The Four Stooges Travel Journal's Journal (original) (raw)
The Four Stooges Travel Journal's Journal
20th May, 2008. 3:08 pm. Happy Anniversary(melibabe)
Well, actually, missed it by a day or so, but happy fifth anniversary to the return from the trip. :D
3rd December, 2003. 10:47 am. May 2/3 - Timewarp to Thailand(melibabe)
Having survived the confusion of the many interpretations of "meet at the gate," our intrepid travelers next boarded a Thai Airways jet and took their places for the very long journey to Bangkok....
We were seated in rows 34 and 35, which, although they sound as if they're fairly far back in the plane, were actually very close to the front of the coach area (near the galley). This had advantages (getting fed first) and disadvantages (having a tiny screen for movies that was sometimes partially blocked by overhead bins). 
haloedone and clayrobeson had the window and aisle in one row, with me in the window seat behind them. I had a row-mate in the aisle seat, a petite Thai woman, but she spent most of the flight so curled up in her seat that I could get in and out without disturbing her much. Both middle seats were empty (thank goodness), so there was room to spread out a bit.
The first leg of the journey was the longest - 13 (?) hours to Narita airport, Tokyo, where we stopped for re-fueling. I don't really remember feeling too stressed, however (as in "god, we're not even halfway there yet"). Perhaps it was the excitement of the trip. Perhaps it was hanging out with two cool friends. Perhaps it was the constant stream of food and drinks. Perhaps it was the movies (though I don't remember any of them except "Chicago"). Perhaps it was the nappage. :-)
In any case, it was actually a pretty pleasant flight. We kept up with the sun until we stopped in Tokyo, at which time we got to see a delightful sunset. And stretch our legs a bit as we were herded off the plane, down, around, up, and over to the waiting area. *grin* An hour later, we were back on board for the final leg to Bangkok. I do recall being a lot more tired at that point, but my internal clock was already completely out of whack and the excitement was still high, so it wasn't too bad. By the time we landed, I was more than ready to believe that it was nearly midnight on Saturday. It certainly felt as if a day and a half had gone by, rather than a mere 19 hours. *grin*
Next up... One Night in Bangkok
2nd December, 2003. 10:12 am. May 2 - Getting to L.A.(melibabe)
The day started early for me, when my friend Michelle picked me up for the ride to the airport. Checking in went smoothly, and I was happy to confirm that Delta would be able to check my bag through to Bangkok.
Things didn't start to go a bit wrong until we were already seated on the plane, and the crew discovered a mechanical problem that couldn't be fixed. Fortunately, there was an extra plane already in Atlanta (no clue why). If we had had to wait for them to fly one in, I would not have made it to LA on time for our Bangkok flight - and the next one wasn't til Monday! So instead, we just did a slow parade march from one wing of Terminal E to another, reboarded and were on our way only an hour late.
I'd called clayrobeson's cell phone when all this happened, but I wasn't sure if he'd have it with him. Got to LA and stupidly forgot to turn the phone on and check for a reply message until after I'd trekked to the international terminal. :-P Blame it on sleepiness and excitement, I guess. So he was wandering around outside my arrival terminal, looking for me and (correct me if I'm wrong) freaking out a bit cause he couldn't reach the haloedone. *grin*
A bit more Three's Company-ish comedy and finally we connected near the entry for the international security queue. Since haloedone and I had chatted about meeting at the gate, I was pretty sure she'd be there waiting, but all was not entirely well until we made it there and spotted her. :-) Whoo!!! Relief all around. Nothing left to do then but wait a little while for boarding. :-)
2nd December, 2003. 9:56 am. Retro-entries(melibabe)
I finally had the chance to show the 'rents some of our Nepal pictures while home for Thanksgiving, and I realized that I'd already started to forget some of the details of the individual days. And that is rather depressing to think about.
So... I thought it would be great if we created a series of "retro" entries here, capturing the bits'n'pieces of the days a bit more thoroughly than we had while living them. Feel free to contribute as little or as much as you like -- and if y'all find this too annoying, I'll just post 'em privately on my own journal. :-)
10th September, 2003. 6:32 pm. Pictures!(givemethewhip)
So, Klae... Did you ever send our LJ T-shirt pics in for this?
