Oh will the nightmare never end??? RNAC have lost my bags, yup, both of them! Now, all my worldly possessions are probably sitting in a baggage container somewhere in the new BKK airport. There's a whole bunch of other folks that were on the same flights as me (SFO-TPE-BKK-KTM) and they too are missing all their bags. Just my luck ... and worst of all, no one knows where the bags are. I suspect it's a combination of the fact that BKK has a new airport (and they're still working out all the huge kinks in the system), and that the RNAC flight arrived 16 hrs late ... in the process, them bags got lost!
Oh well, I guess it's time to paint the Kathmandu town red in my traveling clothes :p
Saturday, September 30, 2006
In da plane .. plane #3
I guess things are getting better now, we're flying back... the airport will have opened by the time we get to KTM ... and overall, instead of leaving at 1:30pm, we're flying out the next morning at 5am... wow, I thought I was past the days of ~17hr layovers like I had in Taipei last month... dammit, had another, and unexpected 16hrs in BKK :( I fell no remorse in saying that we were royally screwed by RNAC tonight :o)
Here's the food ... guess what we're eating at 6-7 in the AM ??? Lunch from the day before!! Damn this delayed flight!!
Here's my ode to RNAC:
dear, beloved airline R.N.A.C,
I was stuck in BKK, and you let me be.
I've been flying you for so many years,
And today, you've made so many (not me, me-no-cry),
... shed so many tears.
I swear to God (not, really) I will come aboard your planes no more,
Oh wait, actually, I'm booked on your flight Monday to Bangalore!!!
Ok, this woulda, coulda, shoulda been my last RNAC meal:
Ok, some fun stuff on the plane ... I guess there's no time like the current time (~6am) for Vat 69 whiskey for some disgruntled passengers:
I'm somewhat tempted for some good old 'russian water' myself, however, I've already lost all of my friday-ktm time, and as soon as I reach KTM, I gotta do what I came here to do... mingle, hehe.
I'm a start my minglin' right here, no time to waste, eh? I walked up to the galley to ask for a second cuppa joe... hey, I needs my caffeine! How else am I going to stay up all day in KTM after that horrendous flight + transit + flight + looooooong transit + flight :) So, I suspected that I had seen the air hostess somewhere (yup, RNAC has air hostesses), and asked her thus. She had no clue... I couldn't blame her, I mean, look at me, hehe. I told her who I was (ooh, don't that just sound so cool) and she did recognise me ... in fact, she was on our flight back from Delhi last month! So, there I was ... talkin' to her and another air hostess about our situation, about the situation in KTM, etc ... poor things, it must be quite hard for them to deal with these disgruntled pax :-/
This is me really happy and excited to be going home... yup, this is my happy face:
Ok, I hadda freshen up, and bid goodbye to the RNAC loo too:
So, with my third cup of coffee, I felt pretty confident that I could handle another day of wake up and stay up ... guess I gotta be more realistic about being confident of my own confidence levels .. oh wait, that makes my head spin... anyways, I go back to my seat for a little rest ..., and promptly fell asleep... Woke up in the nick of time though ... look at these beautiful pictures of my beautiful homeland:
डाँडा काँडाहरु
काठमाडौंको घर हरु
And yes, touchdown!!! Honey, I'm hoooooooooooooooooooooooome
Goodbye, RNAC, goodbye !!
Here's the food ... guess what we're eating at 6-7 in the AM ??? Lunch from the day before!! Damn this delayed flight!!
Here's my ode to RNAC:
dear, beloved airline R.N.A.C,
I was stuck in BKK, and you let me be.
I've been flying you for so many years,
And today, you've made so many (not me, me-no-cry),
... shed so many tears.
I swear to God (not, really) I will come aboard your planes no more,
Oh wait, actually, I'm booked on your flight Monday to Bangalore!!!
Ok, this woulda, coulda, shoulda been my last RNAC meal:
Ok, some fun stuff on the plane ... I guess there's no time like the current time (~6am) for Vat 69 whiskey for some disgruntled passengers:
I'm somewhat tempted for some good old 'russian water' myself, however, I've already lost all of my friday-ktm time, and as soon as I reach KTM, I gotta do what I came here to do... mingle, hehe.
