To me, it really feels more like today, in Bangkok, is the second day instead of the third, but that’s what happens when you spend more than 24 hours flying to the other side of the world.

Arriving in Seoul yesterday afternoon had some interesting revelations for me. The approach lights for the airport appear to be in the ocean, which never occurred to me. There were also lights on the water that seemed to guide the water traffic as well. Flying in, I noticed a section of the city that was entirely uniform in type and size of the buildings.

The airport was very quiet and clean. From the outside it looks like every other airport I’ve seen, but the inside was beautiful. It had all the shopping stuff you expect to see in an airport, but it also has free nap lounges, internet areas with comfortable chairs and beanbags, and nice big chairs near one of the food places.

I didn’t sleep at all for the 13 hour flight to Seoul. This worked out pretty well as then I was ready to sleep when our 6 hour flight to Bangkok took off at 8 pm Seoul time. Instead of sleeping on the long flight, I caught up on all the movies Ryan and Holly have managed to see without me. 13 hours, 6 movies (Fahrenheit 451, Solo, Ready Player One, Mary Shelley, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Breaking In), and 3 TV shows (How I Met Your Mother X2, and one of Big Bang Theory), plus a lot of wiggling. I’m sure the poor man in the seat next to me wanted to clobber me, but he was very polite. He didn’t even get upset when the lady in the seat in front of him put her hair over the back of her seat and covered up part of his TV screen.

And to Bangkok. We got to our hotel about 2 am Thailand time, which is exactly 12 hours ahead of Minnesota. We crashed for about 2 1/2 hours and then got up and caught a taxi into Bangkok for our tour of the Floating Market and the Bridge over the river Kwai. As I type this, we are in the van between the market and the bridge.

On our way to the market, we stopped at a coconut farm where Afroza and I had Thai green curry chicken with dried fish for breakfast. Well, more specifically, I had the chicken and Afroza had the fish after I decided it was too strong for my taste.

there was a lot more that happened on that first day, but I’m going to nap for a bit now. 🙃

It’s 6:55 am and I’m waiting for both my compatriots and the first flight of my journey. Last time I traveled it was late afternoon and I was able to have a nice glass of wine to settle my nerves. Today I’ll have to settle for the hot milk that is in my latte to take care of that part.

By the calendar, I’ll be flying for about 2 days. In actuality, it’s closer to 1 day of in flight time. Three flights: Minneapolis to Chicago; Chicago to Seoul, S. Korea; Seoul to Bankok.

1 day in Bangkok for a tour of a floating market and the bridge over the river Kwai. Then a flight over to Krabi, where we will start the build.

6 days in Krabi. Building the house for our new friends and seeing some of the islands.

Back to Bangkok for approximately 2 days and then back to the States… Which in reverse calendar time takes less than 1 day for about 24 hours.

And we’re off!