Flying!

Flying, Flying, Flying, Still Flying!

Today is Saturday, February 20 and it is also Sunday, February 21.  This is the benefit or bane of flying West. Friday night I took Skeeter to Cousin Dog’s for her vacation, said good bye to Christine, Mac, and Maddie and to Skeeter and Satchel.  Christian was zonked out after a long and week of AP classes and tennis practices.  Weekends are his catch up time for sleep.

Back home in my very clean and very quiet house I cleared out the fridge, watered plants, took out the trash and locked the house up. I downloaded some books and movies to my new Samsung Galaxy Tab, thanks Karen for showing me how.  Then a hot bath, could be the last one for a while, good book and tucked into clean sheets.

 And then it happened.  Eyeballs popped wide open so I put on a boring movie.  Actually it turned out to be interesting so fell asleep at midnight.  And then it happened.  Eyeballs popped wide open.  It was 3:12 am! Tossed and turned, read, took another bath and ended up never falling back to sleep.  So I got dressed and actually repacked my ‘seat bag.’ 

At last it was eight o’clock.   Right on time Skip and Susie arrived to pick me up for a ride to Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.  We quickly found the Korean Air Morning Calm check in desk. I had a panic moment when I thought I had left my phone in the back of Skip’s van but just as a very great travel partner, Susie, calmly (we were, after all, in the morning calm line!) was dialing to locate my phone by its ring, a notification dinged and the phone was exactly where it belonged - in the correct jacket pocket.  So now that the trip’s “what did I do with it moment” is over and done with. We got checked in.  I was able to change my seat to a right sided window and we made our way to security.

I always get the pat down, arthritis creates misshapen joints which is what the new scanners pick up. Then my carry on got pulled aside, opened and searched.  The girl didn’t know what she was exactly looking for so after a cursory exam she carried it back to a different scanner and it cleared.

Next stop, The Varsity!  A cheese dog for me and chili cheese dog for Susie.  

We made our way to the Plane Train and settled in at Gate E3.  I talked with all three of my girls and then it was already time to board and settle in to a surprisingly comfortable 46K.  The 747 has Business Class upstairs, and First Class has Lay Flat seats.  Our Economy Class seats do have a little more leg room than many planes.  I love when you recline the back that the seat slides forward.  The seat back screen has view choices for the planes cameras.  The forward camera gives a slightly roller coasterish version of the pilot’s eye view as we took off.  I then switched to the landscape view and enjoyed seeing Atlanta from a bird’s eye view.  I will be checking out Seoul in a few hours from the same vantage point. 

The plane has so many hostesses – 58!  The Economy Class is sectioned into three groups of 90 seats each.  We have six flight attendants at a time and they rotate.  The ladies parade to the Crew Rest door.  The lead attendant unlocks it and down they go to the belly of the aircraft and up come the almost Stepford duplicates.  There were bottles of water, pillows, blankets, and headphones at each place.  We also have a packet wrapped in the lovely turquoise of the uniforms. It has slippers, a tooth brush and paste, and pen for filling out the arrival forms.  The ladies perform even the smallest tasks with an almost Geisha like grace.  Nothing is handed to you, it is presented.

As soon as we leveled off drinks and peanuts were served.  This was followed by a dinner service with several choices.  I got lucky.  I picked beef and it was delicious pot roast and farfalle.  I would have rather had the Korean meal dessert of fresh melon than my brownie but everything was good. The buffalo mozzarella salad was nicely dressed and the wine flowed.  And it flowed in glasses made of real glass! And best of all – real stainless steel silverware including a steak knife!

At exactly 3:20 all the window shades slammed shut.  I think because of the 14 hour time difference Korean air thinks we should sleep. That isn’t going to happen.  I enjoyed my seat companions.  A lady from Alabama who is escorting her mother-in-law back home to Korea after her father-in-law’s funeral.  She had spent three months in America and now the daughter in-law will be with her at her home three hours by bus into the countryside from Seoul.  She was very grateful that Korean Air did not charge them for the tickets. She complimented Korean Air greatly for making a gift of the trip.

