The Trip Over or Boy Does My Butt Hurt
Trip Start
Nov 05, 2008
1
3
14
Trip End
Nov 30, 2008
Singapore,
Singapore
Monday, November 10, 2008
When we took off from Tokyo we still had over 3,300 miles and 7 hours left to fly. I finally got a couple of hours of sleep on this leg of the flight and we arrived in Singapore after 1:00AM. Since we had crossed the International Date Line, it was Saturday when we arrived. We caught a bus and travelled to our hotel. The hotel is nice and in a great location but we have a king sized bed in a mini-room. It is tiny but we are getting used to it.
Okay that brings you up to date on our travel. Now let's go back and fill in some details. First, we had a lot of fun at LAX because in the gate area with us were about 90 16-17 year old Japanese students flying back from the US after being on vacation. My first comment is they were very polite and well behaved. We had not one problem with them the whole way to Tokyo. They were all taking photos of each other at LAX and then they asked if they could take a picture of us. When they did we gave them the "peace sign and said Obama. Before we know it we were getting our picture with each of them giving the sign and saying Obama. It appeared to be a big success.
Ginger here: LAX is always an experience: last year we had the man who changed his underwear at the gate and this year we had the Japanese students. I'll take the students any time - I can't imagine that many American teenagers behaving so well while they waited to get on the plane. They were all toting Universal Studio pillows, tote bags and wearing their new Vans - imagine being 16 years old and getting to travel like that! My first plane ride was at age 22 to Bermuda and at the time I didn't think things could get any better!
L-O-N-G flight to Tokyo - we were in a row section with 3 seats; Steve, me and a resident alien from Indonesia who "pushes papers" @ UCLA who was on his way to Jakarta to visit his mother. He was a most agreeable seatmate for the trip. One of the strangest things about an international flight to Asia is the propensity of people to wear face masks all the time. I presume it's to thwart any flu bugs floating around in the plane, but it's sort of amusing that 2/3 of the passengers look like bank robbers. The flight was smooth except for one pocket of turbulence we hit while I was just finishing up in the bathroom. I'll bet that you have never slam danced with a folding door! Hah! No damage to me or the door, but I would rather have been in my seat at the time. And here's today's question....how many times can you serve fish on a transpacific flight? THREE times! Yikes! Seared halibut with chili sauce for lunch, Thai-style rice with fish, shrimp, crab and squid for dinner and for the who-knows-what but let's keep them busy eating meal.....fish putennesca! By that time I was glad I had packed some cereal and got some milk from one of the flight attendants. Speaking of flight attendants - the women are all thin, beautiful, elegant, poised and have to work all those hours wearing batik print ankle length skirts and long sleeved tops. I don't understand how they manage to look so fresh and beautiful after catering to 375 passengers. Another woman on board (she was French, so make sure you use your best French accent when I tell you what she said about them) said: "Zey are so beautiful zey make me feel like a cow". For those of you wondering about the male attendants - just average and wearing business suits.
Steve back. I think that pretty much takes care of our flight over. From now on we will be writing about where we are and how we are coping with it. On to Singapore.