I'm a start my minglin' right here, no time to waste, eh? I walked up to the galley to ask for a second cuppa joe... hey, I needs my caffeine! How else am I going to stay up all day in KTM after that horrendous flight + transit + flight + looooooong transit + flight :) So, I suspected that I had seen the air hostess somewhere (yup, RNAC has air hostesses), and asked her thus. She had no clue... I couldn't blame her, I mean, look at me, hehe. I told her who I was (ooh, don't that just sound so cool) and she did recognise me ... in fact, she was on our flight back from Delhi last month! So, there I was ... talkin' to her and another air hostess about our situation, about the situation in KTM, etc ... poor things, it must be quite hard for them to deal with these disgruntled pax :-/
This is me really happy and excited to be going home... yup, this is my happy face:
Ok, I hadda freshen up, and bid goodbye to the RNAC loo too:
So, with my third cup of coffee, I felt pretty confident that I could handle another day of wake up and stay up ... guess I gotta be more realistic about being confident of my own confidence levels .. oh wait, that makes my head spin... anyways, I go back to my seat for a little rest ..., and promptly fell asleep... Woke up in the nick of time though ... look at these beautiful pictures of my beautiful homeland:
डाँडा काँडाहरु
काठमाडौंको घर हरु
And yes, touchdown!!! Honey, I'm hoooooooooooooooooooooooome
Goodbye, RNAC, goodbye !!
Nightmare in Bangkok ...
Whoa, there's someone holding up a sign for my connecting flight -- am I gonna get expedited processing thru' to my other plane, yippee :) Hmm, ok, we gotta wait for the 8 other ppl who're also making the same connection as myself. Waiting, waiting, waiting. I learn that our connecting flight has been delayed. So, this is somewhat good... it means that Bangkok Airport + China Airlines aren't likely to misplace my luggage. Oh hey, this airport looks nice ... there's a gold temple upstairs... sweet!!
We're all here .. or, more like, all the pax are outta da plane, and there's no one else coming on our connecting flight. Ok, off we go... large group of Nepaliz trundling through the airport.
Ok, to cut a long painful story short, our plane hasn't left Nepal yet!?!?! I know... unbelievable! It'll get here later on tonight... apparently around 1am... hey, it's 1pm right now. I'm supposed to stay here in BKK for 12 hrs ?!?!? Continuing with the shortened story: they had promised a paid hotel stay earlier, but ended up not offering it ... sux! And, this is a new airport terminal building ... they opened it *yesterday* ... just my luck. Worst of all, I can't get online ... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo *gasp* oooooooooooooooooooooooooo *gasp* *gasp* oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Ok ok, it's no big deal, I can handle this. I'll take it like a man. I can handle no Internet! I was born handling no Internet!!! End of shortened story: some other ppl who've been here since last night know of this lounge area about 1/2 mile away... we trundle across, and I sleep for a while. Thank goodness for my pillow!
I wake up, and type this blog ... offline, in VIM, yeah VIM :)
Ok, here're some interesting things I saw in BKK
A buddhist monk making full use of a muslim prayer room ... all is fair in sleep and war :p
Another view of the Gold temple!! Instead of spending so much on aesthetics, the Thai airport authorities shoulda focused on setting up telephones & Internet access, no ??
A statue ... btw, there's loads and loads more in the airport! Very beautiful ... and I can't help but notice the Buddhist religious figures' similarities with Hindu ones :-/ Their names are also similar ... get this: the new airport is called Suvarnabhumi ... "auspicious ground" in Nepali!!
Guess what? My stay in BKK just reduced my KTM stay by a whole 12.5% :'(
Peace out, I'm hoping that nothing eventful will happen on the RNAC flight back to KTM. It's 7pm now, and flight's presumably @ midnight. Gettin to KTM ~3am.. sux, don't I know it!
.
.
.
Oh wait, did I say 3am. I musta been drunk, or high, or both!!! A lotta sh*t happened, and eventually the THAI airport staff told us that they've finally received confirmation that our plane had left Kathmandu, bound for Bangkok. They heard this ~10pm, so, I'm assuming the plane will arrive ~2am, and be ready to leave around ~3am, getting us to KTM ~5am. We coped with the passing time with extreme agitation. The plane arrived.
.
.
.
It takes forever, and we're still not allowed to board. Apparently, the airport tower in Kathmandu is shut down for the night, yup, I said it, friggin shut down for the night. What sorta idiot shuts down the airport after sending a plane out that they know is going to return straight away! So, it's almost 4am, and there's still talks about waiting for the 6am KTM re-opening time for the airport. It wasn't clear whether we were shooting to arrive in KTM for the opening, or whether we're gonna stay put in BKK until then, and only then actually head for KTM. This is friggin' unbelievable... but then again, I guess many things were.
