Monday 25th April 2011

Monday 25^th April 2011
I met my mum in the early morning and we went to the airport. I was worried about forgetting something and turns out I did. Luckily it was only the “American Gods” book. An annoyance as I wanted to read it, but a relatively minor one compared to forgetting my passport etc.
I get checked in and we have breakfast in the bar. Then at 10am I go through to the departure lounge. My mum hugs me, I can’t remember the last time she did and it transports me to a Christmas memory when I was young. Understandably she is upset and it makes me a little bleary eyed. She hugs me again and I go, I turn and wave, she waves back. I do this two more times and she is still there to wave back. I have a feeling like I want to do it a third time but I can’t I need to be strong, but I know that she will still be there and that is comforting. Suddenly, I am overcome with all the people I will miss, I don’t think it really affected me until this time.

I get on the plane, arrive in Shiphol after one hour. Flight was easy, next one will be harder. I am at gate D and have to go to gate F to transfer. Only two gates not so bad I think, but Shiphol is massive and I walk for what seems like forever. I am hungry so find an exchange bureau to swap some off my mighty pounds for monopoly money euros so I can get something for lunch. The woman informs me that I can just pay by pounds and that way I don’t need to pay commission charges. Nice one. I get a coke and a hotdog. I am sitting eating it and looking at the streams of people milling by and I suddenly have a feeling of isolation and feel alone. All these people and I have no connection to any of them. This is stage two of my self-awareness. The waiting area as you would expect is full of Asians. I wish I could hear a familiar and comforting Scottish “Aye”, man right now I would settle for hearing an English accent lol. I found a trolley that is kind of gay but means I don’t have to carry my heavy rucksack etc and can go for a walk, too much thinking time is not good. I found this cool place it has comfy sofas, a fake flame fireplace, looks like a series of living rooms. I think it is also cool that the TV is playing “Married with Children” (a premonition of the future maybe? J) I sit for a long time there and write this blog and feel better. Soon I will travel by plane and arrive in the future.
My flight check-in time is not until 19.45 so I feel I will have to eat a proper meal before boarding as I guess I won’t have food on the plane till at least 10PM. I find a restaurant and order a cheeseburger. I have a cool chat with the cook who tells me that he is from Mexico and that he emigrated to Holland a while back and that in the beginning it is hard but before long you will adjust and won’t have any problems. This is comforting to know. After eating I head back to the gate to check-in.
I have to put all my stuff in trays, such as laptop, and then walk into a gate, I am instructed to hold my hands above my head and a scanner revolves around me front and back. Then I have to stand on the feet symbols and they look at a screen and if it shows anything in yellow means that metal is there etc. I forgot to take out my money, phone and stuff so I have to put everything back in the trays and also my boots as they have metal eyelets (or whatever they are called). Then you have to grab all your stuff and sort yourself out and go through to board the plane.
I have never flown long haul before, but I am lucky when I arrive at my seat there is only me sitting there so three empty. Once the plane gets in the air some people move seats and I am joined by a woman. We share two seats eat so have plenty of space. The flight will be 8,000 miles in total. They have a screen that shows you the planes trajectory, distance and airspeed. I watch “Gulliver’s Travels” which is pretty rubbish, some TV shows and play some games. I do manage to get some sleep but not a huge amount. I am surprised at how much food they give me on the plane. The best off all was when I woke up at 3am, most passengers are asleep apart from a few and a stewardess gives me a small carton of mineral water and asks me if I would like some ice-cream. The ice-cream was awesome.
10 hours later I am in Bangkok, temperature 31 degrees. The plane will be here for 1 hour while it refuels and picks up new passengers and others depart. We have to get off the plane and then back on in 30 mins, an opportunity for us to stretch our legs apparently. The truth is by the time you leave the plane wall all the way along to the transfer gate which allows you to go upstairs and then to the gate where we will board from the half hour is gone. A cunning trick. In the waiting room now are lots of people going to Taiwan. I no longer have a seat to myself, as I now share it with three Taiwanese guys. We don’t talk much but they are nice and helpful, giving me some tissues when the hot towel leaks water all over me and giving me a pen when my pen dies during filling out my landing card.
I am now in Taipei airport finally, and I am feeling a bit worse for wear due to leaving on Monday morning and now arriving on Tuesday evening. I follow everyone to go to get all my visa etc checked. On the way I see a special checking gate that has people manning it dressed in full radioactive bio-wear and there is a sign saying “Japanese visitors, please pass through this gate for radioactive testing” and I kid you not they have a guy with a Geiger counter. It makes me smile. Processing is easy as I already have the visa so they just check and stamp it and I am off to collect my bags. I go to the toilet and after washing my hands I take a paper towel and as soon as I have removed it another one replaces it from the machine.
I meet Eve and we go take the Sky-way train (sounds like something out of Final Fantasy). This train is super fast, reaching speeds of 280km/hr and takes a 4hr journey by car and achieves it in 40 mins. Her parents pick us up at the train station in Taichung and we drive home towards the Tanzi District. On the way we stop at supermarket and they buy some things for me. I meet all her family and they are really nice and cool but I am really tired and need to shower. It is really hot, but I am happy to see Evelyn and her bump. It has been a long time, too long.