First Day of Travel: Oaxaca to Bangkok

I should preface this thread and the threads that follow by saying that there are many details I cannot include. To make it even stranger perhaps, I can't even tell you why I can't include them. But if you put two and two together it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. It's unfortunate though, as some of these aspects are by far the most fascinating parts of the whole story!

So I spent a couple of days *trying* to relax AND get everything together... get things together for going half way across the world, for preparing for the upcoming Oaxaca course, and for leaving things in order in my Oaxaca room as well as in some other places. Finally, at about the 11th hour I heard much of the information I was waiting to hear, which told me everything from what to bring and not to bring as well as other pertinent information I was waiting on. I made my hotel reservations for across Bangkok and Mexico City and wasn't able to secure Rangoon for some reasons. Then, with my bags packed, I walked towards a rooftop Italian restaurant I'd been wanting to try out, started my new book by Rory Stewart about his time in Iraq, and ventured to the closest market to pick up some more homegrown Mexican and Oaxacan items I'd been instructed to find. Nicolas, the caretaker where I am staying, had been trying to get me a van pickup that would take me straight to the airport. He couldn't call the place on the weekend and on the weekday found out that he'd actually have to arrive there directly in person, so that morning he'd bought me my round trip shuttle tickets from my pension to the airport.

I boarded the short hop of a flight to Mexico City sitting next to a woman who'd been vacationing with her family, and when I answered her that I was heading to Rangoon, she proceeded to tell me all about her family's romp in the beach and how she used to be a model in Mexico City. I got through baggage and made it out of the MX City airport, one of the most confusing and frustrating of the world I've found, and crossed a skybridge and boom, was at my hotel! I checked in, had dinner, used the steam, repacked my bags, and settled into a few hours of sleep. At 4.30 am I was up for meditation, recrossed the skybridge, renegotiated the frustrating MX City airport, and grabbed some food and Starbucks before boarding my flight to LAX (Los Angeles.) Here is the view of the MX City airport from my hotel

Although my stay in the US was not more than 4 hours, I still had to clear customs and reclaim my bag, and find my new terminal. The customs agents weren't too keen on the fact that I had just been “hanging out” in Oaxaca for a month and oh, I was going to Rangoon now to just “hang out” as well. Such is the life of traveling across the world on tourist visas. I was red flagged and went through more lines to explain why “hanging out” was my middle name. And then it only got stranger. I should have had ample time in LAX to engage in my favorite hobby of “hanging out”. Instead I had several tasks, the first which was withdrawing $300 from the ATM. Money was just being wired to my account and this was my brief window to get solid American cash. Unfortunately I was given it in all 20s and my instructions were strictly hundreds. Well, they were more than that... I needed 100 dollar bills with only certain serial numbers acceptable!!! So, jet lagged and exhausted and rather delirious, I wandered through the terminal trying to convince cash register people to change 15 twenty dollar bills into 3 C notes. I can only imagine how it must have sounded and I didn't need to look further than the various expressions I encountered... one gave me 5 full seconds of silent bewilderment before giving me a flat “no.” Finally I somehow managed to achieve this part of the mission, and boarded my plane for Tokyo.

Here on the plane I indulged in 12 hours of terrible movies from the screen in the seat in front of me. The plane was quite large and was probably only one quarter full. I arrived in Tokyo overjoyed at setting foot once again in Nippon, a spontaneous smile all over me. I wandered into every shop I could find and spoke Japanese to just about everyone I could find under any context I could think of... asking a security guard for the time or inquiring about menu choices in a restaurant. I had a very average bowl of ramen (but was overjoyed to do so!) and marveled at the conbini-style gift shops and especially the amount of omiyage boxes, which I took a picture of:

I went into a free Yahoo cafe and emailed my good friend Carl now in Beijing that I'd just arrived back in Narita. Here was that cafe:

I got several bottles of tea and walked up and down the terminal looking at everything I could and how natsukashii it was... the green and gray telephones, the formal uniform wearing 20 something Japanese girls whose sole professional function seemed to be bowing at people both real and imagined, the irashaimase's upon entering a store, the sento (which ah, I did not have time for), the formal way of announcing the price and my change and presenting me the purchased good with a neat fold over of the bag, a staple, an enclosed receipt and bow. Exhausted I stepped into my Japan Airlines (JAL) flight to Bangkok. I felt rather special to even be on a JAL flight... JAL is the Yomiuri Giants of airline travel in Japan, meaning that it's the popular choice-- even that is a huge understatement. When something becomes popular in Japan, it's really really popular, and despite any rationality of quality or expense, this is the one to chose (besides for the inevitable but small “anti-Giants” and the like that spring up). I'd never flown JAL before because living in Japan, it was always a good $1-300 more to anywhere I ever wanted to go. And it seemed over half of my female students career hope and dream had always been to be a JAL flight attendant. Oh, and here was my ramen!

And here I was on a JAL flight at last, and yes, all the attendants were attractive young women in neat uniforms and with impeccable manners (though as the flight went on I realized just about all of them were Thai... another not-so-much shock after living in Japan-- though Pinay may have been even more appropriate!) The style was also undeniably Japanese! Extremely formal and rule driven, and when the seat belt sign went off, everyone must be in their seats at that instant! A far cry from Air India. I was immediately (and experientially) reminded of the many times in Tokyo my friends and I would try to not follow what we considered ridiculous rules, only to be made to feel like the arrogant and brutish gaijin that we were! The JAL plane had a video screen in each seat, and in addition to a dozen movies in several different languages, there were also several video games, as well as a live shot looking ahead and below our aircraft!


I arrived in Bangkok having watched several more incredibly awful movies without sleep. It had now been about 34 hours of travel from Mexico City alone, not including the first or last flights of my trip. I waited in a long customs line and went out in that indescribable Bangkok air... that steamy and seamy atmosphere that seems to grip every pore of your skin and lets you know exactly where you are and where you have been lest you ever forget. The shuttles had closed so I avoided the limousine lines and took a taxi. The driver was like any other Thai cab driver I've known and let me know where I was after a few years once again. He laughed and said few words between his few teeth and dropped me off at the very high class Landmark Hotel in downtown. Koh San no more for me... at least not this moment. I hauled out my two backpacks and checked into the counter, which took me to the Executive counter on the 31st floor, got my keys and fell into bed. Here is the view I saw:

I was far too agitated to sleep and could have run around all night, though far too exhausted to move all at once. I was in bed after one am and up again about 6 am wide awake, not aware if I'd had any sleep at all. I parted the blinds and saw Bangkok in all her urban and polluted glory before me. I saw something like this: