N and R Travels: Saturday and Sunday October 18th and 19th, 2014

On Saturday we boarded our plane at JFK airport in New York and flew 15 hours to Hong Kong. The route took us north, along the St. Lawrence River, on the eastern edge of Greenland, over the north pole, and then down across Siberia, Mongolia, and China. We flew Cathay Pacific, which is a great airline. We upgraded to premium economy seats, so they were a couple inches wider and had about four more inches of leg room then the regular seats. We had set ourselves up to realize that the flight would seem forever, and as a result, it was not as horrific as you might think. We enjoyed the free welcome aboard champagne and the noise cancelling headphones.
In Hong Kong, we caught the flight to Bangkok, which turned out to be the same plane and seats we had getting to Hong Kong, so the seats knew our butts well.
We took a taxi to the hotel Chatrium, which has turned out to be wonderful. After our free welcoming drink in the lobby, we were escorted to our room. There are three towers, one of which is the hotel, one is a residence, and one is a condominium. Looking at our large room, it looks like even the hotel was designed to be converted into a condo at some point We were located on the 10th floor, and had a balcony the overlooked the 6th floor swimming pool and the river.