On my way to Thailand

Well leaving HK was uneventful. My flight to Singapore was scheduled for 10:40 AM and the last 24 hrs I had spend trying to do a WEB check in, but there were problems with that naturally. I was booked though Air Canada and I was flying on Singapore Airlines and Air Canada's confirmation #'s wouldn't work with Singapore Air. I thought that there may be some problems checking at the airport, so I got up at 6:00AM and caught the 6:30 Shuttle to the airport and got there before 7:00AM. There wasn't a customer at the Singapore check-in counters, so I was all checked in at 7:05 and my flight didn't go until 10:30. So I had lots of time to look around at the HK airport facility and let me tell you it is an impressive sight. It's so big and the aircraft were taking off , it seemed like every few seconds.
Singapore Airlines is really something They treat you like royalty, and the flight attendants are something to behold, and this is not s sexist comment but the are all beautiful, in the flight I never saw any one of them with a hair out of place and this is 51/2 hr. flight.
Once in Singapore, in hindsight, I should have taken a couple of days to take in the sights of Singapore. As it was I had a 4 hr. wait. I landed in terminal 1 and for my flight to Koh Samui I was taking off from terminal 3. They connect up all the terminals with a rail system, it's an overhead rail system and it is slick. Both HK and Singapore terminals are two of the most slick and efficient places I have ever been in, it's really busy but it doesn't look like it, if there are any lines, you're through them before you know it. Another thing that surprised me was security, I was expecting a much more stressful time going through customs, especially Singapore, but you picked up your luggage and presented your passport and custom form and you were through. It was much more thorough going through Thailand's customs by far.
With extra time on my hands and nowhere to check in through, I 'm going to call Bangkok Airways BKA for the sake of brevity. It was a real chore to find BKA check in, they don't have a place of their own, so every time I would ask someone where BKA they would say Line 8 then I would go down to Line 8 and it would China Air and they would say Line 14 and that would be Qantas and they would say some other line and so and so on. I finally found that they were going to be at Line 13 but they wouldn't be there until 6:00PM. The departure schedule showed this line for check in for BKA. There were bunch of us waiting around for BKA to show up for check in, about 5:45 there was no one around and I was getting quite worried, so I went to line 12 and asked if they know where BKA might be and the attendant said that was her. So I let the others know. By this time I was quite worried and had visions of and old plane with passengers, freight and animals all together, anyways you know the south American vision. Was I ever wrong, the plane turned out to be an Airbus A-19 and it looked almost new. The crew was every bit as good as the Singapore Airlines crew and that airline is the one which all other are measured against. It's the first time I was fed a fish dinner in an aircraft, and a good to boot.
Arriving in Koh Samui was much like flying in to the Dominican Republic all the structures are the thatched roofs and open. Customs was more like what I expected elsewhere, for those of us with visa's they were very adamant the we were not to work and the penalties for doing so are harsh. Looking the bunch I was coming it with that didn't look to be a problem, I think there may have been a problem if anyone was asked to do any work.
Elaine and Bryan Johnstone were there to meet me, looking very tanned and relaxed, Elaine and Bryan are my friends from Courtenay that I will rooming with for the next 7 weeks.
Here in Thailand at last!!!!!!!!!!

TD