The Flight
Date: (Friday & Saturday) Aug 20-21, 2004
We got to SJC around 10:15am. After checking in our luggage, we had to walk over to the new international terminal to get to our gate. Its pretty nice. EverythingÂs sooo new and constructions not quite complete. I think there are only like 4 gates right now. There were SOOooo many first and business class passengers on this flight! Ive never seen so many! Usually, they call first & business class passengers to enter at the same time and there are only a few, but on this flight, they called them separately, and there were long lines for both! Probably as many first & business class combined as all the economy passengers!!
Ooooo. I LOVE the new plane we had on the leg from SJC to Tokyo with AA. It was SOOOo roomy! :) And we each had our own screen to pick whatever we wanted to watch. But the programs ran in a 2.25 hr cycle, so you couldnt start a movie whenever you wanted and pause when you needed to go to the bathroom (that was the only imitation, but I was still quite satisfied). I think it was a Boeing 777. And instead of 3 seats at the windows & 4 in the middle (I think thats how 747s are?), this one had 2 seats at the windows and 5 seats in the middle.
The flight was long (17+ hours) and bumpy (probably a warning of the weather to come but I didnt know it yet). I never understood what the big difference was in seating on the plane besides the exit rows having more leg room. But now I know not to sit in the back of the plane again! When there's turbulence, its way worse in the back. Ive never had any troubles with air sickness, but this time, the turbulence was so bad and I was sitting in the 4th row from the back, I was sooooo nauseous! It was awful.
I didnt get much sleep either cuz our flight departed at 12:40pm so it felt way too early to be sleeping (even though a lot of the passengers went straight to sleep after take off). So instead, I watched movies and read. I saw The Prince & Me and Laws of Attraction (pretty much the only 2 I hadnt seen before and was willing to watch unlike Cat in the Hat ) and almost finished reading one of the books I brought. And of course the minute I started feeling sleepy, I found out there was only 30 mins till landing! Then, in Narita airport, we had to wait in a majorly long line (not really long, just really SLOW) to get our boarding passes for the
United flight. We werent able to get it before cuz at SJC, theres no United counter at terminal A (where AA is), just Southwest. Finally, we lugged our stuff (just our backpacks & laptop but still super heavy) to the terminal and napped a little till boarding time. We did wander a little around the airport, but the stores near our gate werent very interesting and we were too lazy & tired to walk further. It wasnt a very restful nap though cuz I would doze a little and then jerk awake. Quite unsatisfactory.
Finally, we boarded for Taiwan (surprisingly, there were LOTS of people maybe because it was a Saturday?). I slept almost the whole way there and missed Shrek 2. Ah well. It was SOOoooo hard to open my eyes when it was time to land (<3 hour flight). And when I walked out of the plane, even though it was 10pm at night, I was immediately enveloped in the heat & humidity of Taiwan. Ugh. Not a good feeling after the pleasant coolness of the plane. Our baggage was nearly the last ones out, so we didnt get our bags till nearly 11pm. I was watching the first bags out
and they all had a priority baggage sticker or something like that. I want that!! Is that for first class people? I want to be first class!
Then we lugged all our stuff (2 big ones, 2 carry-ons, 2 backpacks & a laptop!!!!!) to the bus in order to get to Taipei (nearly 1 hour away). And on the bus I nearly froze to death from the A/C. Then, we unloaded all our stuff at the Taipei train station (where they dropped us off), and it was SOOOo hot. Finally, we grabbed a taxi to get to my great uncles apartment. It didnt take too long, maybe 20 mins? And it was cheap! $125NT (/33 = $3.79 USD). Then the FUN part began. My relatives dont have an elevator in their building. And they live on the 4th floor. So we got to lug all that stuff (let me remind you, there were 2 bags over 50 lbs each, then 2 carry-ons, 2 backpacks and a HEAVY laptop) up 3 flights of these narrow, steep stairs past midnight after a 17+ hour flight in the humidity!! I was SOOOOOooooooo sweaty afterwards. It was a major workout! It took both of us to carry the 2 big suitcases (one at a time of course!) and then each of us carried our back packs and carry-ons and we took it one flight at a time (so 4 trips each flight). Sooo
torturous. But we finally made it to their apartment. Whew! My dad called almost the minute wed walked in the door and wondered what had taken us so long!! Then I learned that wed be staying on the second floor. Another flight of stairs?!?! So after a nice cold shower, I finally tumbled into bed around 1am. What a beginning! :)
We got to SJC around 10:15am. After checking in our luggage, we had to walk over to the new international terminal to get to our gate. Its pretty nice. EverythingÂs sooo new and constructions not quite complete. I think there are only like 4 gates right now. There were SOOooo many first and business class passengers on this flight! Ive never seen so many! Usually, they call first & business class passengers to enter at the same time and there are only a few, but on this flight, they called them separately, and there were long lines for both! Probably as many first & business class combined as all the economy passengers!!
