Sleepless in Bangkok

This is my third trip to the Republic of Korea, commonly known as South Korea. I generally suffer from a syndrome, which I have termed as "pre-travel nervousness" . One of my friends asked me, as I have already travelled twice before, why should i still be suffering from it. I did not give her any answer. But I just pondered over, think of a woman who is about to deliver. No matter it may be her nth time delivery, she will be as much anxious as she was during her first. (Now my friend knows the answer :) )

This time I had no choice but to fly on Thai airways. The earlier two were on Singapore airlines, the best in the world. The Thai flew to Incheon international airport (S.Korea) enroute Bangkok (flight change) and Taipei in Taiwan(just a maintenance halt). I boarded the flight in Bangalore at 10.30 PM IST and the Airbus carrier A300 landed at the Bangok airport at 3.15 AM, Thailand local time. The connecting flight was at 7.15 AM local time there. The flight time from Bangalore to Bangkok was just 3 hours which did not let me sleep at all.

When I landed at the Bangkok airport I was shocked to see the scene there. The place for transit passengers was very small. There were hardly 50 seats there and the place resembled more like a railway cloak room than an international airport facility. People were sleeping everywhere, on the floors, in the restaurants, on the seats, in the childrens' play area and even in the smoking rooms. There was hardly a place to sit. I was too tired with the days activities and needed sleep badly. But there was no place even to sit. And i did not like the idea of sleeping on the floor, not that i could not get sleep but i did not want to sleep that way. So I decided to keep walking back and forth to avoid falling asleep. Ofcourse I was yawning like a jack ass all the while.

All this time I was observing the people from different parts of the world fast asleep, totally unaware of what's going around them. Some had used their cabin luggage as pillows while some others found solace in using their footware as one. Some had covered their faces with some book or paper while others hardly bothered about the ambience. A couple of them would wake up every 15-20 minutes, have a look around, ensure that they are still in this world and get back to sleep, while a few others slept like babies, too innocent for their age.

I somehow managed to spend the three and half hours there, but it was a very tiring experience there for this was one of the few instances where I was completely sleepless.