I have no idea what's going on at home ... I guess they've figured that the plane was grounded for a few hours, and it's departure for BKK was delayed by 12hrs. I hope they've also found out that the plane won't return till Saturday morning. So, did I say that my cellphone didn't work in BKK ? It's all an unlikely sequence of extremely unfortunate events, hehe ... I had scheduled my VZW cellphone service to be suspended for the 3m I'm in BLR. Guess what? The suspension started approximately the same time I first found out that we were going to be stuck in BKK for a while... friggin Thailand has 007 as their access code for making international calls. WTF!!! Why can't they be consistent with the rest of the world and use + or 00 ... or atleast 011 like the US. Btw, I didn't find out it was 007 until later, much later. So, I couldn't call KTM .. and at some point, it became midnight, and hence Friday in California, and my phone stopped working!! Yep, ded phone .. D-E-D ded! Only thing it's useful for right now is to take pix and bluetooth them over to my laptop. Oh sh*t, just realised how much photo uploading is gonna suck over dialup in KTM ... yikes!!
So yeah, I couldn't call anywhere the entire day. Surprisingly there's an Internet/Phone booth at the departure gate, and the thing simply doesn't wanna accept my mastercard... yup, they should make a mastercard commercial from this ... "flying to BKK, 20hrs, delayed @ BKK, 17hrs, staring @ worthless Internet booth that doesn't accept MasterC@rd, 2hrs ... oh wait, that was meant to be priceless!!!" However, some folks had managed to scrounge up a few bahts here and there, and were able to make very short calls to home .. I inherited like 3-4 baht which was good enough for a coupla mins of Internet access... thank goodness for the GMail shortcut this booth had, thank goodness for mailing lists ... I had no money to call home, but I sho' 'nuff did have enough time to send email to a relevant group of people asking them to call home on my behalf, and pass on my msgs, hehe...
We're all here .. or, more like, all the pax are outta da plane, and there's no one else coming on our connecting flight. Ok, off we go... large group of Nepaliz trundling through the airport.
Ok, to cut a long painful story short, our plane hasn't left Nepal yet!?!?! I know... unbelievable! It'll get here later on tonight... apparently around 1am... hey, it's 1pm right now. I'm supposed to stay here in BKK for 12 hrs ?!?!? Continuing with the shortened story: they had promised a paid hotel stay earlier, but ended up not offering it ... sux! And, this is a new airport terminal building ... they opened it *yesterday* ... just my luck. Worst of all, I can't get online ... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo *gasp* oooooooooooooooooooooooooo *gasp* *gasp* oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Ok ok, it's no big deal, I can handle this. I'll take it like a man. I can handle no Internet! I was born handling no Internet!!! End of shortened story: some other ppl who've been here since last night know of this lounge area about 1/2 mile away... we trundle across, and I sleep for a while. Thank goodness for my pillow!
I wake up, and type this blog ... offline, in VIM, yeah VIM :)
Ok, here're some interesting things I saw in BKK
A buddhist monk making full use of a muslim prayer room ... all is fair in sleep and war :p
Another view of the Gold temple!! Instead of spending so much on aesthetics, the Thai airport authorities shoulda focused on setting up telephones & Internet access, no ??
A statue ... btw, there's loads and loads more in the airport! Very beautiful ... and I can't help but notice the Buddhist religious figures' similarities with Hindu ones :-/ Their names are also similar ... get this: the new airport is called Suvarnabhumi ... "auspicious ground" in Nepali!!
Guess what? My stay in BKK just reduced my KTM stay by a whole 12.5% :'(
Peace out, I'm hoping that nothing eventful will happen on the RNAC flight back to KTM. It's 7pm now, and flight's presumably @ midnight. Gettin to KTM ~3am.. sux, don't I know it!
.
.
.
Oh wait, did I say 3am. I musta been drunk, or high, or both!!! A lotta sh*t happened, and eventually the THAI airport staff told us that they've finally received confirmation that our plane had left Kathmandu, bound for Bangkok. They heard this ~10pm, so, I'm assuming the plane will arrive ~2am, and be ready to leave around ~3am, getting us to KTM ~5am. We coped with the passing time with extreme agitation. The plane arrived.
.
.
.
