1. Getting checked in at Bangkok Airport = 3 hours. Lots of running through airport, waiting in lines, pushing through lines, hoping and praying we do not miss our flight. Thinking to ourselves “we thought Asian countries were very efficient… guess not!”
2. Thailand to Japan = 6 Hours overnight. Guy two seats down snores the whole time, I sit awake the whole flight, crammed into the middle of the middle row. I avoid the food again since Mike got sick from our last Thai flight.
3. Layover in Japan = 9 Hours. Wonder about the exchange rate. Can not read the signs. Trade in USD and Thai Baht. Rent locker to store bag. Buy train tickets and wonder which train is ours. Tour Narita town and temple in cold for four hours, wishing I had jacket or coat. Return to airport and rent a day room. Sleep. Amazing. Order McDonalds. Mike accidentally gets Teriyaki burger instead of hamburger. Gross. Looks like mystery meat covered in sweet sauce. His stomach is still upset anyways so he doesn’t eat. Try to find something worthy to spend the rest of our Yen on. Resolved to buy candy and neck pillow since everything else is overpriced touristy knickknacks.
4. Japan to Atlanta flight = 12 Hours. Read an entire book, sleep a bit, watch man from China put ranch dressing on his brownie and actually eats it all! Then he eats butter straight from the container. Mike complains about his bad breath and wants me to trade seats. Um, no – being smelly is not incentive for me to get closer to him. I resolve to be good wife another flight instead.
5. Getting through customs and waiting for bags in Atlanta = 2 hours. Mike tells me I look like the Night of the Living Dead. Bags ends up in different part of baggage claim than were they are supposed to be. Mike’s mom has to wait an hour longer than planned. She has the cats in the car. They howl on the way home. Get stuck in traffic. Cats howl some more and attempt to escape cat carrier. We get Jim & Nick’s BBQ drive-through for lunch at 3:30PM. We go to bed from 4-9PM. Then back in bed around midnight. I’m a zombie but can’t sleep through the night.
Seriously, this part of travel is about the farthest you can get from glamorous. The saving grace was Day Room in the airport in Japan. Best invention EVER. When all you want to do is actually lay down, stretch out, and rest your eyes in a dark quiet room… it’s a shock more airports do not have these yet. You rent the rooms by the hour and it was very clean and organized. Like walking into a hotel. Some rooms have showers and bathrooms. It was about $29USD for 2 hours of bliss. They even issue you a wake up call so you do not miss your flight.
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Wow, dayroom… never heard of this, sounds awesome!