RoamingGeek

Half of the day is being spent backtracking over the last few days progress southeast by ferry. After some confusion and a slightly late transport pickup, I was on my way and saying farewell to SriLanta and officially the furthest south I have ever been (well technically koh Rok). On the ride to Saladan pier one of the other tourists in the back of the truck lit up a cigarette, which I normally could care less, but threw the remainder into the brush as we were driving. It must be nice to have such carefree disregard for the country where you vacation. We arrived at the pier and I got a colored sticker, found a place to relax on the top deck of the boat and we were off to Phuket with a boat change in Phi Phi. (not via dock but gangplank between boats in the bay like a pirate commandeering a new vessel) Back at Rassada Pier I hopped into a minibus of death (or so I have been told as they have a higher rate of crashes and fatalities) but figured I would chance it to the airport.


What you can and cannot do on the minibus of death.



HKT domestic terminal has an entrance security that upset another American enough to start calling people "damn chinks", Classy…

This time around I was flying Bangkok Airways as an effort to fly as many airlines as possible during my trip, plus they are supposedly the 'world's best regional airline'. I checked my bag and headed to the lounge. The lounge interestingly is available to any passenger holding a Bangkok Airways ticket. It was small and a bit crowded but still beat the lounge in Seattle that Hainan used. I was able to find a spot to charge my Surface, watch some videos, and drink some "iced chocolate". There were some food options to be had as well but I did not partake. When you connect to the Wifi in the lounge, the splash page encourages you to rate Bangkok Airways so they seem to be trying really hard to maintain their rating.

We had an on time departure from HKT and uneventful flight to UTP. Honestly at least from sitting in economy on this specific flight, I can't determine what makes them the 'World's best regional airline'. Before arrival to UTP we were told that we could not take pictures or video of the airport or vicinity.

RoamingGeek

City of Strange
Frogger difficulty 8/10



Based off the ease of transport in the rest of my trip, I decided to wing it and not pre-book transit from UTP to my hotel. As soon as you exit the secure area in UTP you are greeted by several desks of people offering transit. I opted for a private car to my hotel where I got to try out my limited Thai and use google translate to make conversation for the 30 minute transit to Siam@Siam.

On the trip I wanted to have at least one hotel with an infinity pool on the roof of a tall building preferably with a bar which I was able to check off my list with Siam@Siam. I had a corner room with an awesome view of the bay.






This nook is the single most awesome thing I have seen in a hotel room. Sitting here and watching the city is as addicting as watching fire while camping.

The next morning I had breakfast at the lounge and got ready to head to the Ocean Marina Yacht Club to check out a boat show for my uncle as he was selling his house and looking for a new boat to resume his life on the sea. I acquired a taxi through the hotel that didn't drive with a sense of bloodlust. The boat show was interesting but lacked the type of substantial seaworthy vessel my uncle desired. Unfortunately I neglected to charge my phone and missed opportunities to take pictures here. The last bit of my battery was taken to ensure I had transit back to the hotel before the overly emphatic German salesman convinced me to take out a loan buy a Seabob. As impressive as it was watching underwater video of people going inverted over a coral reef at deadly speeds thanks to the "precision German engineering", I didn't desire to sell my soul for the price. This is a lesson that any toy that touches water doesn't come cheap.

For dinner I went to a restaurant near the beach and had some delicious Tom Yum Gai. The food was great however the beach had a truly terrible stench.

I had heard that movie theaters in US pale in comparison to their Asian counterparts so I decided to check out a VIP cinema and see Justice League. The movie was not that great, I mean it gets pretty old when superman is the answer to every adversity, but the experience was pure awesome. 700Baht gets you a recliner, popcorn in a real bowl, a drink in an actual glass, and a blanket as the air-conditioning is set to overdrive.

Pattaya is an odd place. I was a bit more guarded there than the other areas I visited but perhaps unnecessarily, people were still very nice and pleasant despite the reputation. You can strike up conversation with the nice elderly couple about travel while riding in the songthaew who will then invite you to go to a birthday party for a friend at slutty bar 5.


