We are off again. This time for 2 months starting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and ending up in Bali. We’ve been looking forward to this trip for 3 years now! It’s been canceled and postponed twice now. We are excited to be able to finally go back to visit one of our favorite parts of the world.

We are flying out of Charlotte because we were able to get flights to Bangkok with only one stop in Munich. And honestly, Charlotte is just a much better airport and preferable to Asheville. We rent a car – fortunately Budget had plenty of cars when we went to pick ours up this morning – and then drive the 2 hours to the airport. Super simple. A quick stop at Owen’s Park for garbage disposal and we were on our way – learning a new way out of the Park back to US 70 and then onto I-40. Super easy. Traffic was breeze until we hit 85 in Charlotte, then it was bumper to bumper for a while in our direction, and nearly dead stop in the opposite direction. Yikes! But, we still made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.  

Checking in was a breeze. We upgraded to business class on the Charlotte to Munich flight so we could have the lie flat seats and hopefully sleep a little better on the 8 hours flight, so we got to walk right up to the Business check in, avoiding the long coach line. Plus, a huge bonus, they were able to check our bags all the way through the Chiang Mai, even though the Bangkok to Chiang Mai flight was booked separately. Such a relief that we can just transfer in Bangkok and not have to claim our bags and go up to reservations and recheck them, then go back through security all over again.

Another bonus is that the tickets gave us priority access to the lounge in Charlotte. We have access through the Priority pass, but with the business class tickets we were allowed to walk right in where as others ahead of us were put on a wait list of 45 minutes before entering. Already the upgrade price is being paid off!

The flight is delightful. We are in the first row in business class with all the room in the world, and yes, those seats really do lie flat and are heavenly. Plus the food – filet and this great pumpkin spice cheesecake. And fresh fruit for breakfast. Yum. Well worth the price to upgrade.  

And this flight has the under plane camera turned on which is totally cool. As we are landing we can watch the landscape speed by, as well as watch as the front landing gear actually hits the ground.   

Arriving in Munich right on time, we have a 4 hour layover and once again, the upgrade comes through. We are allowed to access the Lufthansa business lounge which has good food and drinks, and is a few gates down from our Bangkok flight gate. Perfect! Otherwise we would have had to go to the other terminal on a shuttle to access our Priority Lounge.

With an hour still left before boarding, we decide to just go out and walk the terminals to get some exercise after sitting for so long. Up and down we walk, which lets us stretch our muscles and gives us something to do other than sit and eat in the lounge. As it is getting close to boarding time, we head back to our gate, asking the gate agent if there is any chance of upgrading on this flight. Sadly there is not, so we are stuck in the back of the plane in a row of 3. We booked the aisle seats hoping against hope that the middle seat wouldn’t fill, but this flight is sold out, so we know we’ll have to switch seats and have a full row. Bummer.

As we wait, the whole flight crew arrives, and then goes and sits down. Um. Not good. We watch the pilots all congregate around the gate area, looking at some piece of paper. Definitely not good. And as it turns out, no, it is really not good. The flight is delayed. The next update will be at 2pm. It’s 12:30 now. Sigh. On the bright side, we have plenty of time to make our Chiang Mai flight – so far at least – and the airline did give us 15 euros each in vouchers for food – which was nice. They told us at the gate that we needed to go to the Lufthansa service desk to get the vouchers, so we all trotted over there, standing in a crazy long line with just 2 representatives, 1 of whom was totally taken up with a family who needed to get to Bangkok but had been having a ton of problems with flights. After about 10 minutes, the customer service lady finally came on the loudspeaker and told us that the voucher was already on our boarding pass, we just needed to go show the pass. Okay then. But of course, by then, a ton of the plane had obviously already figured that out, and the lines for the restaurants were huge. Oh well, we’re not going anywhere. We ended up at this cafe/bar where we got a pretzel, beer, wine and because we still had money on the voucher the sweet cashier said we should have water. Ok – it’s free – we’re good!

