My Trip To Hong Kong

Tampa to Chicago:

So the flight to Chicago was not too crazy. I fell asleep for most of it. When I woke up I had a half hour to go and spoke to 18 Y/O with experience in soundboards from working in a church. He was also an Apple fan and had an iPhone. We made small talk but he dominated the conversation with info of his family’s boats, camera, and other things. Finally arrived in Chicago but but got lost for a bit. Walked around a while to pass the time but finally sat in terminal for flight and plugged in. Overheard one of the few Americans in the terminal (sitting behind me) talking about child. He ended up plugging in next to me and we started talking about the iPad. Got to know him a bit.

Flight Capacity is 374 with 176 seats actually occupied.

Chicago to Hong Kong:

Flight was long.

In an effort to simplify I decided to start my stopwatch to keep track of the time of the flight and also log what was being done as the hours rolled by. These are my notes.

Before takeoff I sat down and was happy to find out I would have my own row. The flight had a lot of people on board but near the back my fellow passengers and I were able to spread out and enjoy our space. It was a good start in my opinion. I had a long night of preparing my luggage so I was tired and dozing off while the plane was getting prepared for takeoff. I was able to stay awake to begin my stopwatch but didn’t last long after that.

0 Hours 0 Minutes: Plane takes off.

4 Hours: The stewardess taps my shoulder waking me up to fill out a small immigration form for the Hong Kong airport. This form, though simple in construction, was more evil than I could have imagined. Instead of being made from the standard ingredients that most paper is made of it had an ingredient that somehow only let someone fill out three letters before making any pen obsolete. At first it fooled me to thinking my pen was out of ink. This actually made me upset because I was using my favorite pen. Then after using my backup pen I began to see the evil games the paper was playing. I only had the patience to attempt filling out half of the form before deciding to wait until later to finish.

5 Hours 28 Minutes: (At this point in the flight all of the windows have been shut since almost everyone on the plane is asleep) Another passenger open his window and I decide to follow his lead. A bright white light fills my area of the plane and I see glaciers outside. I ask the stewardess where we are. She is not sure and calls the pilot. He says we are over Alaska on our way to Russia. Photo should be attached. For a while I read to pass the time and play with my iPhone.

8 Hours 50 Minutes: I decide to get some sleep so I can be rested for my arrival. This is when I appreciated having my own row that much more.

10 Hours 30 Minutes: I wake up with a stiff neck and a sore side from having an arm rest in my ribs. I rearrange my body and pillow. I go back to sleep…

11 Hours 36 Minutes: My eyes open and this time I feel good enough to stay awake. Time to play with the iPhone some more.

12 Hours 30 Minutes: After failing to get the top score on three levels of games I decide to stop playing with my iPhone. Around this time I try to finish filling out the evil form I received earlier. I decide to borrow a pen from the stewardess near me. After another feeble attempt at writing more than three letters I decide to involve the stewardess. She looks at me with the sad face that a teacher has for a student that cannot add 2+2 correctly. Luckily, the evil paper is not above giving her problems as well and she quickly joins in my frustration. She proceeds to use two more pens. In the end my form has blue, black and red ink scribbled on it. To relax I decide to go on my computer and organize my music on iTunes.

13 Hours: I realize that my battery has a good charge but I won’t be able to recharge it at the hotel because I have an American plug and they have Asian sockets. This is something I didn’t plan for.

14 Hours 43 Minutes 2 seconds: The plane lands in Hong Kong.