Probably the last place I would expect to be able to watch "The Rock" (yes the one with Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage)

RoamingGeek

As an effort to explore more transportation options, and considering I had only ridden a bus once prior in my life that didn't have the word "school" preceding, I took the bus from Pattaya to BKK rather than taking a private taxi. Arrival in BKK was about 12 hours before my flight so I opted to store my luggage at the airport and take the Airport Rail Link into the city for a few hours. While waiting to store my luggage I had the displeasure of meeting one of the most arrogant people on the planet. He decided to display his aptitude for the title by cutting five people in line and demanding a lower rate for his bag. He was then immediately directed by the desk to take his rightful place in the back of the line. This development astounded the immortal that he should have to wait in a line and therefore felt that the only person deemed worthy of conversation was himself and thus the mumbling commenced. To my dismay the back of the line happened to be just behind me and as I was waiting patiently for the bag clerks to finish with the person they were still dealing with in front of me, the immortal jackass felt it was necessary to expedite the process and thusly demanded that I give them my passport. They weren't ready or had any free appendages to receive my passport. I would have explained this to the divine being behind me but most of my energy was being allocated in maintaining my calm.

After getting my bag stored I headed into Bangkok via the Airport Rail Link. I spent the next few hours wandering around Central World and Siam Paragon gawking at the Lamborghini and Ducati. You can actually leave bags for free at some of the malls then pick them up later after you are done shopping.

RoamingGeek

I headed back to BKK and got my bag checked with Hainan and was about to get in the wrong line with security when an airport official noticed my lane pass and I finally realized that premium and priority lanes are the same thing. I still had about two hours before my flight left so I headed to the Thai Airways lounge that Hainan allowed access to. The lounge was fairly quiet at 22:30 aside from one very loud British woman on the phone who seemed to have some deep seeded emotional jealousy problems regarding her sister or so I gathered from the phone conversation she obviously wanted me to be privy. I was able to drown her out with my headphones and made a few calls. At about 30 minutes until boarding I made my way to the gate. When boarding was called, it was a mob rush to the boarding area that I wasn't even going to attempt to get through. The flight from BKK to PEK was still uncomfortable going back and I got a little bit of sleep.



I had 9 hour layover in Beijing and I was originally thinking about taking some time to go into the city but I was way too exhausted for that venture. I was met at the gate by a Hainan rep who asked me if I wanted to use their complementary hotel and explained that I would only have about three hours of time in the room. After verifying there was a nap area in the lounge I declined the hotel room and proceeded through transit security to the lounge in Terminal 2 where I used the shower and slept for about 5 hours. I woke up and noticed that one of the staff had put a blanket on me during the time I was sleeping. I had some noodles and dessert while I put my VPN to the test again.

RoamingGeek

On the flight from PEK to SEA, I believe there was I minor famous person sitting in front of me due to having his own camera person take video periodically throughout the flight. He also had several admirers come up and talk for a while.


A parachute from here would save me about 9 hours of travel.

Arrival into SEA felt like a step back in time. Where BKK is bright, vibrant, modern, and friendly, SEA is a dramatic contrast: dark, dingy, sullen. This is the first time using Global Entry which was as easy as advertised. Luggage took about 40 minutes to hit the carousel for customs. The tag had seen better days and the customs solution was to staple the pieces back together. After this, I was wondering if I was going to get experience with Alaska's lost bag policy. I made my way to my favorite AS lounge and got a bit of upright sleep until my next flight to ANC.

RoamingGeek

As I was sitting in my seat waiting for people to board, I heard one of the high school students ask to her friend why people in First don't board last. It got me thinking that, especially on flights that board in front of the first cabin, there really should be a reorganization in how boarding occurs. I realize this may be an unpopular opinion here, but drink orders in first on a 737 do disrupt the boarding process. Maybe there should be a mini-lounge in the gate area that way first is accounted for but boards last? I am sure there are some unaccounted logistics that make that prohibitive though. It was announced that the High School students were returning from marching in the Thanksgiving parade in New York. Strangely I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep on the way back to ANC and catch some pictures of the sunset before arrival.



Ah back to Alaska, nothing like starting my 40 hour day in mid 80F and ending it at -20F.

roadwarrier

Brilliant!! Thank you.