Asia Bound

Twelve hours on a flight composed of 95% Asians made me very aware of how American we are! We are a loud and exuberant people. Our hearts are on our sleeves! Vince laughed loudly at movies on the flight. Craig and I were scolded for chatting loudly on the flight. Those Air China flight attendants are not messing around. They hold the line!

The worst part of the flight was watching the in flight GPS show us the route we were taking RIGHT OVER ANCHORAGE! This was another moment of frustration and emoting from the wily Americans! I mentioned it to the flight attendant as she poured me a water and she nodded, having no clue what I was telling her, and moved on.

This flight attendant may have decided I was a troublesome passanger after that because it seems that she was messing with me for the rest of the trip. For instance, "Ice in my pepsi, please." ""yes." no ice in peppsi. "What is thhe other entree?" "Pork fried rice" Turns out it was shrimp. Inerestingly, tThe flight itself was easy, mellow, glorious for being 12 hours long It was easier than the flights we make to Hawaii. It was easier than the flights we make to Seattle. Go figure!

In Beijing the airport was empty. Our flight was the only 5pm arrival. Half of the passengers were on their way to Mumbai and had only 30 minutes to make it through immigration and connect to their flight. A few of them that spoke to us expressed this concern not in fits of anxiety and rage but rather, "My flight leaves in 15 minutes. They will hold the plane." In customs there was only one agent. The line stretched around and a young mother with a toddler looked at me and said, "I am worried because my flight leaves very soon." Three more agents came back from where ever they were and the line started moving, but slowly. When we arrived at the front of the que I saw this sign. I found it interesting that the sign was not about the dysfunction of the system but rather the slow efficiency of the employee. I wondered if this was a phenomena of Chinese Communism, but realized that we occasionally have similar beurocratic nightmare in our own systems without the smily face buttons to ask how our experience is.

We five passed out on the way to Bangkok before the flight even took off. We got our hopes up that the flight was as empty as the airport but immigration must have opened up a couple more lanes because that plane was packed! Across from us, in the center 5 person isle, were a group of young women going on holiday. I fell asleep. The flight attendants began serving meals at some point. I kept sleeping. The flight attendants were swarming around me and they were talking to the girls, but no one spoke the same native language and so they were communicating in a broken English, "Hot! Hot! Girl Hot!" The friends were fanning her wildly and the attendants were saying, "You four come sit in crew quarters." But the girls didn't get it until they held their hands and took them away. One stayed with their ailing friend and fanned her excessively. I went back to sleep thinking, "If I contract H1N1, this is ground zero."

The quiet of the Bejing airport was in striking contrast to the excitement and vigor of the Bangkok terminal. We saw the Iranian soccer team waiting for a flight out. Maybe they were rugby players. They were huge studs. Crazy. Finding the immigration line was tricky but people helped us. We couldn't find the hotel employee who was supposed to get us a ride but people helped us. This is a somewhat crazy place, but very helpful!

Craig was disappointed by the No Smoking signs posted all over our hotel. Come to find out it was more of a suggestion than a directive. The halls are clouded at night by the smoke of Korean and Chinese guests. Craig was relieved.