Ooooo. I LOVE the new plane we had on the leg from SJC to Tokyo with AA. It was SOOOo roomy! :) And we each had our own screen to pick whatever we wanted to watch. But the programs ran in a 2.25 hr cycle, so you couldnt start a movie whenever you wanted and pause when you needed to go to the bathroom (that was the only imitation, but I was still quite satisfied). I think it was a Boeing 777. And instead of 3 seats at the windows & 4 in the middle (I think thats how 747s are?), this one had 2 seats at the windows and 5 seats in the middle.
The flight was long (17+ hours) and bumpy (probably a warning of the weather to come but I didnt know it yet). I never understood what the big difference was in seating on the plane besides the exit rows having more leg room. But now I know not to sit in the back of the plane again! When there's turbulence, its way worse in the back. Ive never had any troubles with air sickness, but this time, the turbulence was so bad and I was sitting in the 4th row from the back, I was sooooo nauseous! It was awful.
I didnt get much sleep either cuz our flight departed at 12:40pm so it felt way too early to be sleeping (even though a lot of the passengers went straight to sleep after take off). So instead, I watched movies and read. I saw The Prince & Me and Laws of Attraction (pretty much the only 2 I hadnt seen before and was willing to watch unlike Cat in the Hat ) and almost finished reading one of the books I brought. And of course the minute I started feeling sleepy, I found out there was only 30 mins till landing! Then, in Narita airport, we had to wait in a majorly long line (not really long, just really SLOW) to get our boarding passes for the
United flight. We werent able to get it before cuz at SJC, theres no United counter at terminal A (where AA is), just Southwest. Finally, we lugged our stuff (just our backpacks & laptop but still super heavy) to the terminal and napped a little till boarding time. We did wander a little around the airport, but the stores near our gate werent very interesting and we were too lazy & tired to walk further. It wasnt a very restful nap though cuz I would doze a little and then jerk awake. Quite unsatisfactory.
Finally, we boarded for Taiwan (surprisingly, there were LOTS of people maybe because it was a Saturday?). I slept almost the whole way there and missed Shrek 2. Ah well. It was SOOoooo hard to open my eyes when it was time to land (<3 hour flight). And when I walked out of the plane, even though it was 10pm at night, I was immediately enveloped in the heat & humidity of Taiwan. Ugh. Not a good feeling after the pleasant coolness of the plane. Our baggage was nearly the last ones out, so we didnt get our bags till nearly 11pm. I was watching the first bags out
and they all had a priority baggage sticker or something like that. I want that!! Is that for first class people? I want to be first class!
Then we lugged all our stuff (2 big ones, 2 carry-ons, 2 backpacks & a laptop!!!!!) to the bus in order to get to Taipei (nearly 1 hour away). And on the bus I nearly froze to death from the A/C. Then, we unloaded all our stuff at the Taipei train station (where they dropped us off), and it was SOOOo hot. Finally, we grabbed a taxi to get to my great uncles apartment. It didnt take too long, maybe 20 mins? And it was cheap! $125NT (/33 = $3.79 USD). Then the FUN part began. My relatives dont have an elevator in their building. And they live on the 4th floor. So we got to lug all that stuff (let me remind you, there were 2 bags over 50 lbs each, then 2 carry-ons, 2 backpacks and a HEAVY laptop) up 3 flights of these narrow, steep stairs past midnight after a 17+ hour flight in the humidity!! I was SOOOOOooooooo sweaty afterwards. It was a major workout! It took both of us to carry the 2 big suitcases (one at a time of course!) and then each of us carried our back packs and carry-ons and we took it one flight at a time (so 4 trips each flight). Sooo
torturous. But we finally made it to their apartment. Whew! My dad called almost the minute wed walked in the door and wondered what had taken us so long!! Then I learned that wed be staying on the second floor. Another flight of stairs?!?! So after a nice cold shower, I finally tumbled into bed around 1am. What a beginning! :)
posted by ss @ 8:59 AM
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