Seoul to Bangkok to Phuket

Incheon International Airport – Seoul, South Korea. It’s Christmas day and keeping up with our tradition we stopped at Caribou Coffee after passing through security. White Chocolate Mocha, shot of hazelnut, and moose it (extra shot of espresso), we were up way too early! The only thing missing is the chocolate covered espresso bean that you would normally get in most US locations. Mmmm.. tastes like heaven, what a great way to start off a trip.

We have been through this airport many times before, and with the amount of times we’ve flown in general one would think we have finally nailed down the proper preparations when taking a trip. Guess again! Here’s a helpful tip if you’re ever in this airport, go to an ATM BEFORE you pass through security! There is no way to take out cash otherwise. You can buy anything on that side with a credit card or Korean cash card but good luck trying to get any extra cash in your pocket.

Incheon airport does gain points aside from having a Caribou Coffee though, and that comes from having a free internet lounge complete with netbooks and comfy chairs to relax in while waiting for flight departure. All the netbooks have built-in webcams so you can chat with friends and family, next time we’ll have to get there earlier to take advantage of this.

Our first flight was 6 hours non-stop to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok via Thai Air. The food on the plane was decent and we kept ourselves occupied while watching Ice Age 3. After arriving in Bangkok we tried to find a way to kill a 5 hour layover. Or get rid of it. We attempted to get an earlier flight to Phuket, but if you’ve ever been to the Suvarnabhumi airport you will know that it is always busy with people trying to get an earlier flight or just a flight. On our way to attempt to get a better flight, we saw Jean Claude Van Dam also trying to do the same thing!

The airport cost an estimated $3.8B US, I think the money went to concrete, steel and asphalt only; being inside the airport is like being inside a dingy warehouse, at least on the domestic side… With the lack of colour it was certainly not aesthetically pleasing. So what does one do while on a layover? Drink beer, of course. We made our way to the food court to see what the cost of food and drinks were. Yup, you guessed it! Ridiculously overpriced as usual. A bottle of Beer Chang was at least 200 baht (about $6US). Maybe $6 doesn’t sound like a lot compared a beer in an airport at home, but it is when you can buy the same beer at 7-11 for 25 baht ($0.75) or 50 baht ($1.50) elsewhere in the airport.

OK, Beer Chang in hand, now to find a place to sit down and relax. What? No chairs in an $4B airport? Well the chairs that were lined against the wall were occupied by individuals sleeping on 4 chairs at a time. So what do we do now? Well that’s obvious, go stand at the suggestion box table and drink with another guy who would like to borrow a pen and fill out a suggestion ballot regarding the lack of a areas to relax and drink. So instead we had a great time at our own standing bar.

5 hours are up! Time to board our flight to Phuket! Wrong.. we are delayed for another hour. What do we do? Well that’s obvious, we walk 5 minutes to the other end of the terminal and pick up more Beer Chang.

Dammit Jay, you’re not suppose to smoke in the airport!

Jana hid in our suitcase, she really wanted to escape Seoul during Christmas, we thought it would be nice to help her out.

We finally arrive in Phuket around 10pm and make our way outside to catch a mini bus to our hotel in Karon Beach for 180 baht each ($5.40US). After an exhausting ride, we finally reach our hotel near midnight. We made it!! We quickly dropped off our bags and explored the streets to find a Christmas dinner. To our surprise, no one was serving food. So what did we have for dinner? Beer Chang and pizza from 7-11.. ooooh so exciting! But you know what? IT WAS! After a full day of travelling we were finally at our destination! After all, it could have been worse, we could’ve been in Seoul freezing in our apartment. Tomorrow’s plans? Beach day!

Happy New Year everyone, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

New Year's Eve 2008 - Bangkok, Thailand

Our last night in Thailand happened to be December 31st, 2007 and we spent the evening at Central World in Bangkok. Have you ever seen the countdown around the world on TV where they show you live footage of NYE in Times Square - New York, London-UK, Seoul-Korea, Tokyo-Japan, Sydney-Australia etc? It's even better than on TV! There were hundreds of thousands of people there having a great time, listening to the bands and waiting for the clock to strike midnight 2008 (and surprisingly, we had more elbow room than we have had in Korea and especially more than at the Seoul fireworks, wow!).

In a previous post, we mentioned that we met our friend James on the flight to Thailand, who was also an English teacher in Korea. Well, we met up with him while in Bangkok and made our way to mingle with the crowd at Central World, and of course we stopped at a 7-11 on the way for beer (in 1 square block we saw FOUR 7-11 stores, all stocked with cheap beer! :).

The theme for the countdown was Hands 2008: Bidding farewell to the old year while greeting New Year is a festive practice significantly embraced by people around the world as it’s the last biggest event of the year that leads to a fresh beginning. Hands Bangkok Countdown 2008 is designed to be an international symbol of the celebrations for Thais and visitors. Bangkok is a center of tourism in Southeast Asia, full of lively attractions and facilities for tourists. Click here for the official website.


3hrs, 56min, 11seconds to go!



Central World!



The bridge was also decorated for the event.



There were bright lights on the buildings everywhere you looked.



Krista and Prada.



Center stage, the globe was an digital display that also showed the countdown and the Hands 2008 logo.







So many people!



Ahhh Chang... how we miss your great taste..... :( If only we could get better beer here...



More lights!





It was a very large and upbeat crowd.



This was the largest LCD TV by Panasonic - they were showing a close-up of center stage as well as NYE around the world.





7minutes, 47 seconds to go!





Happy New Year 2008!!





Here is a short clip of center stage and the crowd.



It's a bit late, but Happy New Year 2008!! We miss our friends and family back home - this is our way of keeping in touch with what we have been up to during our travels (and providing info to anyone who is interested in travelling or teaching), we do encourage emails from anyone at jonandkrista@gmail.com. We also hope you will add your email to our blog list (top right of this page) you will receive an email copy of our blog posts when new ones are available.

Take care!

One Night in Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok at 11:00pm on December 22, 2007. The Suvarnabhumi Airport was so busy with fraangs (foreigners) from all over the world, carrying designer suitcases in suits to backpackers like us! After about an hour, we took a cab to Kho San Road where our guesthouse was. We expected to find Kho San Road a backpackers haven and a wild and crazy party, and what we wanted, a cold beer, what we found was even worse!

There were elections going on in Thailand, so the day before the election and the day of the election till midnight, there was prohibition! No beer!!!! We wandered around a bit, getting hassled by tuk tuk drivers who were very anxious to take us to an all night disco. Needless to say, we were less than interested!

We stayed here at the Siam Oriental , in a purple room with ac that was mostly just an exaggerated fan, and we slept on the sheet that Krista brought, we didn't want to risk the bed bugs, we were sure would bite us!

Here is the restaurant in the lobby area, looking out at Kho San Road

Looking into the building

The nicely ac computer room the signs on the pc's say that you shouldn't put coins into the floppy drive for more minutes......duh?

Krista, ready to go?!

Outdoor mini markets, food was cooked at many of these, and the dishes were washed right there on the street in buckets of water!

For the King's 80th Birthday the city was decorated with lights.

There were pictures of the king everywhere, it was really neat seeing all of the pictures, he is very loved!

The scooters were relentless, they swerved in and out of cars sometimes with up to 4 people on them! At least this couple was both wearing helmets!

In Bangkok, we took a tuk tuk to the south departing bus terminal to get an ac bus to Hua Hin. The bus trip was horible, 4 hours of stopping and starting in the middle of nowhere to pick up people, and the ac didn't work! We reached Hua Hin and from there the real vacation started!

Stay tuned..!