25th July, 2003. 10:50 am. Remember the box with all the little drawers that I bought?(clayrobeson)
From its new owner:
I had some friends and family over last weekend for a barbeque, and they were all like, "Hey, where'd you get that thing?" and I said, "Ya, this guy Clay brought me that from Nepal! How cool is that??" and then no fewer than three people told me, "Hey, you should keep condoms in there!"
Current mood: 
amused.
20th May, 2003. 12:05 am. Home now...(clayrobeson)
Bed now...
19th May, 2003. 10:07 pm. $25 Well Spent(melibabe)
Ah, it's good to be home. Especially good to be home three hours early, since I was able to catch the earlier flight from LAX for a mere $25 change fee.
As for the day....
It has been a VERY long Monday. 29 hours and counting, what with crossing the Date Line. We had pretty uneventful flights, although both legs (from Bangkok to Tokyo, and Tokyo to LA) were full enough that the three of us were in a row together. I think if we were all in top form again it would have been less exhausting, but it's not fun in any case. :)
The food and service didn't seem as good this time, probably due to the larger volume of passengers, but perhaps some of that impression was due to 'end of journey' syndrome rather than 'start of journey' excitement. For me, once I'm on my way home, I really just want to BE there, and that tends to make me a little less tolerant.
One very nice thing was that haloedone and I didn't end up having to pay any duty on our purchases (silk rugs included). The customs folks were very pleasant, and we were joking and chatting with them as they tried to look up the rates for the various poorly-described items on our customs card. It looked as if we were going to get by with about $40-50 in duty each, when they suddenly realized we said Nepal, not Tahiti (?) and decided that GSP applied. To everything. (Even though I'm not exactly sure that's correct... but who am I to argue with a customs agent?)
So now it's about 10pm in Atlanta. I've unpacked the clothes and other items, though the purchases are still in the big suitcase. I've called Dad to let him know I'm home safe. I've cuddled the kitties, sorted through the mail a bit (well, divided it into 'junk' and 'stuff to deal with tomorrow'). And it's still 30 minutes before I was supposed to land originally. *grin*
Sometimes the best part of the journey is coming home again.
Current mood: 
sleepy.
17th May, 2003. 7:46 am. One last (long) update...(clayrobeson)
Sorry the updates have been sparce lately. Hopefully, by the end of this you'll understand why. :)
After getting back from the rafting excursion, we had a day to recouperate before flying off to Pokhara for a day of shopping and running barefoot through a monsoon. Okay, so we didn't realize it would be a monsoon when we went out, but by the time we realized what was going on, there were fierce winds and drenching downpours. We hid out in one of the bars by the pool where the staff just looked at us and shook their heads.
The next morning we were up at the ungodly hour of 4:30 so we could be at the airport by 5:00 for our 6AM flight to Jomsom. Jomsom is this little bitty village up in a valley in the Himalayas. Flights can only get in/out between 6AM and 10AM. After 10, the winds are too strong and planes get smacked around. It was amazing looking around and seeing HUGE mountains on all sides. I took far too many pictures (surprise). After the "18 minute" walk up to the Jomsom Mountain Lodge, we were all so exhausted that we opted to sit by the pool and watch the mountains for a good part of the day. We explored around the lodge, played with the ponies, and just generally relaxed.
Up for the sunrise the next morning, we jaunted back to Pokhara for some downtime between plane flights which consisted of playing Cribbage while sitting next to the lake drinking iced tea and munching on vegetable pakoras.
Wednesday was spent wandering around Patan and revitalizing the tourist economy.
Thursday took us up to Bhodanath, the largest Stupa in Nepal, where we shopped some more, and all got food poisoning from some tainted momo sauce. Needless to say, we've been asleep, throwing up, and various other unpleasant things since then.
Everyone is pretty well recouperated now. Our plane to Bangkok leaves at 1:30, so packing is getting done.
Anyway, that's all for now.
BYE!