Ever get a funny feeling before a long trip? I always do, and this time it hit the day before: I'd turned off the lights, locked the office and then suddenly realized that, da-
YAMN, I'd be going around the entire freakin' world before I walked through that door again.
Still, of all the ways I could have started my trip, this was undoubtedly the most anticlimactic: the company only pays for Y, SIN-BKK is the sector I travel the most for work, TG's the airline I usually end up on, A330 is the most common metal and even colleagues joking about "flight 404: plane not found" has ceased to be particularly amusing. The only amusing bit was when asked at check-in if I'd be going to "Bangkok only", but to save the poor lady's head from exploding I had to answer "yes". After some last-minute duty-free shopping, I kicked back in the TG lounge with square cocktail sandwiches and a glass of gin tonic without the gin.
TG was as usual solid with decent seat pitch, decent food, decent service and a plane that got me from SIN to BKK in one piece, and I got to Bangkok with a full 24 hours to while away before actually setting off on the RTW. Today's theme seemed to be nostalgic country music: on TG it was Kiyoshi Hikawa's
Hatsukoi Ressha about setting off to Hokkaido by night train, and in the taxi from the airport it was the cabbie performing
a cappella, no doubt expressing the same sentiments about Thailand's rural backwater of Isaan.
Not much of a start, now was it? Tomorrow it'll be the same flight in reverse, but in SQ C instead. Stay tuned...