I just spent about 24 hours traveling from Astoria, New York, USA, to Bangkok, Thailand.

My first flight was a 15-hour long haul from JFK (departing at 1:45am) to CAN (Guangzhou, Southern China; landing at 5am local time). I was seated right in the middle of the plane, meaning between two people who themselves were on the aisles. Despite this less-than-ideal seat, the flight was very pleasant. I got some sleep in, was fed three meals (chicken fried rice, eggs with veggies and yogurt, and fish with pasta), and watched a few movies.

The second flight occurred after a 3-hour layover, but this flight was a quick three hours from Guangzhou to Bangkok. The demographics of this flight featured a remarkably large number of white twenty-somethings and the language spoken on board was predominantly English, which was a stark contrast to the first flight of the day and an indicator of the sheer number of backpackers and American tourists this area gets. Here, I got a window seat and absolutely slept through most of the flight, though I woke up just in time to be served some noodles!

Due to the fact that I technically landed in Bangkok at 10:30 in the morning, I still have another post to write today about my initial experiences in Bangkok. First, though, let’s get into the city!