BKK

I'm HERE! Or there, to all of you. So much to blog... where do I start??

When I found my seat on the double-decker 747 in Atlanta yesterday afternoon, I was beyond dismayed to see that a young mom with a just-turned-one-year-old (who didn't have her own seat) was sitting next to me. Thankfully the seat on the other side of the mom did not have a passenger in it (believe me, she and I were both keeping our fingers crossed on that one!), so Baby Girl did in fact get her own seat. But I quickly got over my dismay as I got to know Leila (not sure how you spell her name... phonetically it's LAY-luh); she was the sweetest little girl who did not seem at all to mind the 13.5 hour flight into Tokyo. Her mom (whose name I didn't get) and her dad are both stationed 2 hours outside Tokyo with, I believe, the US Army (but it could be another branch of the US military). When Leila slept, I also managed to catch some ZZZZs, but she was awake for most of the trip, relatively happy and very active, which means her mom & I were both awake too, since she was crawling all over all the seats, whether they had people in them or not!

I bid Leila farewell in Tokyo and spent the 1.5 hours of layover wandering the hallways of Narita Airport. I just needed to walk after having been sitting (except for a few walks up & down the aisles of the plane) for half a day. The flight to Bangkok left ontime at 7p Tokyo time (=5p Bangkok time = 5a EST) and touched down in Bangkok at 11:30p, then there was Immigration, Baggage Claim, Customs, Cab, and Check-in, and I was in my apartment just shy of 24 hours after I left Atlanta.

The corporate apartment I'm staying in is GREAT! It's huge, has a little kitchen with modern appliances (like I'd cook in Thailand... I don't even cook at home!), dining area, big bedroom area with a nice comfortable bed and a sitting area, big bathroom with a very large dressing area, and a little office nook. I even have a good sized patio off the sitting area. At my complimentary breakfast this morning, I had a choice of traditional morning eats from Thailand (curried veggies), Japan (fried rice w fish), US (omlette, cereal), and Europe (fruits, pastry), so I tried a little of everything! Since I'd only gotten another 5 hours of sleep, thankfully the coffee was very European and delicious.

My panic attacks for the morning all centered around electronic connections:
1. My voltage converter won't work with my hair dryer or straightener
2. My voltage converter wouldn't work with my cell charger
3. I forgot that I will need a voltage converter for my laptop, on which I have to work all week
4. I couldn't dial the cell numbers that I have for my two Indian colleagues

The resolution to the panics, which occured over the course of the day:
1. I can shower at night and my hair will dry by morning, and it's so humid here, straightening it is probably not how I need to waste my time anyway.
2. I found a plug where my cell charger will work!!! This was my greatest concern - I can't be without contact with home for a week!
3. I talked to my colleagues (see resolution #4), and we decided we had little choice but to just take it as it comes. But later when I looked more closely at the laptop's power cord, I may not need a converter. I just need someone more electrically-savvy than me to confirm it before I plug the $8000 laptop into a wall and blow it up!
4. I got the receptionist at the front desk to help me dial the cell numbers properly, so they did finally connect, and I met the guys I'll be working with this week.

OK, that gets us through noon today. Next post will be about my adventure with my hired interpreter in Bangkok this afternoon.