Thailand: The Flights

In order to have a great time in Thailand, we had to make it there first. Thailand is almost exactly half-way around the world from Boston (the time difference is 11 hours), and we had to log lots of hours on 3 different planes to get there. Chris and I have been reading some biographies recently on Abigail Adams and Cornelius Vanderbilt, which are set in the early 1800s. This has helped to put some perspective on the length of our trip. Just to make it to California from the east coast before Vanderbilt and his buddies built the railroads in the 1850s took 6 months over land, 2-3 months via boat. It took John Adams 5 months once to reach Paris during the Revolutionary war. Even in peaceful times, this trip took from 6-8 weeks via boat. With that perspective, spending a little over 24 hours on a plane to get half-way around the world suddenly doesn't seem so bad.

Our first leg was a 6 hour flight from Boston to LA. We stayed in LA/San Diego for 2 nights visiting the Murrys (more on that in another post!). We then boarded a plane for a 12 hour flight from LA to Tokyo. We had a 2-hour layover in Tokyo, and then another 7.5 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok.

Chris falls into a deep-hibernation-coma-sleep as soon as the plane engine turns on. Personally, I'm not a great flier. I can't for the life of me sleep on a plane. Oh, we also had Thing One and Thing Two with us, who, turns out, also don't sleep on planes. I estimate Frankie slept a total of 4 (broken up) hours of the 27 we spent on the plane, Dex maybe 5-6. I slept probably 4 myself.

But, the good news is that we made it, recovered in our hotel in Bangkok, and were actually able to hit the town for most of the day the next day. Like Oil said, you just hold your nose and do it.

I did have a bag of tricks to make the trip a little more bearable, and in case you're interested, here's what we brought:



2 Elmo sticker books from Target, 2 pairs of scissors, 1 Kumon folding workbook (beginning Oragami), 1 Kumon color book, 1 Kumon "Let's Cut Paper" workbook (Frankie LOVES these), a Where's Waldo, assorted paper-back books, 1 new Polly Pocket toy, 1 new Pop-ables toy for Dex, 5 matchbox cars for Dex, markers, crayons, foam lettes, index cards, cards, wipes, diapers, emergency first-aid kit, snacks including fruit snacks, which I like to give the kids on take off and landing, because it makes their ears feel better), cough drops and medicine (Frankie had a cough before we left), and the secret weapon: a Dell Mini loaded with many hours of age-appropriate videos.


The bag of tricks:


One funny story about our layover in Tokyo: we had to go through security again, and while we got through with both scissors in the US security, apparently one set had a blade that was about 1/4 inch too long for Japanese standards. This was measured by a very polite, proper-looking Japanese security guard in his mid-20s by his Hello Kitty ruler. Yep, he pulled a Hello Kitty ruler out of his pocket to measure my children's scissors.



Proof we made it to Tokyo (this was the picture Frankie wanted):



All in all, the flights were not fun, but they weren't terrible either. The Jet Lag/exhaustion we felt from the flights have also not been "easy", but it hasn't slowed us down as much as we feared. And getting to see Bangkok, Thailand, and Asia in general with our kids has been priceless.