Remembering "The First Time"

The runways of Don Muang Airport are in the upper left hand corner of this shot, taken in 2003

Our Japan Air Lines flight arrived at the "old" Don Muang airport in Bangkok right on schedule at 23:40 local time, 21 hours after we'd taken off from San Francisco International to start our journey. My friend Eric had already made this 8,000 mile journey once before, and I was so glad to have him along with me on my first trip into Asia. Being detail-oriented can be a good thing when traveling into a completely foreign land, and I was so slack-jawed (and jet lagged) that I just wandered along beside him, gazing around as though I'd landed on the moon instead of Thailand.

Despite the cautionary tales I’d read online and heard from others we breezed right through our Immigration procedures - having our passports stamped and receiving our visas good for the standard 30-day tourist visit. Our luggage arrived soon after we got to the claim area, snaking through the crowd on one of those twisting, turning lengths of plates that parade the bags around and around. I was traveling relatively light, but I did have gifts for a few friends there; something I've continued to do each trip since. It doesn't take much to show you've thought of someone, and it makes points with people there the same as it would anywhere.

We walked through customs in the “Nothing to Declare” line, along with a good 75% of the rest of the folks on our plane. All earlier apprehensions about electronics, cameras, my laptop and the overall bother of a “rummage-through-your-bags-just-for-the-hell-of-it” session drifted away as we pushed out carts out through the arriving passenger area of Terminal One to the main arrival gate.

I was so happy to see my friend standing at one side to greet us that when I spotted him in the waiting crowd I nearly veered my luggage cart directly over to him behind the low barrier at the edge of the queue to say hello. Just as well I didn’t as there were people with their own carts all around me and I probably would have crippled someone with mine in the process.

My friend had stayed late at his job not far from the airport to come meet us near midnight rather than make his usual two hour commute back to his home, saying he wanted to make sure we weren't taken advantage of by the taxi drivers. He seemed a little out of his element here but I understood why when I found out it was his first trip to the international terminal too – such is the nature of English/Thai communications! Here was a living example of what I’d read about Thai hospitality.

Eric and I pushed our baggage carts out through the terminal doors and felt the wall of warm, humid air hit us. It was past midnight, but the temperature was still in the mid-80s Fahrenheit - and the humidity was so high it made the air feel heavy.

At the curb outside our "host" flagged down a taxi to get us to the Asia Hotel where we’ll be for six nights. We had a difficult time explaining to him that a total of 7 pieces of luggage large and small plus four people was going to be a stretch in a small taxi, and unfortunately put him in the embarrassing situation of having to wave the driver off after he'd parked for us. We went back into the terminal lobby and rented a minibus to take us and our junk to the hotel at a cost of Bt1,000 - about $33USD today.

The young man behind the counter at the rental agency was as close to a kathoey as I’d seen so far. Kathoeys are are an accepted part of Thai society that we'll cover properly another time, but basically the term covers a wide variety of males considered to be the third sex: many gay, some transvestites, some living as females, some making a medical transformation to “become” female - Thailand being one of a few countries fairly liberal in performing that procedure, assuming you can pay for it. This young man had a beautiful face - with skin many women would kill for - framed by long silky black hair that he repeatedly swept out of his face with long, carefully manicured and clear-lacquered nails, eyeing the two of us “white” guys and our Thai friend, giving him a “how the hell did you rate TWO?” look that my friend missed but I caught and smiled about most of the way to the van.

Once the luggage was safely loaded into the van and we were seated inside we finally had a chance to look around us and enjoy the ride out of the airport complex and onto the nearly-deserted, elevated toll expressway to the hotel. From as high up as it was it gave us a great panoramic view of the downtown skyline and night sky.

My body was howling for sleep by that point but my excitement hadn't flagged a bit as I yawned, gazed out at this new place and smiled out the window with satisfaction.

I'd made it. I was finally in Thailand!