There are so many things I want to say about the trip to Thailand. I don't want to get bogged down with details, and yet some of those details feed the experience. I'll try to compare a little from an American perspective.

A little about me first: I travel a lot -- US, Central America, Asia, Carribean. Contrary to popular belief, I am not a millionare.. yet. I'm a software engineer, and my undergraduate degree is history with a focus on asian studies, and I can speak four languages. The thing I want to focus here is that I travel to countries like Japan or Thailand with a background that helps me adjust to those places.

The route I take when flying to Thailand is to use American Airlines (AA) and switch to Japan Airlines (JAL) or All Nippon Airlines (ANA). I do so because I like stopping over at Japan. But also the level of service in a Japanese airline is higher than an American airline. If I could go JAL the whole trip I would. Other Americans I know who live/work in Bangkok tend to use Thai Airlines the whole trip non-stop with similar quality service. But cost is a factor (Thai Air is more expensive than AA) and those Americans in BKK I know tend to be the bosses of a company and can afford a more expensive ticket. And it's the reason of cost that I go with AA as the primary carrier.

The trip takes me to Japan. Narita Airport is near Tokyo. It's a a large airport in two terminals of two buildings each. You will arrive at Terminal 2 and may have to go through security to enter the "main building" of Terminal 2. If you want to get to Terminal 1, you will need to officially enter Japan via customs and take bus 6 (yellow bus in a clearly marked section) which will take you around to the other airport. Everything is in Japanese with English being the second language. The terminal's arrival/departure screens are in both Japanese and English. Airport staff tends to be all dual language: Japanese/English. Even the cute girls at the information counter will have no trouble with English. When you arrive at Terminal 2 you will get to one area where you will see a large set of monitors with info for your next flight. If no gate is specified it's because none has been determined yet. Unless it's early in the morning, you will find several Japanese girls from the airport ready to assist you as soon as you get to those monitors.

The main building of terminal 2 has a lot of shops. You might also notice that in Japan they take personal higene (sp?) more intensely than in the states. It is not uncommon to find lots of ppl infront of the mirrors in the restroom brushing teeth, shaving, etc. Also pay attention to the icons on the stalls. There are traditional restroom stalls and westernized ones. The westernized ones you will be familiar with. The traditional ones you squat and do your business. Hey, this is crude info but when you gotta go it's important to know.

Cell phones.. US cell phone companies tend to use CDMA technology in the phones. It's good tech. The world tends to use GSM tech. Once you leave the US, you'll be entering the realm of GSM. My Droid X is CDMA and WiFi. Narita Airport does have WiFi and the Droid was able to pick up some sort of system and established a roaming connection. The connection established was weak, but it worked. The WiFi wasn't free, but I was not without communication. There are charging stations for laptops. And using a laptop to connect to a WiFi network will show something about having to use a credit card (i never used this). Contrast this with the airport in South Korea which offered free WiFi.

Starbucks is located in Terminal 1 (near the AA counter on the second floor), and several other good cafe's. But to get to terminal 1 you need to officially enter Japan through customs. Then to get back to Terminal 2 you'll need to go through security again, get into the tram which will take you around to Terminal 2.

Flight from the US (Dallas) to Narita will be around 12 hours. You cross the international date line and suddenly you lost a day.

Flight from Narita to Bangkok will be anywhere from 7 to 11 hours, depending on the time of year (winter months you'll be flying agains the Jet Stream which will slow the flight to about 350 mph instead of the approx 550 mph)

Get an aisle seat. In AA, the restrooms are small. In JAL, they can be twice as big, and way more clean. Get noise canceling headphones.. highly recommended. AA to Japan never charged for their ear buds, and JAL provides earphones. AA one time returning to the US was charging $2 for the earbuds. All the aircrafts have been 777's. All with an LCD screen. JAL and ANA both do not allow cameras to be used when taking off in Japan. They do have nose mounted cams so you can see what the plane sees. When departing, the Japanese aircrews at Narita will bow as your JAL flight is taxied out.

__________________
*~~~{==========- Death at Midnight -==========}~~~*