Good Afternoon / Evening / Morning / whatever. I'm writing this from 34000 ft above the Pacific Ocean, SFO is about 2011 miles behind me and Tokyo is fast approaching at a rate of 521 MPH, just about 3181 miles ahead.
It's been a LONG trip, but a good one, and certainly not devoid of the required amount of crazy that all my trips seem to include. Let me 'splain:
CMH ---> ORD = Delayed. I was supposed to leave at 10:35, my plane wasn't there until 11:30. I left by 3rd. Although, I was intended to make my next connection at ORD at 12:30 (really 1:30 Ohio Time) Thunderstormes held us up un the tarmac. We are not alowed to dock with the jetway within 15 minutes of a lightening strike within 5 miles of the airport.... so we had to wait for our 15 minutes to be up. I arrived at my next connection (which was in an entirely different concourse, requiring a jog under the tarmac) and the gate was already closed however, the plane was not yet sealed up so they held up for me, boarding me with not a second to spare.
However impeccable the timing on my part, I cannot say the same thing for my siutcase, but this is not all bad. I arrived at LAX airport with an 18 hour layover, I wanted to go out and see the city, and to do that I would need to check my baggage somewhere, but that would cost me money. A quick ckeck at the Kiosk told be that my bag was lagging behind about 1200 miles, due to the rediculously fast plane change in Chicago. Although, that sounds bad, it just meant that United would hold my bag for me and keep it safe until I was able to pick it up. Problem Solved.
LA was an amazing city. I couldn't decide of I was in Mexico or South Korea. Sometimes it was difficult to find a street sign ot advertisement that was not written in spanish, korean, or some other asian dialect. Needless to say, I got through the city just fine. I left the airport and explored the area for the better part of my 18 hour layover. there were several site that I wanted to see. One of them was the corner of Hollywood and Vine (really it's a dirty, more or less anticlimactic corner); I took the metro there, and as I approached I had a few stereotype of what it might be, you know, lights cameras, scantily-clad actors, that sort of thing. But I reasoned with myself that stereotype like this were just not practical. Well.... I thought. That is, until I approached the exit of the metro and found myself in the midst of scaffolds, wires, cameras, lights, actors, and busy crewmen finishing the last touches of a shoot for a music video. Scantily-clad, almost-dressed actresses and everything, this was hollywood, much to my surprise.
I returned to the airport after a long afternoon and evening of metro-riding and walking. In the morning I took the easier flight into San Francisco (leaving at 6am rather than 8:02. We flew out over the San Fernando valley and the Pacific Ocean watching a breath-taking sunrise over rippling clouds, framed by mountains breaking through the clouds.
San Francisco Int'l Airport is nothing short of sweet, so the 6 hours spent there were well enjoyed. What was more enjoyed was the fact that they had overbooked my flight, they had overbooked my flight and they needed volunteers to be thrown onto a different flight connecting in Tokyo and continuing to Taipei. Gladly, I jumped on the flight, and, as a way of saying that they were sorry for selling more tickets than they had seats for, they upgraded me to business class, which got me into the "United Business Lounge", AND (get this) they gave me a $100 voucher for my next flight!. After some schmoozing and hobb-knobbing with the Upper Crust in the "United Business Elite (Yes, Elite) lounge" , I was then ready to hop on an equally as posh airline seat, where I was greeted with a waitress (or flight attendant) carrying a tray of Juices and Champagne. After buckling in, and finishing my OJ and some snacks, talking with my fellow colleagues of distinction, and taking a quick glance at the business section of USA Today. I was ready for a long flight of pampering and smooth sailing. Tokyo was a quick stop, giving me just enough time to grab some lunch ( a soup of various seafood items and noodles... mmm), and I was off to Taipei.
*** Im' now, no longer on the airplane ***
I arrived in Taipei, couldn't find freddy, although he was standing behind me.
Freddy was a Taiwanese friend of mine who actually went to capital university in columbus for a year to study english. I had met him in columbus, and had gone to church with him for a few months while I worked at the Sarang International church in Columbus. Freddy... is an awesome guy. I love him. And seeing him (or any familiar face) and to recieve a warm hug on my arrival in Taipei, was exactly what I needed.
Diving into Taiwanese culture was interesting... from the airport we dove into taipei traffic and the typical asian, metropolitan congestion in which lanes rows of cars in highway traffic can easy onto a road made for 3. Freddy had been working night shift at 7-eleven (7pm-3am) So, although it was about 9:30 in the evening, it was morning for Freddy, and was Chronologically disoriented enough that you could have just about told me that it was any time and I would have believed you. So, needless to say we 9 hours running around the City of Taipei. The next day, I ran around a bit on my own walking and hopping on and off Metros, catching the sites of the city.
I flew out if Taipei on CebuPacific Airlines, a filipino airline that handles more of thier Tourist industry. Moving from the VERY traditionally Asian culture of taipei onto an bright orange and yellow aircraft where staff wore bright orange and yellow polos and Kakis and there was playing on the PA this very distinctive upbeat, Bob-Marley-type, island music, I could see that the Philippines was going to be something entirely different. At this point, (and from what I had seen thus far) I wasn't sure if I was headed to Southeast Asia or the Bahamas.
The plane took off and we headed into the clouds and across the philippine sea for a short, two hour flight to the philippine Island of Luzon.
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