OVER THE EAST CHINA SEA – PART TWO
USA Today Column
Note: For ferret-lovers – there are three new pictures of
“the boys” in the At Home Album. Click here and don’t
forget to click on each photo to enlarge and see the
captions:
The Ferret Brothers
If you missed Part One of Over The East China Sea, you can
read it at:
www.fromthecockpit.com/Blogg
So where’d we leave off last time? Oh, yes. There were
hundreds of fishing boats lighting up the sea beneath us, a
spectacular sight as we flew from Japan south to Taipei. The
East China Sea was to our right and the dark waters of the
North Pacific to our left, alive with the reflection of the
stars above.
It was busy coming into Taipei. We flew south along the
coast for several miles just offshore before turning inland
to line up with our runway and land to the north. That
worked out just fine for us tourist-types (that would be
me).
Our layover in Taipei was short—just under fourteen hours.
We were picked up by a small bus with our Tokyo and Hong
Kong-based flight attendants and went to our layover hotel
about twenty minutes from the airport. We use a different
hotel for our longer layovers.
Our hotel was located in a busy, dirty, old-looking
neighborhood, even though the hotel itself was quite elegant
with some magnificent Chinese artifacts in the lobby.
About a block prior to arriving at our hotel I saw what
looked like an entire family enjoying the summer evening
from lawn chairs, just off the street, with a large table
full of pineapples. This was at about 10:30 PM or so.
Once in my room, I noticed a rather long list of rules and
was intrigued. Among the rules were:
1. No illegal toys allowed in room.
2. No narcotics sales from room.
3. No contraband of any kind in room.
4. No mixing of drugs in room.
But this was my favorite rule and it is verbatim:
“Guests with contagious diseases and insanity will be
declined.”
I immediately pictured the following scene at the front
desk:
A very dignified Englishman is registering as a guest. (By
the way, if we we’re “guests” then how come our rooms
aren’t free? Just a thought.)
“Good evening, Sir. Checking in?” says the clerk.
“Why yes, thank you,” says this gentleman.
“By the way,” the clerk asks casually, “do you have any
contagious diseases and are you insane?”
The Englishman is really not paying much attention as he’s
already busy filling out the requisite Guest Registration
Form.
“Yes, quite,” he answers absently.
The clerk pounces. “Then I’m sorry, Sir, but we’ll have to
decline your visit. We hear the Holiday Inn down the street
is very nice.” And our English gent is booted right out the
front door as the clerk enjoys a good laugh.
Maybe our Englishman can pick up a nice fresh pineapple on
his way to the Holiday Inn to contemplate what exactly went
wrong and, just possibly, he’ll pay more attention next
time.
By the time we got to our rooms, and allowing for a pickup
about two hours prior to departure, there wasn’t much time
left to do anything but sleep. We had a daytime flight back
to Tokyo and I wanted to get some pictures but it was very
hazy, so mostly what I got was pictures of the airport
itself and one of the countryside just north of the airport
on departure. You can see all the pictures from this trip
in my new album called “Chicago – Tokyo – Taipei. Click
here for this album:
Chicago-Tokyo-Taipei
Once in Tokyo I went for my usual swim in the hotel pool,
followed up by some relaxation in the Japanese baths. These
large pools of extremely hot water always knock me right
out.
The next day it was time to leave and head back to the U.S.
On the leg from Tokyo to Chicago, we took off just after
2:00 PM. Several hours into the flight it became dark as
the sun set behind us. The night sky was so luminous with
stars that at first glance it looked like a wide band of
stratus was above us but that was, in fact, the Milky Way as
it looks at 35,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean in the middle
of the night.
I said out loud, “I wish there were some satellites
tonight,” and no sooner had I said this than I spotted one
by looking as straight up as I could out my side window.
The light was so bright I thought it was another airplane at
first, but it was, indeed, a satellite. I’ve never seen one
anywhere near this bright and as we watched it travel down
the night sky, it lost the reflection from the sun and faded
to where we could only see it by looking slight away from
it. Then it faded altogether.
