Too damn long

I was surprised at the amount of Chinese elders that were on my flight from San Francisco to Guangzhou. 14 and half hours is absolutely no joke to spend in a pressurized metal tube. Those of us in the peasant class are resigned to our fate of misery. The human body is not designed to sit that long whilst getting slowly dehumidified.

If our elders can endure that lengthy flight without complaint, then there’s nothing for my near 40 year old body to say. Then again, our elders are accustomed to enduring through tough times. Either suffering through the Cultural Revolution in China, or scratching out a decent living after immigrating to the States. A long intercontinental flight might as well be a cocoon of comfort in comparison to the hardships that came before.

Meanwhile, we can’t even stay still for a single minute without any sort of stimulation. Taking a dump without a using a smartphone at the same time might as well be a form of torture.

The magnetic call of home must be that powerful for octogenarians to willingly take a long-haul flight. The elder sat next to us was on her way back to her hometown to meet up with family. There’s another two hour bus ride waiting for her after landing in Guangzhou. A journey of an entire day when you factor in the waiting and transfers. I’ve great respect for that sort of dedication, especially when I cannot imagine doing the same myself when I am at that age. I am certainly endeavoring to be as fit as possible for as long as possible…

But maybe by that time, aviation would have figured out a way to make supersonic flight economically feasible. Even getting it below the 10 hour mark would make trans-Pacific flights far more bearable.

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That new new.

Flying is not so fun

I was never one for flying; my superb fear of heights simply won’t allow me to enjoy being in a metal tube 30,000 feet in the air completely. That said I was never one to complain about the experience in total, and in fact I quite rather like being on a plane, blasting through five consecutive movies I otherwise would not have watched ever.

Somehow that all changed during this last trip to China just a few weeks ago. For whatever reason the time spent on the plane felt like the longest slog ever. The dryness, the compression, the turbulence, and the hours remaining to destination that seemed endless: it all pummeled me into abject misery this time around. What the heck happened? I was the guy that used to get off a plane after a 12 hours journey and headed straight to work.

Perhaps it’s old age: my aging body simply can’t deal with the adverse conditions any longer? I don’t think being stuck in economy class mattered much: I’ve flew first class before, and the the extra space doesn’t negate the negativities of the sealed-off environment high up in the atmosphere. You’re not all of the sudden going to feel less dehydration just because your seat can lie completely flat, even with the bottomless champagne.

I hate to admit this, but maybe the days of 15 hour flights not effecting me are gone. I won’t be able to get off the plane afterwards and be ready to tackle the day. I am going to need time to recover after these long-haul flights, which will encroach on the actual vacation time itself (one day of rest means one less day of travel/sightseeing).

Airplane manufacturers really should take a look at supersonic again.

The stage is set.

That time I missed my flight from Korea

It's once again the month of May, and it had me thinking about a year ago when I traveled to Korea. It was a wonderful trip of a lifetime and you should definitely check out the photos here.

While reminiscing about the trip I was reminded of the hilarious incident we had in catching the flight back to America. There were three of us on the trip and yet somehow we all managed to misinterpret the flight time. It was definitely not a good showing for the male section of the species. 

For whatever reason, the flight time were shown using military time. Our flight was printed at 20:00 hours which simple math equates to 8:00pm in the evening. We like to think of ourselves as persons of intelligence but we completely miscalculated and thought the flight was 10:00pm. 

With that in mind we naturally got to the airport a bit before 8pm. Upon looking at the giant departure board and not finding our flight I double-checked the reservation and realize to horror the huge mistake. We made a dash for Korean Air counter but it was too late: not enough time remained to get us through customs and security. 

Even under such misfortune due to self stupidity we lucked out: we got to the check-in counter before the airplane left the ground, which meant we were able to rebook to the next available flight at no extra cost. Had the flight already taken off we would've squandered the plane ticket and had to then pay again for the next one. 

So apart from a slightly wounded pride and the costs of an extra night of hotel (and a very angry girlfriend for my friend), it was a good learning episode and I doubt any of us will ever misread a departure time ever again.