Southeast Asia Trip - Prologue

November 7th and 8th - Flight from JFK to Bangkok

There really isn't anything that prepares you for what a 17-hour flight will be like, except for having actually been on one before. Prior to this trip I think my longest time on one flight maxed out at about ten hours. That's still a whole lot less than what we were about to do. Just making sure you have enough distractions for 17 hours is an issue. But I had that all figured out.

We were flying on Thai Airways, the only way to go non-stop to Bangkok from New York. They also had the added bonus of using their newest planes for this route that are completely pimped-out with TV screens at every seat with dozens of movies and TV episodes to choose from. I also had a couple of George Carlin CDs that my buddy Joe burned for me, a copy of Catcher In The Rye, a book of collected Monday to Friday New York Times crossword puzzles and the newest issue of No Depression music magazine that I forced myself not to crack open until we left.

And of course the Ativan for my nervous flying problem.

We had bought our tickets back in March so we got the first crack at seat choices. Second row of the economy section on the right side of the plane, one window and one aisle next to each other (a 2-4-2 configuration). Perfect, no other people next to us and no middle seat to deal with.

We were rushing around in the morning trying to get everything done before we left, so we were running a little behind. We caught the subway to the airport trying to get there at 10:00am for a 12:00 noon flight. We got to the airport about 10:30, no big problem we thought. Well, it almost turned out to be one.

Rule that I usually go by but happened to forget this time was to check on the flight status on-line before leaving. Turns out that since we had bought the tickets they changed the flight time from noon to 11:30am. But we got checked in fast so it wasn't a major issue.

Second hiccup happened when we looked at our boarding passes while in the security line. We weren't assigned to the seats I reserved at all, not even close. Somehow our seats got taken away from us and now we were in two in the middle section. I was pissed as hell. We checked at the counter at the gate and they had absolutely no answer to why it happened, nor did they have any seats left to switch us back to one of the two-seat sides.

Deep breath Deni, deep breath. About to get on a super long flight for a really long vacation, gotta stay relaxed. But dammit, why do they let you pick seats on their web-site if you don't actually get to have those seats?

And the seats. You don't have any high expectations when you are flying economy about the comfort level, but international flights are usually not too bad. I think Thai Air had the least comfortable coach seats of any overseas flight I've ever been on. I'm even more comfortable on a Jet Blue flight, and they're an economy domestic airline. So weird. So many of the seats in our section also had these metal boxes under them that they took up half the space. As in the space where a tall guy puts his legs.

So I didn't get to stretch my legs out while sitting during the whole flight. That sucked.

But...

The in-flight entertainment did live up to expectations and more. Not only did I get to watch many movies - my wife Lisa and I watched Once together (had to time the pressing of the play button together so our screens were in sync. Great damn movie by the way) and I also watched Bourne Identity again along with one or two more movies I think - but they also had video games!

At first I wasn't that psyched about the video game thing, figuring it would just be a bunch of post-eighties Nintendo/Sega type games that I wouldn't be interested in. I took a scan through the menu and was shocked to find Centipede. Not my favorite game from my youth, but this was promising. I had my fingers crossed for Donkey Kong but, alas, no.

Then, I couldn't believe what I saw.

Pong!

Doesn't make up for switching our seat location or the lack of leg room, but fuck man, Pong! When was the last time you played Pong? Nineteen-seventy-what?

I think that was three of the 17 hours right there.

Next stop Bangkok.