In the terminal there's two entrances to the gates - both lead to the same gates but they're at opposite sides of the terminal. There's usually an attendant at each side, and when one side opens up the attendant makes this known to those who are standing in line. This is what happened, and after a brisk walk to the other side of the building I went from having about 70 people in front of me to having about 6.

You have to take your shoes off now before going through the metal detector. Mind you, this is more a detriment to the airport workers than an inconvenience to me. With my shoes, jacket and carry-on bag x-rayed I ambled merrily to my gate to await boarding.

While waiting I decided to crack open Murakami Haruki's Sputnik Sweetheart. He always has this knack for main characters - if they're not always likeable, at least they're quite interesting and even empathetic. I also decided depleted a few minutes by familiarizing myself with the portable CD/MP3 player I bought partially to alleviate the tedium of a 12-hour flight.

I had requested an aisle seat, and since I checked in 2 1/2 hours before the flight I was seated close to the entrance. It was a 747: Rows of 3 seats-an isle-4 seats-an isle and 3 seats. (The image seen below is located dead-center of the plane)

(image source: Thai Air Website - see below)

My seat was 41D, the farthest left of the middle 4 seats. I wanted an isle seat mainly because I have occasion to pee a lot and didn't want to be climbing over anyone's knees. A window seat didn't interest me because on transcontinental flights all you see is a whole lotta ocean, and you're flying above cloud level most of the time anyway. To my great joy, the 3 seats to my right were unclaimed when the attendants closed and locked the boarding door.

I've got a message for United Airlines and the rest - you really want to stay in business, start taking lessons from Thai Air. Man, I was only in Economy Class and I've never felt so pampered on a plane in my life.

The pilot had barely gotten the plane off the ground when the attendants (there must have been six or eight of them) start making the rounds with the drink tray. Free unlimited drinks - soda, juice or alcohol. The headphones were also free (I was charged the last time I flew with - I don't even remember the airline.) The mini bag-o-snax was unfortunately nothing to write home about (but here I am doing that very thing!)

About an hour or so into the flight dinner was served. The dispense the vegetarian special needs entrees first, then go about offering the rest of us a choice of curried chicken entree or some kind of grilled fish entree. Well, the movie Airplane had ruined me on ever eating fish on a plane, and I知 not the world's biggest seafood fan anyway (and here I am preparing to move to Japan ・go figure.) I chose the chicken, which came with rice, a roll, a small salad, mixed fruit, and some kind of cocoanut jellied thing which tasted better than my description leads you to believe. Choice of white or red wine with the meal if one so wishes. And if you finish off the votive-cup sized portion that fits on your tray an attendant has come and refilled it before you can even notice.

The in-flight movie was Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I was looking forward to seeing this movie again (though I still prefer the first movie) and figured that would pass the a fourth of the flight quickly. It was kind of fun seeing it with Japanese subtitles - it kind of prepared me for seeing Return of the King when it comes out (I'll be in Japan by then.)

LOTR:TTT was followed up by Catch Me If You Can, a pleasant movie I had the pleasure of seeing with Kyoko shortly before she returned home last December. I watched it in bits and pieces, as I was feeling sleepy and wanted to listen to the music I brought.

The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. I remember waking up at one point needing to hit the restroom. The plane was dark and silent. Just then the plane was hit with a baggage of sharp turbulence that woke everyone up with a start.

Oh, and one more thing. For all the lauding I do of Thai Air, I have to give them a tad bit of discredit. A while after Catch Me If You Can ended they put on this horrible Jean Claude Van Damme movie (pardon the redundancy) called Derailed or something. Well, this is simply not the kind of movie to show on an airplane, and with SARS threatening the world (but especially Southeast Asia.) This movie, though taking place on a train, involved not just hijacking by international terrorists, but had everyone in the train catching an incurable disease!

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