Briathrail // Albert 2MNG

First part is here.

The real trip effort began on February 8. I had to prep beforehand.

As my workplace was nearer to the airport (less train stations), I opted to bring my luggage to work. It wasn’t any inconvenience – the carry-on weighed less than 7kg. Thankfully my workplace wasn’t the judgy type, barely anyone gave a notice when I arrived with luggage instead of my usual shoulder bag. Well, the boss noticed – I opted out of the dinner he hosted for the non-holiday people, and he asked why, I said “I’m travelling to Bangkok, man”. He asked when, I said “tonight” and he wished me safe travels.

I went for the airport by evening. And I was at Changi by 7pm. Singapore’s public transport is very efficient. One train line and two bus hops, I was in Terminal 4 in Changi. Even more impressive was how I was through the checking lines so quickly. So I was inside, and made a beeline to the Chinese food stall to eat dinner.

I had no Nintendo Switch with me to save space in the luggage, so I spent a full hour lounging in one of the nice seats near the boarding gate grinding away at FGO, as their annual Valentine’s Day event was underway and I really wanted those materials. I got lucky and drew Bazett for the price of one Saint Quartz. Made the grind way easier due to her NP being somewhat good for aggro waves.

I then boarded the AirAsia flight to Bangkok DMK. The intercom told us that the flight had been “slightly delayed”, so I hoped that one was small or else my booked airport transfer might go bye bye. I only had a 500ml water bottle and a packet of Fisherman’s Friend (mint, always) to sate any wayward hungry feelings.

And I tried to sleep. The hard part.

See, my guided tour for Bangkok starts 9AM at February 9 (meetup @ 8.45AM). I was to arrive at Don Mueang by 1215AM the same day. Any minute of sleep time I can grab for myself would be great. So I tried to sleep once the plane got into a safe altitude (usually the time the plane intercom allows people to unclasp their seatbelts for the restroom). Thankfully the plane was chilly enough to lull me to sleep – not deep, but close enough – and by the time I woke up, it was 30 minutes to landing.

Then I looked out the window. I knew we were flying over land as there were street lights, but the lighting layout seemed strange to me. I presumed we were either flying over Malaysia towards Thailand or we were on Thai airspace already. I didn’t take pictures to preserve battery. But from the plane window, all I saw was lighting for what I saw were main streets, then a few branches of light towards what I think were major streets, then… just black. No light to be seen, nothing. Like huge gobs of area was just pitch black. So I thought, maybe we flying over a provincial or rural area, because if this was a major urbanised city the sparse lighting doesn’t make sense.

Then we landed at Don Mueang.

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