I left the Sheraton Grand Sukhumvit 48 hours ago, and after that ordeal returning to Honolulu, which took almost a whole day, and another of mostly sleep, feel fine...if not great. The good news is that my Mac Air was awaiting my arrival home. That mistake served a life-changing purpose, for I thusly made a monumental decision about the future of this blog site, and others.
Returning to 48 hours ago, I woke up at 4AM Bangkok time, caught a cab to Suvarnabhumi International Airport--while no one makes this mistake, remember that there is also Don Mueang International Airport, which also flies out of the country, but those tend to be for low-cost flights--and had a satisfactory breakfast of curry over rice and salad at the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge, with a tad of sake and Singha Beer:
Even as early as 6AM, they had a full bar here.
One of the benefits of paying so much money for business class is use of the airline lounge and the fact that the seats can recline to a horizontal position if you really need to sleep. The audio-visual system on JAL is also about as good as it gets. The service was impeccable and the cuisine was truly excellent.
Save for the obvious pallor cast by the notion of covid-19, this vacation was immensely relaxing and enjoyable. While I stuck to my conviction (by many times being the only one in the crowd who wasn't wearing a face mask) that this epidemic was again an overreaction to what could have been catastrophic, but actually wasn't, I again send you to my Huffington Post article of 2011 which blamed the media for creating the swine flu pandemic of 2009, that was the return of the 1918 Spanish Flu, both caused by the H1N1 virus. So, anyway, goodbye Bangkok.
The flight to Narita International Airport was almost worth the cost. For one, the meal, here in three parts, was superb:
If you've been counting, I'm up to five drinks, and it was still morning. Then Hakushu whisky followed by Remy Martin VSOP. This 12-year old Hakushu won the World Whiskies Award in 2017. Usually, an older version of the label wins. This time it was the standard bottle sold. The Remy Martin I just had to have, for it was about a year ago that, with the same person I'm traveling with, had our most meaningful tasting in Cognac, France.
Towards the end of the flight I had a ramen with Asahi beer:
I fully expected the Sakura Lounge at Narita to be the showcase for the company, for soon to come was the Tokyo Summer Olympics. It was just the opposite. This was the worst airline lounge I've ever experienced in Japan, by far.
They only served beer, wine and sake. Now and then some sandwiches came out, and were instantly gobbled up. They were terrible to begin with, but were the only food item available. No peanuts, chips, curry over rice, sushi...nothing else. We asked why, and the response was the corona virus. I had a bottle of beer and some sochu. Oh, they also did not have any computer to use, so here I am doing this almost two days later.
I was extremely fatigued and planned to sleep through the six-hour flight to Honolulu. However, I managed to stay awake for the meal, and it was the best of this entire trip. I had promised my body some wagyu and otoro on my return home. That's just what they had, and more, with a Bloody Mary and beer:
I was not aware commercial liners flew so fast or so high:
At one point I swear I saw 39,999 feet.
I did sleep for two hours or so and awoke to take this photo of the plane right over Kauai:
I've been on a hundred flights returning from Japan, and this was the first time the plane actually went over the island. Then, Oahu:
Our JAL jet:
Finally, home to 15 Craigside with some of my purchases:
Various forms of durian, mangosteen, jack fruit and tamarind. Also, the latest Suntory Yamazaki, called Umetsu.
At the request of the administration I went yesterday to the clinic to test my vitals. Again this morning. So after a total of 14 hours sleep, I'm truly feeling fine.I might add that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is certainly taking covid-19 seriously, for the market fell 1,191 points to close at 25,767.
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