I have watched three movies.  The Intern, Steve Jobs, and Room.  Room was very interesting and well done.  The young boy is surely nominated for an Academy Award.  I have walked up and down the aisles several times and stopped in section three each time to visit Susie.  She is enjoying an aisle seat with the middle seat empty. The large man who would have been seated there is in my window seat.

The sunset was spectacular.  Or maybe it was the Sunday morning sunrise!  I am so glad I kept opening and peeking around the shade. The moon is bright and full in a clear sky over the frozen tundra below.  Spectacular pink sky melted into brilliant sharp purple.  The picture will not do justice to the sight so I just enjoyed it while it lasted.

After a snack of a Berok like Hot Bun I thought I would write to you. More to come with any luck at all!

The flight continued along the same vein.  The only drawback was that they kept the blinds drawn most of the time.  Only when serving which they did twice more, were they allowed to be open. Seriously, I know that on planes, those who can sleep do with little trouble at all.  And those of us who can’t need some natural light!

Anytime they passed around glasses of water they also had either guava or pineapple juice or always there was orange juice.  I drank three glasses of what really tasted fresh squeezed OJ. Last time I had that many glasses of orange juice they were laced with champagne!

We landed right on schedule and at Gate 17.  Our connecting flight to Hanoi was leaving from 15.  But we followed the signs to International Transfers.  These led us upstairs where we again went through a security check.  It was very rudimentary so didn’t take long.  We went straight on to our gate and directly into the line.  This led us back downstairs to board.  Susie and I are in the same row.

The second flight was more of a commuter flight.  No bottle of water but still the nicest air blanket I have ever experienced.  Exhaustion smacked me!  I knew I could sleep on this plane with this great blanket.  But no.  As soon as my eyes shut the flight attendant wanted me to put my seat back up because dinner was being served.  I appreciated that nice touch on our earlier flight and it should really be a rule.  So much easier to eat for the person behind you.  But my seat, in this case, was a two person job.  I had it as straight as I could by pressing the button, so I pressed it again and the young lady reached over and pushed it. (I knew this would be a repeated performance later at the end of the flight.) 

As my eyes shut I heard, you can sleep but do you want to have your dinner? It was her again. So I accepted a chicken dinner but could only eat the roll.  It was soft and warm.  The mousse cake was good too, and not chocolate.  The chicken was undefinable.  All around me people were eating fish. Dinner was not going well!  Once the trays were collected I just couldn’t get comfortable and settled.  On the daylight flight they kept closing the shades and turning down the interior lighting.  On this flight, that was to land us at 9:40 p.m., the lights were kept full on and bright!  I may have dozed for a bit but I really am envious of those who can sleep on a plane.  

I was happy to hear the wheels jolt down and see the modern terminal and dozens of parked Korean Air jets.  Not too many of any other airline. It was not long before we were into the customs line.  We got lucky.  They were not a lot of locals on the flight so the Vietnam Citizen line moved quickly and to speed up the process they cut our line right at Susie and moved us to the local’s line.

We made our way to baggage claim and while Susie took ours off the belt I sought out our waiting guide, Phil.  It turned out he was outside the area and was meeting only us. He called the driver who met us outside and we sped into the Capitol City of Hanoi! 

It is easy to see that this will be quite an adventure!  Much like in India, every little shop spills onto the sidewalks.  But here the sidewalks are also congested with motor scooters.  Millions of them literally.  The city has a population of over six million people and everyone is on a scooter!  Phil warned us that the scooter drivers, you have to be at least 18, do not take traffic signals seriously but as suggestions! Crosswalks are for decoration!

Our hotel is in the Old City.  It is near one of the 70 lakes in the city.  This largest lake is natural and is surrounded by parklike walks and lots of flowers.  A red bridge is lighted and leads to a temple on a little island.  Our hotel is the Golden Lotus Luxury and we were very happy to be checked into our pretty room on the 6^th floor near the elevator.  The bathroom features a golden lotus sink but best of all lit has a long, deep tub.  Over there are wooden blinds that covering the large window between the guest room and the restroom.  These seems to be a popular concept in high end foreign hotels! 

It is now 1:00 a.m. Monday morning.  Good night!