The Gauntlet

I've just arrived to the Thai Airways Royal Silk Class lounge in the Bangkok airport. Actually one of the many Royal Silk Class lounges in the Bangkok airport. It's been a while since I've been thru here and they've redone the place very nicely. I'm so hungry, I'm scarfing down those little sandwiches and chicken pastries they keep warm under the lights.

It almost makes up for the 5 hours I've spent just getting here. So far I've taken one commuter flight from Chiang Mai, had my bags x-ray'd 5 times and opened and thuroughly rifled thru only the one time. I saw them pulling on rubber gloves, so I was actually pretty relieved when it was just the bag they wanted to rifle thru.

I think things have finally gotten out of hand with the US. It used to be an icon of what everyone in the world wanted. Upon returning they used to stamp your passport, Welcome Back! Now they just give you the finger and tell you to bend over, and not particularly in that order.



Thank god I upgraded my ticket and get to kick back in one of these new sweet seats. They almost recline all the way back and have build in video screens with on-demand movies and video games. This is the first time I've flown back to the states in the evening. It'll be nice to be able to sleep thru the night if I want, the red, red, red eye flight. It leaves at 8:40pm and arrives in LA 8:10pm the same day. That's 30 minutes before it leaves! I'm sure they'll make up for it in immigration, baggage claim and customs times.

Luckily, Jerry's picking me up so we can stop off for good old fashioned chocolate shakes on the way home. And hey, thanks Bill for dropping me off on the original ride out.