Long Journey Home

January 22, 2020 to January 23, 2020

In the afternoon of January 22nd, three months to the day after we began our adventure, we started our long return journey home. Our decision to stay our final few days in Ubon Ratchathani instead of going into Bangkok as we have in the past, was a good decision. We loved the ease of getting around Ubon compared to Bangkok. Bangkok is a fascinating city and we both love it but it’s congested, hot and vast and not easy to get around in especially with two large cardboard boxes! Plus, we had heard Bangkok was experiencing some of the worst air pollution on the planet.

We had a wonderful few final days in Ubon packing up and exploring and then we were going to fly to the Bangkok airport where we would have a few hours before our flight to Osaka which departed later that night.

The Ubon Ratchathani airport was originally a Thai Air Force airport which it still is. It was a major launch point for thousands of bombing missions by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. After the war the Thais tried out civilian flights to Vietnam which made for its “International” distinction which its sign still bears. The Vietnam flights didn’t work out and the airport went back to doubling as a Thai Air Force base as well as a civilian airport for domestic Thai flights. It’s smallish, just the right size in my opinion.

Arriving at Ubon Rathchathani International Airport.

Apart from two foreign tourists we saw at our hotel in four days we had not seen any in Ubon town. Therefore it was surprising to see that half the people in the airport were foreigners, specifically old white guys with younger Thai wives or girlfriends and a whole lot of their little kids. After talking with a couple of them I learned that most of them live in small villages or on farms way out in the countryside and not in Ubon Ratchathani itself. It was strange because we hadn’t seen that many foreigners in one spot during our entire three month trip!

We flew on Thai Smile Airlines and I was actually smiling the entire way to Bangkok. It was a happy sort of airlines, so very typically Thai. First of all we knew our baggage was way over their weight limit. We figured the worst case scenario would be that we would have to pay around $100 extra apiece. Our tickets were a mere $40 each so it was hard to swallow but we were saving quite a bit of money by not staying in Bangkok - it all evens out. One reason we thought we would be in for such a huge amount of overweight charge is because we once had the exact thing happen on Air Asia but then we were not expecting it. But, Thai Smile is a much friendlier airlines, it turned out, and they only charged us an extra $40 total! Amazing. As many times and situations as I’ve been in in S.E. Asia I still never know what will happen. This one was a nice surprise.

At the Ubon Airport. I suddenly wondered why I had carried in my panniers for hundreds of miles two sticky rice baskets when I could have purchased very similar ones at the airport.

On the short flight we were given a bag lunch consisting of a “Smile Refreshing Tissue”, a “Smile Light Meal” and a "Smile Drink” (tiny water bottle). The Smile Light Meal was a curious item; a bun filled with cream cheese and corn! The opening of the sandwich, intended or not, was in the shape of a smile, a Thai Smile I guess, and the corn became lots of crooked teeth in a very white mouth. Cream cheese with corn was new to us! In fact, I doubt we had ever considered combining the two foods. Our smiles turned to outright laughter as we flew high over dry brown rice paddies. I looked down at a road that had been a possibility for me to ride if I had stayed. It followed the Mun River. I could see it well and I pictured myself riding it alone. It was not exactly a happy picture. I took another bite of the yellow teeth and smiled about my decision to stay with Andrea. I wouldn’t have had this fun flight and she would have looked down at me on that hot dry road amidst the dry rice paddies and we both would have wondered why we were apart.

Soon we arrived in Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK). Andrea hates the airport and I rather love it. I like its futuristic design and Andrea dislikes its inefficient layout. I, of course, agree with her but I still like feeling like I’m in the film Blade Runner.

In the Bangkok Airport there was a big display for Chinese New Year, Year of the Rat.

We had a bit of time to people watch before our counter opened and people watching is superb at Suvarnabhumi Airport because it’s truly one of the great crossroads of international travelers in the world. The place is so huge that you feel as if you are in a city.

Once we were free of our checked baggage we dashed to the Magic Food Court for dinner. We had heard about this food court for years and always wanted to eat there. Finally we had time.

The Magic Food Court is full of typical Thai food and is where all the airport workers eat. The place was jammed with them and only a couple of foreigners. We walked all around the periphery looking at all the foods the various vendors offered and chose some great stuff. Mine was a curry with kabocha squash. One last meal of my favorite kind of Thai food - the kind you find on the streets all over Thailand. I never seem to get tired of it.

Magic Food Court in the Bangkok Airport is mostly for the airport employees but in my opinion is the best food in the airport and certainly the cheapest.

After feeling good with food in our bellies and happy that we had finally found and had time to eat in the famous airport employee food court we went towards security/immigration. It is the most convoluted, inefficient security/immigration procedure I know of.

