In the Air

It’s 3:41 AM destination (Bangkok) time, and some of us are already wide awake. We’re scheduled to land in BKK in about two hours, and we’re thrilled. This trip has been so surreal. After take-off, Thai Airways presented us with some delightful food options: Chicken Cordon Bleu or Pad Thai with Grilled Salmon. The chicken was popular amongst the group, and it has proved to be delicious! Some of us ate right before takeoff, but we still found room in our stomach. The Airbus 340-500 is equipped with state of the art entertainment systems with a variety of movies and music in both Thai and English. Some of us still had energy to catch a few flicks, while others crashed.

The next time we woke up was when the flight attendance gave us a hot towel. As you know, this indicates that the airline is ready to provide the us with the next set of meals. This time, it was either Stir Fried Noodle with Chicken or Scrambled Egg with Herb Cream Sauce. Since we had chicken last time, the obvious popular choice for the group was Scrambled Egg. Let me tell you, that Herb Cream Sauce was out of this world! A quick glance at the moving map shows that we are about half way through our pleasant journey to Bangkok.

As I had mentioned, there were a few good flicks available for viewing. I (Bay) had watched two comedy-dramas: Something Borrowed and Mekhong Full Moon. Something Borrowed was pretty good. Secretly, I enjoy watching chick flicks. The Mekhong Full Moon movie was hilarious and sad at the same time. If you haven’t seen it, I will not spoil it for you, but I highly recommend that you watch it, even if you can’t understand Thai. The subtitles were pretty accurate and funny.

As always, the experience with Thai Airways has been excellent. Matt couldn’t stop talking about how awesome the experience has been. Some of the flight attendants were wearing Thai outfits as is tradition at Thai Airways – it doesn’t get any better than that. From the good food to the comfortable leg rooms, Thai Airways has done a great job to accommodate their passengers. They’ve also done a great job at preserving the Thai culture with their manners and safety video. The safety video gave us the sense that we are in good hands and the music made everyone relax. There were Thai smiles throughout the entire segment, and that ensured us that this is going to be a pleasant flight. One of the main purpose of this trip is for us to strengthen our Thai foundation, and the atmosphere Thai Airways has provided gave us a head start of what we would expect once we land.

Supattra just walked by with a cup of noodles, and it smelled delicious! Victoria has been busy most of the flight with some of her bio-chem studies and finally just took a nap.

Believe it or not, we still have one more meal before we land. The menu shows that we will be eating Stir-fried Vermicelli with Shrimp, Egg, and Mushrooms. Yum!

So, we are expecting to see a sign that calls for “Thai-American Young Leadership” once we exit the baggage claim area. The people holding this sign will take us to the hotel for check-in and to lunch around noon. So far, all I have been talking about is eating (and of course public policy). I suspect that this is going to be a common theme throughout the entire trip. The good news is that this is delicious authentic Thai food, and it’s hard for some of us to say no. We’ll check back in after we land.

Bay