It takes forever, and we're still not allowed to board. Apparently, the airport tower in Kathmandu is shut down for the night, yup, I said it, friggin shut down for the night. What sorta idiot shuts down the airport after sending a plane out that they know is going to return straight away! So, it's almost 4am, and there's still talks about waiting for the 6am KTM re-opening time for the airport. It wasn't clear whether we were shooting to arrive in KTM for the opening, or whether we're gonna stay put in BKK until then, and only then actually head for KTM. This is friggin' unbelievable... but then again, I guess many things were.
I have no idea what's going on at home ... I guess they've figured that the plane was grounded for a few hours, and it's departure for BKK was delayed by 12hrs. I hope they've also found out that the plane won't return till Saturday morning. So, did I say that my cellphone didn't work in BKK ? It's all an unlikely sequence of extremely unfortunate events, hehe ... I had scheduled my VZW cellphone service to be suspended for the 3m I'm in BLR. Guess what? The suspension started approximately the same time I first found out that we were going to be stuck in BKK for a while... friggin Thailand has 007 as their access code for making international calls. WTF!!! Why can't they be consistent with the rest of the world and use + or 00 ... or atleast 011 like the US. Btw, I didn't find out it was 007 until later, much later. So, I couldn't call KTM .. and at some point, it became midnight, and hence Friday in California, and my phone stopped working!! Yep, ded phone .. D-E-D ded! Only thing it's useful for right now is to take pix and bluetooth them over to my laptop. Oh sh*t, just realised how much photo uploading is gonna suck over dialup in KTM ... yikes!!
So yeah, I couldn't call anywhere the entire day. Surprisingly there's an Internet/Phone booth at the departure gate, and the thing simply doesn't wanna accept my mastercard... yup, they should make a mastercard commercial from this ... "flying to BKK, 20hrs, delayed @ BKK, 17hrs, staring @ worthless Internet booth that doesn't accept MasterC@rd, 2hrs ... oh wait, that was meant to be priceless!!!" However, some folks had managed to scrounge up a few bahts here and there, and were able to make very short calls to home .. I inherited like 3-4 baht which was good enough for a coupla mins of Internet access... thank goodness for the GMail shortcut this booth had, thank goodness for mailing lists ... I had no money to call home, but I sho' 'nuff did have enough time to send email to a relevant group of people asking them to call home on my behalf, and pass on my msgs, hehe...
Friday, September 29, 2006
In da plane .. plane #2
So, my seat number is 6K (yayy, another window seat), and it's especially good for me given that I have a 1:15hr layover in Bangkok. So, there I was chillin' and layin' back at the gate...
Let all da other excited pax stand in line to board the plane. I really don't see any point in trying to get on the plane early ... all the pax are gonna reach the destination at the same time, hehe. But as I was saying, good thing that I'm gonna sit near the front ... it's more important to be able to "de-plane" quickly given my circumstances.
The lady at the counter insists on checking my carry-on bag... I'm like, wtf, I got a 1hr connection (the flight was supposedly gonna be 10mins late)... you're friggin' gonna lose my bag in BKK. I tried convincing her: hey, it's real light. I even opened it and showed her that it contained nothing more besides my pillow ... yup, I travel w/ a pillow ... long story ... well, 'tis the second time in my life that I've done this. So, eventually, they decide to lemme thru' bag and all, but there's a condition -- I gotta leave my bag "downstairs" and then go upstairs. WTF, I still gotta check my bag?!? Then, it hits me.. I'm sitting *upstairs* ... in a B-747... upstairs is 1st or Business class. I'm sitting there?!? Me?!? Here's what my resting place for the next few hours looks like:
I cannot believe my good fortune. Firstly, I'd like to thank GOD (no, I actually never do) for everything. I'd like to thank my fans who've stuck wid us thru' all this sh*t... yadda yadda yadda. Actually, I am really happy about this situation given that 12-hr cramp I was in earlier...
Oh, what a view from the top!!
Ok, so yeah, here I am .. mucho reclining chair, foot rest, basically the works!! And here's some pix ... ... ... oh no, I *don't* have any pix!!! Oh well ...
