Arrived in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday morning. Our trip from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates took about 11 1/2 hours. Fortunately, we had very good flying weather, saw a sunset, moon rise, and sunrise.
Arrived at our hotel about 10 AM and slept about two hours. Met a cousin of Steve Pellettieri, our meteorologist friend today. He has a home in Bangkok and he’s retired CEO of Turner News Asia division. Spent two hours with him this morning for breakfast. The rest of the day was devoted to getting the plane ready for the next leg — fueled it, checked gauges, checked tire pressure, checked oil.
Our plan to avoid weather issues is to leave in about 30 hours, which is 1 AM October 20. There’s a curfew on arrivals at Singapore, so we have to land after 7 AM local, since it’s about a 5 1/2 hour flight. 1 AM is departure time.
Bangkok is a fabulous place to visit — clean, safe, great food. Unfortunately, many people here are also suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. We are still trying to spread the word and get people excited enough to make donations.
Tomorrow we plan to do some sightseeing; we have a guide who will meet us around 10 AM and spend about five or six hours with us.
We watched Ed and Zvi travel from India to Bangkok on Sunday, eagerly anticipating their landing watching flightradar24 only to see them “go around” and reshoot the approach and land into Bangkok, Thailand.
Thailand is an amazing country…A little history…..Beginning in the 1800s, Asian nations were gradually falling under European rule. Yet despite Europe’s growing military, economic, and political dominance in the Eastern hemisphere, one country prevailed as the sole nation untouched by colonialism; Thailand (then known as Siam). Under difficult yet unprecedented circumstances, Thailand maintained its sovereignty. Pretty interesting, considering they have to straddle both sides during WW2….Hope they have a great day Wednesday before departing at 1 am Thursday( 2pm Wednesday Eastern time)… Next up , the Republic of Singapore which is an island Country at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, and almost right on the equator!
Also checked the Donate section and see we are at almost $15,000! Keep up the great work, and tell your family and friends about this amazing odyssey, every little bit counts BIG.
Special thanks to Cousin Steve Marcopoto for catching up with Ed and Zvi for breakfast… bringing a little Jersey homestyle to our aviators now halfway around the world.
Steve Pellettiere
Appreciate your commentary and insights !
Curious as to why there was no mention of the approx. 2 day stay in India .
John K ., Basking Ridge