Arriving back at the gate, there is still no sign of the plane or the crew. About 20 minutes or so later, here they all come walking like little ducks in a row back to the gate area where the attendants stood up against the wall in a line, while the pilots all conferred with each other once again reading some sort of notes or something they were handed from the ground staff. Still no plane. Ed went over to watch the proceedings and saw that the pilots were looking at schematics or something and one of the young guys (apparently the captain) signed off on something or other as the other flight deck guys urged him on. Still no plane. But the pilots, the gate attendants, all are looking out the window, searching the airport. We’re guessing they are moving the plane from the hangar, but who knows. Finally, here comes the plane with everyone in the gate area clapping! Phew – we seem to be ready at last.

Boarding commences, we get aboard as quickly as possible and grab our seats on the aisle, but of course, the flight is jam packed and we do have a seatmate. We told her it was her lucky day and she could have the aisle seat – which she was very happy about. And who wouldn’t be? Thus started our 10 1/2 last long haul to Thailand. The flight itself was fine, but the seats were, well, not business class of course! Compare and contrast…….but hey, not unexpected and we’re in the air, right now that is what matters!

Otherwise, it was bearable. Except that we just happened to be right in the middle of the cabin, and every time the food came out , they ran out at our row!  It was hysterical – well – annoying – but hysterical. Then as it turned out, my seat wouldn’t stay reclined. I couldn’t figure out why I was so uncomfortable. I’d try to sleep, end up waking up in a sitting position all twisted up. Look around and see Ed’s chair and my seatmates chair reclined, but mine upright. I’d recline again, only to find the same thing. I did mange to sleep, but still – ugh.

Breakfast came, and once again the cart was empty by the time it reached our row. The next cart came through and everyone got omelet with cheese. Somehow I, along with 3 others in same row, got a full English breakfast tray – which was horrid. Rubbery over done scrambled eggs,  icky sausage, greasy hashdbrowns and fruit that looked like it was a few days too old. Totally bizarre. Oh well, I’m not a big breakfast eater anyway, so it didn’t really matter.

Only 2 hours late arriving, we still had plenty of time before our Chiang Mai flight. We headed to the transfer section, got our International transfer stickers and made our way to the terminal and one of the lounges to hang out. Fortunately lounge we chose had great eggs, so I got something to snack on at least. And great cappuccino. It was a small lounge but with a wonderful seating arrangements, lots of couches and bench seats with tables and plants and even a window looking out onto a courtyard area where they were setting up some banquet or photo shoot or something. No bathroom in the lounge, but it was an easy walk out the door with the cutest sign out front! Gotta love Thai culture!  

Time for boarding, we head up to the transfer area where the passport control people made us show them the email that Thai Smile sent with our boarding passes. Weird. They didn’t want just the boarding pass which we had on our phones, but had to see the email. Thank heavens for wifi – otherwise whatever would we do? They were definitely not letting us through to security until we showed them our email. Finally past the passport police, we went through to security where we ended up losing all 4 water bottles I’d been hoarding. Sigh. It’s been too long since we’ve done this transfer in Bangkok, and I obviously forgot all about that! (Somewhere in my little mind I seem to remember going through a transfer security where we could keep our water bottles, but I’ll be darned if I can remember where! Oh well – it was all free water and we know we can buy more cheaply when we get to Chiang Mai, but still!)

Another packed flight, but an easy one of 1 hour and 15 minutes. We’re served a snack, which is a yummy cake with juice cup (how they can do this and US carriers can’t is just incredible to us) and we are landing in Chiang Mai before we know it. Off to the International transfer area, our bags come right away – huge sigh of relief – and we are out into the arrivals area making our way down the long hall to the domestic terminal to grab a taxi into town.

It seems like only months ago we were here last, but it has been almost 4 years now. Truly incredible how it feels so normal and natural to be back on this side of the globe, looking forward to 2 weeks re-exploring one of our favorite places in teh world!