Oh, and the food ... haha, here I was expecting to be given a menu of items to choose from. But no, it's the same ol' protocol. Stewardess comes along with a list and asks if I ordered veggie... yes ma'am. And come food time, I still get my food before the "regulars" ... but yeah, I initially thought I was getting better fare on the "upper floor" but I guess not. You decide:
Ok, so here's a funny for y'allz ... so, y'know right, up in biznass class, ya gets to choose foods and stuff ... so, I flagged down the girl walkin' by, and axd... well, here's how the conversation done gone:
me: waitress, can I have some dessert?
her: I'm a *stewardess*, sir! We have milkshakes and ice-cream.
me: [thinking to myself: whatever, it's the same old thing .. you're gonna take my order and bring me what I want, right!!] ... yeah, about that ice-cream? Lemme get a chocolate ice-cream.
her: [chirpily] I'll bring it right away sir.
5-10 mins pass ... and a dude sets down a glass in front of me... it's not ice-cream, it's a friggin' milkshake.
me: hey wait, stewardess, I axd for ice-cream. This is a milkshake.
him: I'm a *steward*, sir!! Isn't this your ice-cream?
me: [... y'know, same old... ] Umm, yeah, ok. And no, this is a milkshake. Can I have some ice-cream?
him: I'll bring you ice-cream, sir.
*another* 5-10 mins pass ... no ice-cream in sight ... yet another dude in pilot-like uniform comes, and sets down another glass in front of me ... it's still not ice-cream, it's another friggin' milkshake.
me: hi steward ... I believe I axd for ice-cream. You didn't bring me ice-cream!!
him: I'm the purser, sir !!! And I believe this is what you asked for.
me: [Losing my cool] ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! I'VE HAD IT WITH THESE M0TH3RF*CKING SHAKES ON THIS M0TH3RF*CKING PLANE!!!
hahaha .. ok ok I admit the whole thing didn't happen ... this is a joke I heard at a comedy club recently ... modified from steaks -> shakes ... since I don't do steaks, etc.
Hey, I can't help but wonder ... does the toilet on the upper floor also have a reclining toilet seat?? Wid a footrest??? And lotsa legroom???? Hey, why not, right? It's for business people to do their, umm, business. So, I went to have a look... and boy, was I disappointed, or was I disappointed! Up here, it ain't more different than any of the old econ' loos downstairs :-/ ... ok, there's a almost-full-length mirror here, does that count as being "special?" In any case, today I became a member of the mile-high club ... mile-high, self-photography club that is, hehe, I so know what you were thinking. Naughty, naughty!!!
Ok, the in-flight entertainment service on China Airlines officially sux bigtime, yup, even in business class! The freakin' audio doesn't work half the time while they're showing the movie [X-Men ... the sequel, for those interested], and I was happy to fall back on my music, and read some of my magazines.
...
The flight's departure was delayed by more than 10 mins... it's gonna be a real tight squeeze getting my connection to Kathmandu on RNAC. I hope I do get thru'... Ok, we're close to landing now... no we're not. Mister pilot here sez that we're gonna sit it out up in the sky for ~10mins ... wtf dude, I gots me a plane to catch! So, we circle around a lot ... there's less than an hour for my connecting flight, yikes! By the time we taxi in to the gate, there's barely 40 minutes. So, apparently, top-floor business class folks are less valuable than lower-floor business class people... apparently, we have to wait until *they* clear outta da plane. I can't deal with this, I got a connection, like, *right* now !! So, they let me thru, and, yup, I'm speed-walking my way outta da aircraft...... EOM
Let all da other excited pax stand in line to board the plane. I really don't see any point in trying to get on the plane early ... all the pax are gonna reach the destination at the same time, hehe. But as I was saying, good thing that I'm gonna sit near the front ... it's more important to be able to "de-plane" quickly given my circumstances.
The lady at the counter insists on checking my carry-on bag... I'm like, wtf, I got a 1hr connection (the flight was supposedly gonna be 10mins late)... you're friggin' gonna lose my bag in BKK. I tried convincing her: hey, it's real light. I even opened it and showed her that it contained nothing more besides my pillow ... yup, I travel w/ a pillow ... long story ... well, 'tis the second time in my life that I've done this. So, eventually, they decide to lemme thru' bag and all, but there's a condition -- I gotta leave my bag "downstairs" and then go upstairs. WTF, I still gotta check my bag?!? Then, it hits me.. I'm sitting *upstairs* ... in a B-747... upstairs is 1st or Business class. I'm sitting there?!? Me?!? Here's what my resting place for the next few hours looks like:
I cannot believe my good fortune. Firstly, I'd like to thank GOD (no, I actually never do) for everything. I'd like to thank my fans who've stuck wid us thru' all this sh*t... yadda yadda yadda. Actually, I am really happy about this situation given that 12-hr cramp I was in earlier...
