar you'll be spending.

A great bowl of soup.

Across from my hotel was a little thai, I guess you would call it an open air restaurant. Every morning I would wake up and as usual it would be either before the sun was up or just after. I would walk to my balcony and watch the world pass very slowly by, for in Pattaya the night time is when it seems to be on steroids. For me the quite time is the best. It seems the freshest and simplest of times, just after the sun has shown it's face.

The traffic is slow, just a few mopeds moving and every now and again one would stop at this restaurant, purchase something then leave. This went on for a few days before I made my way across the road to purchase my first of several early morning bowls of joy from this wonderfully simple open air thai restaurant. Here is a picture of one of his soups. The average cost of a bowl of soup some rice, two chicken legs and a glass of water was about a dollar and 20 cents.

I saw this place last September but never made my way across the street. I am very happy that I finely tried some of his soups, oh and his fried chicken is great too.

Just a real quick post to let the guys and gals at work know I made ok. I've been to Bangkok, Khon Kaen and am now in Pattaya.

I'm having problems with my camera, it will not download the pictures to the lab top. I'm going to head over to the computer place this AM and see if they can give me some ideas.

I have some great pics from Khon Kaen, I hope you'll like them.

It's about 6am here, I haven't been sleeping well, that dad gum jet lag still has me backwards. You'll never guess what's acting up, first time ever, in all my trips I've always said the trips to Thailand relax me that's why I don't have any problems, well not this time, it had to prove me wrong. Last night I stopped at my favorite noodle stand and got the best bowl of noodles in Pattaya. It cost alittle over a buck with tip. I'll have to remember to bring my camera next time and shoot a movie of him making the soup, just for John. He takes the meat, well I'll wait to make the movie. John, I found out yesterday that in Thailand they do not eat dog. I'll explain why when I get home. Well, I'm going to shower and get a cup of coffee. I'll post more as soon as I get the pics off t he camera.

A new place to eat breakfast.

During my trip in 2006 my hotel was accross from the lek hotel. After serveral days of eating my hotels over priced and not the very best breakfast some very nice person told me about the breakfast buffet at the lek coffee shop. It was right accross the street. Is't it funny how some times we get so focused on doing this or doing that, that we miss things.

The Lek coffee shop serves a very good buffet for just a little money and of course it is all you can eat. Surprisingly the coffee was also very good, and was real coffee not that instant stuff you get all the time in Thailand. Any way the lek coffee shop is on Soi 13, from second road walking toward beach road it will be on your right. I ate there twice and was not disappointed. I wish I remembered the price but for the life of me I can't. It seems like it was a weird price like 102 baht but, I'm not sure. I do remember that it was cheap, sorry. I hate it when people do that to me, tell me I have to try some place then can't remember important details. Well, it's cheap or it was in 2006.

I have just 6 more days of work and and one day off and I'll be on my way.

I was supposed to meet up with my sister today and since she is the barber in the family she was going to give me a quick trim but as luck would have it, mom's dementia went in to over drive and we had to go home. Of course she wasn't really sure if it was home or not. Dementia is a terrible thing. Well enough about that. Hope that who ever reads this is having a great day. See ya. Bye.

Almost time.

It's one month and one day away from my next trip. In the past as the time nears to departure the excitement riases, this trip is no exception I can feel the tension growing. I'm not sure why this is as I have make this trip many times. One difference with this trip is I've upgraded to Business class which is a first for me. Flying business has two extra things to do, 15 days prior I have to order my online meals. On EVA Airlines you get to order what you want to eat during the flight, well only if your flying business. On this flight I will be flying as a silver card member which means I get to use the VIP lounge. COOOOL beans, uh. This will be a first for me and I have to admit I'm excited to see how the other half spends their time waiting for their flight. In the past I have waited like everyone else, on the food court eating high priced Mcdonalds or some other food court over priced stuff. But, not this time, I get to eat free food in the VIP lounge. I will be taking pictures and short videos of LAX's VIP lounge and the food on hand.


My schedule for this trip is, leave home at 0400, take off from MCI at 0845 land Lax at 1210 take off from Lax 1515 on EVA land Bkk at 0140 two days later, I'm staying at the twin towers hotel for one night then off to Khon Kaen for two days the third day is up in the air. I may spend a day in Khorat or maybe not, it depends on how I feel. If I go to Khorat I'll take a bus and the next day either buy a flight to Bangkok then a taxi of bus to Pattaya or I could just take a bus to Pattaya from Khorat. Now the difference is $100.00 for the plane and 3 hours or about 10.00 dollars and 8 hours on a bus. Not sure what I'll do. I have two friends arriving Pattaya the day I arrive in Bangkok and I want to hook up with them as soon as I can so the plan will most likely be two days in Khon Kaen then fly back to Bangkok and a taxi to Pattaya.



It's been a while since I've worked on the blog and not much has happend. Just work eat sleep and pay my bills. I have ordered the online meals for my flight an to tell you the truth for business class they did not look all that special. For what I'm used to when flying primium economy or economy the food looks great. I guess the true test will be in the eating.



I have just a few more things to do prior to leaving do laundry, get a hair cut and do my online check in on Southwest airlines. Oh, I also need to change the oil in my truck. You have to take care of and love your truck.