“Okay, now I need my requisite shooting star,” I joked, and,
no kidding, there was a shooting star just then—the one and
only for the evening that either of us saw.
The dark sky lasted about forty-five minutes and then the
dawn broke with a deep indigo color at first, followed by a
beautiful rosy flush.
As if that wasn’t quite gorgeous enough for this audience of
two pilots (our two relief pilots were in the cabin on their
break), a crescent moon arose. Moonrises and sunrises
happen unbelievably fast when you’re flying east. I
commented to my copilot that all that was missing was the
little boy sitting on the end of the moon fishing. He
laughed, recognizing that I was referring to the logo of
Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks.
We flew toward the dawn and into the light of day before our
relief pilots took over, and when I went on my break I
contemplated how I would write about this trip. On this
particular airplane, instead of crew bunks, which we have on
some planes, we did what I always refer to as “pitching a
tent in first class.” There are two first-class seats
reserved for the pilots on these long flights. In addition
to being the regular first-class seat which reclines into a
bed, there is a heavy curtain we draw completely around it
which curves out slightly so there is actually room to stand
inside this little area completely concealed from everyone.
Of course, anyone could poke their head in at any time but
generally this isn’t a problem.
When our break was over it was time to land in Chicago. The
flying crew (as opposed to the relief pilots) usually takes
the last break so when we’re off our break there’s nothing
left to do but land. I like this arrangement just fine but
it always seems like such an abrupt end to a long flight.
And that was my week. Home in time for the fourth of July.
As I write this, it’s July 6th. I’ll be whipping out to
San Diego this weekend to help celebrate my Dad’s 88th
birthday on Monday and meeting with the artist who will be
illustrating my first children’s book based upon my “Ode to
a Jellyfish.” (If you’re unfamiliar with it, click here:
www.fromthecockpit.com/jellyfish.htm and note there’s
audio. I wrote this after I got stung on a Kona layover
some months ago. To read the Update I wrote about it, click
here:
Jellyfish Poem
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
And with that…
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airpseed!
Cap’n Meryl
***********************************************************
Note: For ferret-lovers – there are three new pictures of
“the boys” in the At Home Album. Click here and don’t
forget to click on each photo to enlarge and see the
captions:
The Ferret Brothers
If you missed Part One of Over The East China Sea, you can
read it at:
www.fromthecockpit.com/Blogg
So where’d we leave off last time? Oh, yes. There were
hundreds of fishing boats lighting up the sea beneath us, a
spectacular sight as we flew from Japan south to Taipei. The
East China Sea was to our right and the dark waters of the
North Pacific to our left, alive with the reflection of the
stars above.
It was busy coming into Taipei. We flew south along the
coast for several miles just offshore before turning inland
to line up with our runway and land to the north. That
worked out just fine for us tourist-types (that would be
me).
Our layover in Taipei was short—just under fourteen hours.
We were picked up by a small bus with our Tokyo and Hong
Kong-based flight attendants and went to our layover hotel
about twenty minutes from the airport. We use a different
hotel for our longer layovers.
Our hotel was located in a busy, dirty, old-looking
neighborhood, even though the hotel itself was quite elegant
with some magnificent Chinese artifacts in the lobby.
About a block prior to arriving at our hotel I saw what
looked like an entire family enjoying the summer evening
from lawn chairs, just off the street, with a large table
full of pineapples. This was at about 10:30 PM or so.
Once in my room, I noticed a rather long list of rules and
was intrigued. Among the rules were:
1. No illegal toys allowed in room.
2. No narcotics sales from room.
3. No contraband of any kind in room.
4. No mixing of drugs in room.
But this was my favorite rule and it is verbatim:
“Guests with contagious diseases and insanity will be
declined.”
I immediately pictured the following scene at the front
desk:
A very dignified Englishman is registering as a guest. (By
the way, if we we’re “guests” then how come our rooms
aren’t free? Just a thought.)
“Good evening, Sir. Checking in?” says the clerk.
“Why yes, thank you,” says this gentleman.
“By the way,” the clerk asks casually, “do you have any
contagious diseases and are you insane?”