Oh, what a view from the top!!
Ok, so yeah, here I am .. mucho reclining chair, foot rest, basically the works!! And here's some pix ... ... ... oh no, I *don't* have any pix!!! Oh well ...
Oh, and the food ... haha, here I was expecting to be given a menu of items to choose from. But no, it's the same ol' protocol. Stewardess comes along with a list and asks if I ordered veggie... yes ma'am. And come food time, I still get my food before the "regulars" ... but yeah, I initially thought I was getting better fare on the "upper floor" but I guess not. You decide:
Ok, so here's a funny for y'allz ... so, y'know right, up in biznass class, ya gets to choose foods and stuff ... so, I flagged down the girl walkin' by, and axd... well, here's how the conversation done gone:
me: waitress, can I have some dessert?
her: I'm a *stewardess*, sir! We have milkshakes and ice-cream.
me: [thinking to myself: whatever, it's the same old thing .. you're gonna take my order and bring me what I want, right!!] ... yeah, about that ice-cream? Lemme get a chocolate ice-cream.
her: [chirpily] I'll bring it right away sir.
5-10 mins pass ... and a dude sets down a glass in front of me... it's not ice-cream, it's a friggin' milkshake.
me: hey wait, stewardess, I axd for ice-cream. This is a milkshake.
him: I'm a *steward*, sir!! Isn't this your ice-cream?
me: [... y'know, same old... ] Umm, yeah, ok. And no, this is a milkshake. Can I have some ice-cream?
him: I'll bring you ice-cream, sir.
*another* 5-10 mins pass ... no ice-cream in sight ... yet another dude in pilot-like uniform comes, and sets down another glass in front of me ... it's still not ice-cream, it's another friggin' milkshake.
me: hi steward ... I believe I axd for ice-cream. You didn't bring me ice-cream!!
him: I'm the purser, sir !!! And I believe this is what you asked for.
me: [Losing my cool] ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! I'VE HAD IT WITH THESE M0TH3RF*CKING SHAKES ON THIS M0TH3RF*CKING PLANE!!!
hahaha .. ok ok I admit the whole thing didn't happen ... this is a joke I heard at a comedy club recently ... modified from steaks -> shakes ... since I don't do steaks, etc.
Hey, I can't help but wonder ... does the toilet on the upper floor also have a reclining toilet seat?? Wid a footrest??? And lotsa legroom???? Hey, why not, right? It's for business people to do their, umm, business. So, I went to have a look... and boy, was I disappointed, or was I disappointed! Up here, it ain't more different than any of the old econ' loos downstairs :-/ ... ok, there's a almost-full-length mirror here, does that count as being "special?" In any case, today I became a member of the mile-high club ... mile-high, self-photography club that is, hehe, I so know what you were thinking. Naughty, naughty!!!
Ok, the in-flight entertainment service on China Airlines officially sux bigtime, yup, even in business class! The freakin' audio doesn't work half the time while they're showing the movie [X-Men ... the sequel, for those interested], and I was happy to fall back on my music, and read some of my magazines.
...
The flight's departure was delayed by more than 10 mins... it's gonna be a real tight squeeze getting my connection to Kathmandu on RNAC. I hope I do get thru'... Ok, we're close to landing now... no we're not. Mister pilot here sez that we're gonna sit it out up in the sky for ~10mins ... wtf dude, I gots me a plane to catch! So, we circle around a lot ... there's less than an hour for my connecting flight, yikes! By the time we taxi in to the gate, there's barely 40 minutes. So, apparently, top-floor business class folks are less valuable than lower-floor business class people... apparently, we have to wait until *they* clear outta da plane. I can't deal with this, I got a connection, like, *right* now !! So, they let me thru, and, yup, I'm speed-walking my way outta da aircraft...... EOM
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Land ahoy !!
Ok, we've landed in Taipei airport
... actually, I lied. My last few posts [well, except for frist psot] were all from here. Sorta hard to be bloggin' from 30,000' up in da air. Well, actually it is possible: Boeing / China Airlines provides Internet access for ~$27.99 for a 24-hr block. I woulda gotten that... but decided to sleep instead. Hey, I did say it was night time in Cali.
