And so the journey starts…
With a mother’s blessing, a mass card for the intention of safe and happy travels.
With a shower curtain of rain drawn across the cabin window on take-off.
With a hurried see you all in Rome to Annie and the kids as I run for check-in 1hr10min before takeoff, from a car with petrol gauge on empty.
Bangkok airport is a busy Friday night. I sit beside a young Thai guy outside the departure lounge for the Frankfurt flight. He is very nervous, smells of Thai Whiskey, keeps gesturing with his watch & waving his ticket. I reassure him he is in the right place. Only, I am not. Apparently there are 2 flights to Frankfurt, leaving 15 minutes apart, botht listed as Thai Airways – but one is a Lufthansa codeshare. So it leaves me to mumble a goodbye and run from one side over the airport to the other. Luckily there is a delay, so I am on the plane, short of breath.
The Lufthanasa stewardess is the rudest I have ever come across. She snaps at everyone, accuses one poor woman of trying to trip her up outside the toilets and the timid Thai girl next to me gets an unwanted fish dinner because the stewardess is doing dinners FIRST before requests for drinks will be allowed.
I love it when the foreign language barrier kicks in. Suddenly there is a mystery, where before was the mundane – fasten your seatbelts please. A good view of the Swiss and Austrian Alps from above, or is it the Dolomites? Still a smattering of snow on the peaks at the beginning of summer.
-Brian
