The trip back to Florida. Safe & Sound but exhausted.

What started out as a long trip became much longer due to a missed flight at JFK airport in New York.

We started out with an hour long drive to the Udon Thani Airport on Monday September 14th. The flight to Bangkok was the first time Phai’s sister and brother in law had been on a plane. Both are in their 50s so they were in a bit of awe. Got to Bangkok and after a short free shuttle ride to our hotel we checked in and went to the small cafe in the hotel for dinner. Good dinner and comfortable hotel rooms. It was only $40 for both rooms all taxes included. We set our alarm for 3am to get on the 4am hotel to the airport. Our flight left Bangkok on time at 6:50 am. Smooth and comfortable five hour Delta flight to Narita Japan where we changed planes and had about a two our layover. Then our 13 hour flight to JFK airport in New York. I couldn’t sleep so I watched four free movies. Thank goodness I had my Bose noise reducing headphones because there was a young child two rows in front of us that cried for about ½ of the flight. About five hours before reaching New York I went to the bathroom. They had the lights out so people could sleep and I couldn’t see anything as I started back to my seat. I felt my foot touch something and stopped. It turned out to be a passenger that had passed out in the aisle. The flight attended arrived just then and started asking if he was okay. I could not hear his response. He rolled and moved just enough for me to get by and go to my seat which was only two rows away so I could still view the event. She called for help and other flight attendants came. The guy was pretty incoherent and I was afraid they would have to make an emergency landing but after a few minutes they got him up and sat him in the attendants jump seat. He recovered some more and they helped him into the bathroom and waited to make sure he was okay when he came out. I do not know if he just fainted or had low blood sugar or what but we continued our flight. I did finally manage a couple of hours of sleep. 

Upon landing at JFK we had to wait about 20 minutes for our gate to open up. Then I went through passport control in about 5 minutes but Phai who would normally go through with me got in the immigration line with her sister and brother in law since they do not speak english. Well, that line was very long. I got our luggage and waited for them so we could go through customs. The time for our next flight was getting close (7:15 pm). Finally they cleared immigration and we hurried to the recheck counter to get our luggage onto the flight to Florida. That is when they informed us it was too late to make the flight and the next flight to Tampa was at 9am the next morning. They booked us on that flight and checked our bags for that morning  flight. We went and checked with the Hotel booking desk and it was $219 for a room for four and you have to take the sky train to a local station and then a hotel shuttle bus. We decided to wait in the airport. There was a 24 hour diner so we had dinner. Phai had a hamburger and fries and three of us had grilled cheese sandwiches and fries. I had a lemonade and they drank water. The bill with tip came to $42. Wow, I could have feed a dozen people in Thailand for that price. 

I got about two hours sleep (it was cold and we had no jackets or blankets). You can see in the photos below that the airport was not designed to make overnight stays comfortable. After a long night we went up at 6am and checked in for our flight and went through security. Our flight was supposed to leave at 9 am but our flight crew was late in arriving from another flight so we didn’t take off until 9:45. Small plane with only 19 rows but the most comfortable plane we had been on. Two seats on each side of the aisle so I wasn’t trapped in a middle seat and there was a lot of leg room. Landed about noon in Tampa and Phai’s sisters picked us up. Took us to her sister’s house were we picked up my car and finally got to our townhouse in Brandon. When we landed at Tampa it brought us to 40 hours of travel since we boarded our flight in Bangkok. 

The good news is that everything was in excellent shape in our townhouse. Turned the water on, opened windows to air it out and went to Sam’s Club to get some food. Phai was very happy that her plants not only had survived in our backyard but had grown like crazy. Phai loves her plants and spent a few hours in the evening working in the yard. Both of us had trouble sleeping even though we were so tired. Our body clocks will take a few days to adjust. 

I didn’t even the energy to turn my computer on the first full day back. I felt like I was brain dead but it is now Friday morning and we got a better nights sleep last night and feel a lot better today. 

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Phai’s sister and her husband wait for our next flight from Narita Japan to New York.

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I remember when passengers used to talk to each other in airports. Now they just look at their phones.

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I was surprised at how many people slept in the airport. 

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My brother in  law and I got a couple hours sleep same as these guys but we didn’t have blankets and it was cold on that metal window ledge. 

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Phai and her sister curl up and get some sleep. I have a lot of trouble sleeping while sitting and I am too tall and inflexible to curl up.


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