So yeah, thank goodness for the Internet, eh? Me sitting here online in the airport instead of starin' around myself at people who're also equally bored :p
So, I had done some research for the first time I was flying thru TPE. I wanted to figure out if there was a hotel or something nearby... coz I was gonna spend 17 effin' long hours in this airport. And I found some pretty useful info: a comfy place to sleep ... for free!! So, the thing is, there's a Children's Play Room that has soft rubber mats on the floor and a number of huge leather armchairs. Perfect place to sleep after a long, long flight, if you ask me.
So, here I am again in this airport... this time, my transit is much shorter, and I won't actually avail myself of the play room. However, I'm gonna walk over to take a picture or two:
... actually, I lied. My last few posts [well, except for frist psot] were all from here. Sorta hard to be bloggin' from 30,000' up in da air. Well, actually it is possible: Boeing / China Airlines provides Internet access for ~$27.99 for a 24-hr block. I woulda gotten that... but decided to sleep instead. Hey, I did say it was night time in Cali.
So yeah, thank goodness for the Internet, eh? Me sitting here online in the airport instead of starin' around myself at people who're also equally bored :p
So, I had done some research for the first time I was flying thru TPE. I wanted to figure out if there was a hotel or something nearby... coz I was gonna spend 17 effin' long hours in this airport. And I found some pretty useful info: a comfy place to sleep ... for free!! So, the thing is, there's a Children's Play Room that has soft rubber mats on the floor and a number of huge leather armchairs. Perfect place to sleep after a long, long flight, if you ask me.
So, here I am again in this airport... this time, my transit is much shorter, and I won't actually avail myself of the play room. However, I'm gonna walk over to take a picture or two:
- Hey, there's someone sleeping there already .. oops, I better switch the lights off quick ;)
- And, voila, here is where I slept the last time.. just push two of them together, and you make a nice bed:
In da plane .. plane #1
Giddamn, that was a long flight. 12:30hrs ... of cramped seating, sooooo bad food, and no personal LCD screens :'(
I am so sure I will never get decent food on planes.. last time, I tried the hindu vegetarian meal option, and I got spiced chickpeas both for dinner and breakfast!!! WTF!! This time, I was smarter, and asked for the regular vegetarian meal (VGML) ... and this sucked more... boiled veggies. Needless to say, ... actually, I won't say more :-/
So, the good thing is that I actually slept for 9hrs, and the timing coincided nicely w/ PDT nighttime.
I don't have any pictures from inside the plane .. but guess what? This is the most freaking coincidence ever [... ok, maybe only a little freaking coincidence at all... ] -- but there was this female chinese monk sitting right behind me in this flight... and she'd sat right next to me when I returned to SFO last month!! What are the chances of that?!?
And for all y'all sceptics, no, she ain't a friend of mine, and, absolutely not, we're not travelin' together.
I am so sure I will never get decent food on planes.. last time, I tried the hindu vegetarian meal option, and I got spiced chickpeas both for dinner and breakfast!!! WTF!! This time, I was smarter, and asked for the regular vegetarian meal (VGML) ... and this sucked more... boiled veggies. Needless to say, ... actually, I won't say more :-/
So, the good thing is that I actually slept for 9hrs, and the timing coincided nicely w/ PDT nighttime.
I don't have any pictures from inside the plane .. but guess what? This is the most freaking coincidence ever [... ok, maybe only a little freaking coincidence at all... ] -- but there was this female chinese monk sitting right behind me in this flight... and she'd sat right next to me when I returned to SFO last month!! What are the chances of that?!?
And for all y'all sceptics, no, she ain't a friend of mine, and, absolutely not, we're not travelin' together.
Ok, tell me what you see ..
I admit ... I have abashedly given in to the temptation of blogging ... oh wait, there never was really a temptation. But I figured that writing up a running commentary of my trip to Bangalore, India.
I got some pix... check out the race car-style lineup of the first pax on the plane... on yer marks, get set, rolllllllll ... yup, at SFO
And one of yours truly ... hehe... don't I look like some punjabi m.c. Yup, that's what 6 weeks of shaving doesn't do to you .. no no, 6 weeks of not shaving does to you, yeah, that's it!
I got some pix... check out the race car-style lineup of the first pax on the plane... on yer marks, get set, rolllllllll ... yup, at SFO
And one of yours truly ... hehe... don't I look like some punjabi m.c. Yup, that's what 6 weeks of shaving doesn't do to you .. no no, 6 weeks of not shaving does to you, yeah, that's it!
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