The Englishman is really not paying much attention as he’s
already busy filling out the requisite Guest Registration
Form.
“Yes, quite,” he answers absently.
The clerk pounces. “Then I’m sorry, Sir, but we’ll have to
decline your visit. We hear the Holiday Inn down the street
is very nice.” And our English gent is booted right out the
front door as the clerk enjoys a good laugh.
Maybe our Englishman can pick up a nice fresh pineapple on
his way to the Holiday Inn to contemplate what exactly went
wrong and, just possibly, he’ll pay more attention next
time.
By the time we got to our rooms, and allowing for a pickup
about two hours prior to departure, there wasn’t much time
left to do anything but sleep. We had a daytime flight back
to Tokyo and I wanted to get some pictures but it was very
hazy, so mostly what I got was pictures of the airport
itself and one of the countryside just north of the airport
on departure. You can see all the pictures from this trip
in my new album called “Chicago – Tokyo – Taipei. Click
here for this album:
Chicago-Tokyo-Taipei
Once in Tokyo I went for my usual swim in the hotel pool,
followed up by some relaxation in the Japanese baths. These
large pools of extremely hot water always knock me right
out.
The next day it was time to leave and head back to the U.S.
On the leg from Tokyo to Chicago, we took off just after
2:00 PM. Several hours into the flight it became dark as
the sun set behind us. The night sky was so luminous with
stars that at first glance it looked like a wide band of
stratus was above us but that was, in fact, the Milky Way as
it looks at 35,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean in the middle
of the night.
I said out loud, “I wish there were some satellites
tonight,” and no sooner had I said this than I spotted one
by looking as straight up as I could out my side window.
The light was so bright I thought it was another airplane at
first, but it was, indeed, a satellite. I’ve never seen one
anywhere near this bright and as we watched it travel down
the night sky, it lost the reflection from the sun and faded
to where we could only see it by looking slight away from
it. Then it faded altogether.
“Okay, now I need my requisite shooting star,” I joked, and,
no kidding, there was a shooting star just then—the one and
only for the evening that either of us saw.
The dark sky lasted about forty-five minutes and then the
dawn broke with a deep indigo color at first, followed by a
beautiful rosy flush.
As if that wasn’t quite gorgeous enough for this audience of
two pilots (our two relief pilots were in the cabin on their
break), a crescent moon arose. Moonrises and sunrises
happen unbelievably fast when you’re flying east. I
commented to my copilot that all that was missing was the
little boy sitting on the end of the moon fishing. He
laughed, recognizing that I was referring to the logo of
Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks.
We flew toward the dawn and into the light of day before our
relief pilots took over, and when I went on my break I
contemplated how I would write about this trip. On this
particular airplane, instead of crew bunks, which we have on
some planes, we did what I always refer to as “pitching a
tent in first class.” There are two first-class seats
reserved for the pilots on these long flights. In addition
to being the regular first-class seat which reclines into a
bed, there is a heavy curtain we draw completely around it
which curves out slightly so there is actually room to stand
inside this little area completely concealed from everyone.
Of course, anyone could poke their head in at any time but
generally this isn’t a problem.
When our break was over it was time to land in Chicago. The
flying crew (as opposed to the relief pilots) usually takes
the last break so when we’re off our break there’s nothing
left to do but land. I like this arrangement just fine but
it always seems like such an abrupt end to a long flight.
And that was my week. Home in time for the fourth of July.
As I write this, it’s July 6th. I’ll be whipping out to
San Diego this weekend to help celebrate my Dad’s 88th
birthday on Monday and meeting with the artist who will be
illustrating my first children’s book based upon my “Ode to
a Jellyfish.” (If you’re unfamiliar with it, click here:
www.fromthecockpit.com/jellyfish.htm and note there’s
audio. I wrote this after I got stung on a Kona layover
some months ago. To read the Update I wrote about it, click
here:
Jellyfish Poem
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
And with that…
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airpseed!
Cap’n Meryl
***********************************************************
1 Comments:
Some hotels in China have prohibitions on "wrestling".
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