After more than a year of planning, my move to Bangkok occurred the morning of Sunday, October 30, 2005. I departed from New York, spending my final two nights in America there. As with most of my trips, visiting friends and eating food were the main pastimes. Saturday evening was a 5-course tasting menu at Blue Hill just off Washington Square. The fantastic menu and wine pairings were a perfect goodbye gift from the land of my birth.
Thankfully, Daylight Saving Time ended at 2:00 Sunday morning, giving me an extra hour’s sleep before having to head out to the airport. The friend with whom I was staying flagged a taxi while I pulled off a minor logistics miracle and got my three large/heavy suitcases, one heavy trolley bag, and fully-stuffed backpack down three flights of stairs and through the front entry doors.
A few hours later, I was situated in seat 44D aboard a THAI Airways A340-500 as we rolled down the runway for a more than seventeen hour flight to the capital of Thailand. Since the flight crossed the International Date Line, it arrived on October 31 at 4:20 pm. Exactly five years and fifteen minutes ago. My, how time flies when you’re having fun!
If you’re curious to read all the details of that flight, which has since been discontinued, check out my trip report here on airliners.net. An interesting bit of trivia, that picture above is of the actual flight I was on that day. Through sheer coincidence, a member of airliners.net was taking pictures at JFK airport that morning and shot my flight. After reading my trip report, he emailed the pictures to me.
christao408 
Happy Anniversary Chris! So looking back at the 5 years, was it anything like you had expected or anticipated it would be? I just finished reading through your trip report & thought it was so typical of your writing (nice pictures, good details, good writing…) – why you even have tons of comments too! I remember flying UA from either Chicago or SF to Hong Kong. There was “exotic Asian noodles” on the menu. It turned out to be simply instant noodles. I was crushed.
Happy Anniversary! 5 years wow.By the way your trip report was excellent. I have learned you have an eye for photos and definitely a way with word.
@ElusiveWords – That’s an interesting question, Matt. I’m not sure that when I moved here I had a really clear idea of what it would be like, despite having made a lot of effort to anticipate it. Some things – Tawn and I have a nice home where we can make coffee and biscuits on Sunday mornings while Ella Fitzgerald plays on the steros, or learning the language and being able to communicate pretty well with locals – have turned out as expected. Other things – my work arrangement by which I work remotely from my job in the US, which I only expected to last the first few months after I moved here, and the difficulties in building a group of close friends – have turned out very differently.
Five years?! Time certainly does fly when you are having fun! Hope there are many more years of fun ahead. And the photos of the flight – so nice of the photographer!
Happy Anniversary…….and yes, though time flies…enjoy every minute of it…..
@ElusiveWords – just love the term ‘Exotic Asian Noodles’ on the menu….. quite creative though!
Happy anniversary! I guess time flies by so quickly when you are having fun. Yet, so much had happened in the kingdom in these short years (red vs yellow, new airport, etc.) BTW, I have yet to post my three year anniversay with W…that’ll be next up!
I remember reading about that trip. Happy anniversary of a successful migration Chris.
Gosh, another reminder of how old we’re getting. Happy migration anniversary! So many anniversaries really. I still remember your anniversary with Tawn which you celebrated in Manila during my wedding. Maybe its just the remaining pregnancy hormones, but its getting me all teary eyed!
@tehls – Well, we managed to celebrate three anniversaries: when we met, when we did our commitment ceremony, and when we finally got married. So many dates to keep track of! @ZSA_MD – @tehls – I’ve never heard of a migration anniversary but that is a logical thing to call it.@CurryPuffy – Three years already!? I remember meeting him for the first time and you downplayed the nature of the relationship! I guess you grew on him, right? ;-P@agmhkg – I do everything I can to try and enjoy it, thanks.@murisopsis – It was a wonderful coincidence that the photographer read the report and contacted me, offering to send the pictures.@Fatcat723 – Thank you. I used to write a lot of these trip reports and finally found they were too tiring and all too often (since I was in economy most of the time!) there wasn’t really anything new to write.
wow nice!
Happy Migration Anniversary Chris! It really doesn’t feel like it’s been five years, but I guess the calendar doesn’t lie. Here’s to many more that are as happy and eventful as the last five!
@alextebow – Thank you. Perhaps within the next five the immigration laws will change and we can revert to the US.@yang1815 – All those years being away from you and Sugi. Ha ha!
@christao408 – Or just me haha.