Wednesday, July 4, 2007

That's one way of doing it...

So, as it turns out, getting to South-East Asia is no easy feat. Of course, our way may not have been the easiest way of doing it, but here's how it went:

Tuesday, July 3rd
5:00 AM - Haul ass out of bed.
5:30 AM - Drag same tired ass to airport.
7:30 AM - Clear American customs. Laugh at Kristelle when she is the only one who apparently looks sketchy enough to be searched. Laugh even harder when search includes cleavage area... never know what she might have in there!
8:00 AM - Board flight and get reasonably excited about things to come.
(Spend next 24-36 hours in plane - sleep, eat, watch movies, attempt more sleep, repeat)
3:00 PM Tokyo Time - plane lands in Tokyo. Steph's ears are completely blocked because of her cold and she wants to die. Great.
4:00 PM Still in Tokyo - Sleep in airport. Sketchy, we know... but oh so sleepy.
5:00 PM Still Tokyo - Steph is scared to get back on plane with stuffed nose and still blocked ears, so sets out on mission to find pharmacy. After extensive search of useless duty-free shops finds an information kiosk. Utters first Konocheewa (not how it's spelled... but you understand) and somehow manages to understand that there is a drugstore at terminal 56. Finds drugstore and signs to girl that she has a cold (cold??? points to nose and pretends it running - aaahhh cold!) Girl shows her where cold meds are but all boxes are in Japanese. Steph is confused, so let's girl pick. Girl picks giant horsepills with no English instructions. Steph pays 1700 Yen for pills and prays that they work. At our terminal, Steph succesfully transates instructions (with help, clearly) and takes two giant pills. Turns out, the Japanese know how to create miracle drugs for sinuses.
6:15 PM Tokyo - Board final flight to Bangkok. Try not to sleep so you can do so upon arrival. Fail miserably. Sleep for 3 hours, wake to the question "Chicken or Beef?", scarf down food, and promptly fall back asleep.
11:15 PM Bangkok Time - Land in Bangkok. Clear customs (and get pissed at guy for STAPLING your bloody passport!) and exit airport.
11:45 PM - Get dropped off at wrong hotel. Walk with nice doorman to correct hotel. Check in.
12:00 AM - Find smelly room on 4th floor and attempt to air it out.
12:30 AM - Since phones are much too complicated, head to internet cafe (FULL of people laying Warcraft, by the way) to reassure parents that we are not dead.
1:00 AM - Go back to hotel and attend to Josee-Anne's exploded stuff then try to sleep in the stifling heat/humidity.

Right... so, surely, you can all come up with far easier ways of getting here, but where would we be without a little adventure. Now, we are off to take a boat to a train to a park to a snake farm.

We'll attempt calling again when we can figure out the phone system... maybe.

Steph, Kris and Josie

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude if i lived in asia id play warcraft all day too. id prolly be a level 68 night elf druid... oh man id be cool.
snake farm eh? i just watched an episode of csi ny with snakes on it. it was excellent. have fun with the cobrasss

heather

Gabrielle said...

ALLO ALLO ALLO!!

Bon premierement je suis EXTRA fiere detre la premiere a ecrire sur le blog. Je sais je sais, ya pas Kristelle pour competitionner avec moi. Mais ya quand meme Joahnne!
Et puis Steph je voulais menregistrer sous le nom de Gab Pat Steph mais on dirait que ca marchait po!
Les filles je suis tellement contente de vous lire!! Toute une affaire se rendre en Asie!
Bon, pour ma part les choses vont super bien. Mon stage va mieux, bcp mieux. Et puis jai maintenant internet chez mon papa. Hourra! Et puis, officiellement je nai plus de moustache, je vous confirme la rumeur!
hehehe
Je vous aime trop faites attention a vos reins. Ca en prend 2 chaque en revenant, ca ca veut dire 6 en tout
Mouah!
xox
El cheapo

Gabrielle said...

OH NO!! HEATHER this is not fair! You cant just write while I am writing like this. It doesn.'t count!

Anonymous said...

i love snakes...i will write a more extensive comment later

N-Train

Anonymous said...

Good thing you are fluent in parseltongue! I really don't know if I spelled that right and I don't care, cuz I'm off the clock!

Si ça peut te consoler Gab, j'ai pensé que j'allais être la première et me voici en cinquième place ;o(

For those of you who are wondering, 17000 yen translates to 15 bucks for cold pills... Oh dear!

Did the customs guy who stapled your passport look like the customs lady who searched Kristelle? Sounds like they are made for each other.

I enjoyed our chat on MSN ladies!

Happy (safe) travels

Love you all,

Jo

Anonymous said...

Ladies, I applaud your success in getting half way around the world without getting lost. Well, majorly lost that is. The wrong hotel is kind of humorous.

Sounds like you all recovered fairly well and are heading out to a snake-farm... what good is farming snakes? Maybe it has something to do with their rat problem, you know with all the floods and stuff haha ;)

Yes, mass flooding will be my running theme for this adventure, please stay tuned for additional witty comments.

Love ya Jo, see you all soon.

Ash said...

Hello Ladies!!!!

First of all: Stephy --> SLEEPING IN AN AIRPORT IS SKETCHY... the wise words of somebody I know who yelled at me when I did the same thing in Europe! lol Nicely done!!!!

Secondly: Although you clearly had to have some sort of adventure getting halfway around the world, I am happy that this one did not include very larg knives and guns (the computer game doesnt count!!!)

Thirdly: Kris --> I love how the only asian is the only one who got searched... gold!!!!!
Also, third day at work, and this is the first time Ive had time to use to computer... my boss is keeping me busy..which is good cause Im not able to go through Kristelle is gone and I have no facebook buddy withdrawal!!!!

Fourthly: Jo --> How are the new clothes working out for you!!!!

Finally: I miss you guys already.

xoxo

Anonymous said...

meh... I'm not impressed

Anonymous said...

Very glad to hear that you all made it half way around the globe in one piece. Enjoy the snake farm and let me know what the sample taste like. Please keep us posted and include lots and lots of details.

Take care of youselves,
Rob.

PrincessChristy said...

Hey Girls!
Sounds like you are off to a great start, but I never had any doubt that you would your way.
Kris - don't feel bad about the search, it happens to me all the time.
And, another thing, my passport is stapled too - so what's the big deal??
Hope you are having a wonderful time and if you ever find yourselves in a situation you don't particularly enjoy...think of me and how miserable I'd be if I was there with you. That should certainly be good enough for a chuckle :)
Stay safe xoxo

Anonymous said...

Kristelle is very devious...I can see why they searched her stuff!!! Who knows what she's hiding!!!

Horsepills=not cool at all...id have to crush them and put them on iced cream

and when you folks get back I have a fantastic snake story for you :)

Anonymous said...

Hey chica chicks!
Must feel good to finally touch firm ground after so many hours of flying!

HOw's the trip so far? I heard you were already in Vietnam! Couldn't get away from that beautiful country with beautiful people eh! lol.... Anyways keep us posted, tell us all your crazy adventures and you MUST find the church of "caodaisme" which is a religion that has Victor Hugo as a god! haha

Happy travelling!

-Pat the hot half-vietnamese
-xxx-

sandierpastures said...

Hi, just bloghopping. The right way to spell that would be Konnichiwa. =)