Leaving Japan
After clearing customs and security I head out to gate#38 and sit in the seat closest to a power outlet so I can plub in my iPod and watch another episode of 24. As I am watching the video a Spanish couple comes by to plug in their laptop and I help snake their cord to an open outlet. Over the next fifteen minutes three other people rush over to charge their electronic devices. Since there are no seats open most of them just leave their devices on the ground charging and go sit somewhere else. The Spanish couple sees a computer area that is free and unplug from the outlet near me and walk over to the computer desk. A few mintes later a woman, who appears to be American, sits down a seat over from me. By this time I just listening to music. I hear her say hello to someone she knows and he comes overs and sits between us. They are talking loud enough for me to hear through the headphones and are were both on the same flight in from Los Angeles. As my song is over the guy asks what time it was back in LA. I looked at my iPod and told him it was 11pm and then we all started chatting for the next two hours until our flight boarded.
The guy, Sean, is on his first trip out of the country and is meeting some friends to head to the “Full Moon Party” in Sumai (info to be added later on this event). He is ready for a week of crazy parties on the beach. He packed all his stuff, including a hardcover of the last Dark Tower book in a small backpack. Sean’s comment, “I have enough boxers and undershirts for the trip.” He probably will not even need that much since most people end up naked at the “Full Moon Party“, from what I hear. Sean works in IT for a hospital in the LA area.
The woman, Roxanne, was meeting some friends in Phuket tomorrow (Monday). In fact her flight is at 7am Monday morning and she did not know about the new airport hotel. Roxanne has recently travelled to Barcelona, Paris (for New Years), and now Thailand for two weeks. All for vacation! She works on clothing desings for ads and is also helping out on an independent film.
It was nice to have a long conversation (face to face) after two days in Japan (though not my favorite conversation) on my own. It was also interesting listening to their plans in Thailand, I offered some restaurant ideas in case they had the time. Of course I am hoping to find new ones this time around as well. I also mentioned the Thai cooking class to Roxanne and she was very interested and so I gave her the web site and all of the information I knew.
Now I am sitting on the plane, the two seats next to me are empty (awesome). There is a lot of turbulence which is making it hard to write. I am going to put the pen down and try to catch some sleep during this seven hour flight.
Six hours have now passed. Watched part of the first movie “Pirates of the Carribean, Dead Man’s Chest” and slept through the end of it and most of the second movie “Invincible“. It was nice to get some sleep on the plant to pass the time, but I hope I did not sleep too much and have trouble sleeping at the hotel. The real trip starts tomorrow. I meet John and Richard, hopefully, in the morning and it is off to Laos.
As I was filling out the immigration/customs card it dawned on me that I would have to pay the exit fee to leave Thailand tomorrow. That’s right Thailand is one of the countries that require visitors to pay a tax to leave the country. The only other country I have visted with such a policy is Costa Rica. At a cost of about $20 dollars it does not break the bank, but being in the country less than seven hour and having to pay it sort of sucks!