One Hour in Bangkok

BANKGOK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Thailand -- So we went to Thailand after all.

All 'round-the-world travelers are supposed to spend time in that country. It's beautiful and cheap, the conventional wisdom goes. I'm sure that's true, but at the time we were planning this trip, political unrest had closed down the airport. I am decidedly not a fan of landing in the middle of a simmering civil war, so we plotted our trip with no sight of Siam.

From Bangkok

The airlines had other plans. It turns out our flight between Hong Kong and Delhi had a one-hour Bangkok stopover. Unfortunately, because of security concerns, they wouldn't let transiting passengers get off the plane. So we were left with one hour to look out the window at airplanes and fill out yet another of a series of swine flu quarantine forms. (No, in the last 7 days, I have not had a high fever or cough-like symptoms. Neither has anyone else I know. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.)