And Here Comes More - June 15th

The previous day is running into this one; we crossed the International Date Line as we flew from Chicago to Seoul. Once we reached the airport in Seoul, we had a 4-hour layover. It was nice to have some time to walk around, stretch our legs, and just be off the plane. Luckily, there was a free connection to the Internet and I was able to send emails to my parents allowing them to know that I was safe thus far. And despite the fact it was 4am at home in MI, it was 4pm there. Again, we were lucky to board our flight to Bangkok on time. I’m pretty sure we must have said, “Wow, we’re going to be in Thailand in 8 hours!” Even fatigue couldn’t minimize the excitement we were all feeling.

Our flight from Seoul left at 9:55pm their time; an additional 4 hours were going to be tacked onto our travel time. Surprisingly, the time difference isn’t wearing on me too much. This is most likely due to the small naps I was able to take on the planes. I’m hoping that it doesn’t take too much out of me and the other girls so tomorrow we can get out and explore some of the infamous Bangkok, Thailand tomorrow. I’ve heard both good and awful things about this city but I will reserve my judgment for the following day. I really don’t know what to expect even though I did some prior research. All of us girls are excited and anticipating meeting the rest of our tour group. In total there will be 12 people trekking around Thailand as part of our Intrepid Tour.

At one point on the plane when the flight attendants passed out Arrival Information Forms, I was once again truly thankful to have been abroad before. I would have been lost or unaware that we needed to have these documents to actually go through Customs in Bangkok. When we arrived, we surprisingly had no issues with customs, baggage, or finding our driver. It was so cool to know that we had a driver! There was a sign with our names on it and everything. Sweet, we are VIP. All of us were soooo happy to be done traveling and out of the airplane. From the airport we were driven directly to our hotel, the Viengtai Hotel. Long story short, we all jumped directly in bed knowing we’d have a long day of exploring Bangkok tomorrow.