First was security where one person got to keep his shoes on but another did not. Random! Then, for some unexplained reason we were directed up stairs one floor, over a bit and then back down different stairs to the level we had come from! Circuitous. The large immigration room was somewhere down there but with no one directing us it was a mad hunt for it. Fortunately we hit a bit of a lull there and we were fairly quickly spit out into a dark hallway, again with no indication as to which way to go. Worse than that, the dark and drab hallway looked as though we had entered the service area to the employee toilets. Years ago we thought the routing was ridiculous but amazingly nothing had yet changed.

After a short night with great food and drink on Japan Airlines we arrived in Osaka airport. It was 6AM. Bleary-eyed we wondered how we would fare there for another 12 hours before our next flight to LA. If it hadn’t been cold and raining hard and if the clouds hadn’t been so lazy that they were lying on the ground we would have taken a train into Osaka to explore. But it just wasn’t very appealing outside. A different time of year would have made all the difference.

Instead we wandered from deserted gate to deserted gate all day. We spread ourselves out on chairs at one gate until too many noisy people had arrived and settled in all around us to wait to board their flight at that gate. Then we’d move to another totally deserted gate area and after an hour or two of peace the whole noisy thing would start all over again.

A gate area in Osaka Airport. Quiet for the moment.

It was January 23rd and the two-week-long Chinese New Year’s celebration was to begin in earnest in two days. There were lots of Chinese people flying to China for the festivities and if the volume of their voices was an indication of their excitement then the Year of the Rat portended to be quite a year. We, however, got little to no sleep as we scurried from gate area to gate area carrying with us less and less regard for the rodent’s big year. It was a long day.

I guess I could have gargled with this tepid water but it doesn't do the job that boiling hot water does.

Osaka Airport has the nicest bathrooms I've ever experienced at an airport.

What made it the least bit fascinating was watching the quickly mounting hysteria over the virus in China which was apparently spreading quickly. More and more of the travelers surrounding us were wearing protective masks. There was an impromptu meeting of a few airline workers standing right near us and they were making some sort of plan. An hour later one of them came rushing in with a poster that had been hurriedly hand printed detailing some sort of procedure for “screening.” More and more masked travelers appeared with each new hour and when we were finally in line to board even the airline workers were wearing masks. They had clipboards with their “screening” questions attached but appropriate questions as well as English escaped them and they brushed past us but checking us off as having been screened. I thought, this is going to be quite a successful virus. I also thought we were going home just in time.

The LA airport, which I have avoided for many years due to its inefficiency was just the opposite this time. Immigration and Customs were a breeze for us! But once again we had nearly an all-day wait for our final flight to Portland and sleep was the only thing on my mind. I can’t sleep on airplanes or in airports very well so it was quite a long slog before we finally left for Portland and home.

LAX - what year was this corridor made anyway?

This was the hardest wait of all. Having been awake for more than 48 hours and so close to home and with the warm sun shining through huge windows I just wanted to lie on the floor and sleep. LAX.

Andrea’s son, Judah, had asked us beforehand if there was anything he could bring us when he picked us up at the airport. Andrea told him she wanted a burrito! True, we never see Mexican food in Asia. He indeed met us with two burritos and we ate them while waiting for our baggage. As near as I could figure, we had been awake for around 55 hours - one of the worst itineraries we have ever had because we had had to change our tickets and take whatever they could find for us. Although quite tired I was so happy to be sitting with Judah and to be finally home that, oddly, I was energized. Maybe it was the burrito.

Judah was catching a flight himself, to Los Angeles, ironically enough. So we scarfed those burritos and waited for his sister Molly to show up with her large vehicle and her bellyful of twins. A group hug on the sidewalk, heaving our boxes and bags into the back of her car, and speeding away to our home, our bed, new babies coming soon, and more burritos any damn time we want them.

lovebruce

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Bill ShaneyfeltAs a retired Gov. employee with many overseas flights, I completely sympathize with your ultra long wake cycle. Oh, yeah, and the ensuing jet lag. Glad to be done with it.

Thoroughly enjoyed following along. Thanks for all the great photos!
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4 years ago

Bruce LellmanTo Bill ShaneyfeltActually, Bill, I never get jet lag flying west to east. My secret? I sleep 16 hours straight when I get home! I wake up and enter the local time with no problem. Going east to west is a little more difficult but usually I'm so excited to be in Asia that I again just enter their time without too much of a problem.

Thank you for coming along and doing all the great identifying!
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4 years ago

Jen RahnThere's nothing like familiar faces and some good food at the end of a long journey!!

Makes me all teary remembering the gathering you and Andrea hosted at the end of Undaunted Porridge.

I will miss the inspiring and entertaining tales of Unmettled Roads, but am so happy that we will see you 2 soon to hear more stories in person!
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4 years ago

Ron SuchanekGreat journal, and exceptional writing by the both of youse. I have read a lot of cycling journals, but it was pretty cool that two sets of friends were touring at the same time.

As Augustus McCrae say, "Aye God, Woodrow, it was quite a party."
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4 years ago