Well, after about 16h or so on the plane we made it 🙂  We arrived in Bangkok at about 9:30pm tomorrow!!  Given the trip across the International Date Line our arrival date was actually Thursday night (vs our Wednesday morning departure) and the kids were very excited to declare that they had solved the time travel problem.

The plane to Tokyo flew the polar route, and one of the options on the seat-back screen was to watch the location of the plane, so there was lots of questions about why we were going north in order to get to Japan, and what would happen when we crossed the date line, etc.  They diligently watched as we crossed, and …… nothing – except we were in tomorrow.  I guess fun to see that the small things can be so fascinating when you are not old and jaded 🙂

Thanks to some good legwork and shopping around by Laurie, and a bunch of American Express reward points we were able to fly business class – this of course made for a much more comfortable travel experience for the old guy, and the kids now believe they are all high-rollers.  I feel only marginally bad for spoiling them for their future travel companions.

We managed to find Russill with no problem (our flights connected in Tokyo) and after making our way through Thai customs, getting some local currency, and then checked-in to our hotel room we were all well beaten down and ready for a good night of sleep.

Today, our goal is to get ourselves oriented a bit, and then try and take in the Palace and hopefully a tour of the river and the Klongs that people live and travel by.  The weather outlook is for about 90F and 50% humidity, so we shall see how the Great Adventurer herself adapts 😉

Special shout out to my parents for all of their help in getting ready and to the actual flight on time.  We had so much last minute stuff to do and people to see that we definitely would not have been ready without their last-minute help – thank you.