Life, it is often said, is about the journey and not the destination. I wouldn’t quite say that’s true, as I’m really looking forward to our destinations of Chiangmai and Lampang (Thailand), Nairobi and the Maasai Mara (Kenya), Dubai (UAE), and Athens and Santorini (Greece). But thus far, about 30 hours into our trip, the journey has been our only destination so far … and I can say it’s been made a million times easier by being on an amazing airline.

By several major strokes of good fortune, we ended up on Emirates — which we were excited about trying — and Business Class, at that … which we were VERY excited about. And I think April’s statement “Wow, this is the best coffee I’ve ever had!” sums up our experience: a mini spa-day in the air, with all details attended to perfectly.

We were picked up by their Mercedes and actually arrived at the airport with zero stress … I think a first for me. They were expecting us (that, or our Wedding World Tour t-shirts gave us away), and we did a couple of photos with the crew. Once onboard, April squealed with joy as she discovered that the seat went all the way flat, and again when opening the beautiful ‘comfort kit’ they provided.

We made friends with our primary flight attendant (she was so sweet … we will keep on touch!), had 5-course meals (I particularly loved the fantastic Port with cheese selection for dessert), and slept… a lot!! (which is why we called it ‘spa day’ … we finally got to relax!)

My only small quibble with them: they shouldn’t call it ‘business class,’ because it’s better then the First Class I’ve experienced on other airlines. We’ve been soooo happy and comfortable on what’s normally a tough journey.

Anyway, Emirates made the 16 hour flight (plus 4 hours in the Dubai lounge) and the following 5 hour flight pass in an instant, and was the perfect way to start — and continue, as Emirates is how we will fly to all those crazy destinations — our Wedding World Tour!

(Note: There are a couple of other pictures from our journey on this update post here.)

So we landed in Bangkok a few hours ago and have just now made it to Baan Orapin guesthouse in Chiang Mai. It was very stressful … we made our connecting flight (local hop) on a terrible regional airline by literally one minute, and had to pay an extra $40 for luggage on top of the extra I prepaid. But that flight wasn’t a total loss … we met an American and two new French friends, and have invited them to our Thai ceremony in a few days — which it looks like they will all attend (along with 10 of our family and 100 villagers we’ve never met). We’re super excited, and I will add some photos and links to this post later when I’m not updating the blog via my cell phone.

(Post updated 4 March 2011)