Traveling to Bangkok

I'm one of those people that can sleep just about anywhere.  I fell asleep before the plane left the gate and slept at least 10 of the 15 hours in route to Seoul, South Korea.  I'm serious, the flight attendants had to wake me up for every meal and snack, so yes the flight was fantastic.

My layover was at SEOUL-INCHEON [ICN] airport in South Korea and it's one my favorites thus far.  As I was standing at the security checkpoint entry pulling out all of the water, juice, etc that I hadn't finished, I heard a faint squeaky voice yelling at me for wasting money.  I swear my family [and work family] send people to annoy me in their absence wherever I go.  The voice became my new friend Lee, a 65 yr old Vietnamese woman currently residing in Gwinnett, and according to her traveling the world "now that she's divorced and free from her husband."  She's been to 59 countries and counting.  She made me do a mini photoshoot before we even made it to our gate, and I returned the favor by making her goof around with me in one of the KidsZones. I stayed with her after we arrived in Bangkok to exchange money, get our luggage, help her get thru customs which was no issue for either of us and find the driver for her tour group.

After I got settled into my hotel in Bangkok, I booked a night Tuk Tuk tour and my guide Nina was fantastic.  I saw everything from temples to scenes from Hangover 2, and everything in between.  I must say, I walked down a street with young girls on corners and men lined up them for that made me think of the documentary Sold which was by far my least favorite moment of the day.  Here are the photos I can share that won't get flagged by the internet post patrol.

The time I enjoyed most today was spent chatting with a young group of friends who pooled their resources and opened a small sushi restaurant.  We talked, joked and even danced a bit to the Bruno Mars and Bieber songs one of them was playing on his phone. They admitted none of them thought I would like the sushi so hopefully I defied a few stereotypes tonight.

Here are a few photos from my hotel in Bangkok.  It's currently 5 AM and I need to get up in 3 hrs if I'm going to make it to the river to see the long-tail speed boats before flying out to the Nan Province tomorrow. We'll see how that goes...