macdonaldj2

Introduction:


I’m writing this currently in the midst of a mileage run, I guess I’ve got six-ish hours to kill while riding in the front of a CRJ. This trip took place in November of 2013, this was extremely last minute, I have never been to either Hong Kong or Taiwan before. I’ve seen plenty on them and knew a little about the history, but never really planned on traveling to either, well maybe Hong Kong at some point. Excuse me…hot ‘towel’ time (wash cloth (see through)). Wow a snack box, that’s a first for me, never planned on that, I’ll have to get one on the return. Back to the report, it started on Sunday night when my wife called me from Jakarta explaining that she had to stay longer there on business and needed my help routing her and her co-worker back to Houston. I agreed to help them out being the nice guy I am. I found them a flight through Taipei, overnight and then over to LAX and then onto IAH.

While looking I thought it would be nice to meet them in Taipei, as I haven’t seen her at that point going on almost a month, it’s young love deal with it. The timing was perfect as United just tore up their program for partner awards; we had 180k sitting in our account so off I went to look at routings. One last LH F, ok maybe two, Eva Hello Kitty, three days in HKG, connect to TPE and then Eva C to LAX/SFO and then back to IAH. I quickly started looking for LH F routings ex. USA and knew I wanted to try the seat/bed combo on their 747, space was found MCO-FRA with a longish connection, had to get in the FCT one last time. Then I would connect to MUC to get onto the a346 to HKG. Looked for dates to get to TPE to meet her on the overnight and everything looked excellent, hotel in TPE booked and I would meet her there. Or would I? Well I booked the trip, hotels and she called me explaining that she needed to use credit on TK instead of the new routing. Hrmm…I said ok, well I already went through the leg work, I looked at our flight times and we would land in IAH around the same time so I said screw it, I’m going. This was booked now for 3 days out, never been to either country before so I needed to do a lot within the 3 days leading up to this trip. I would leave on Wednesday, land on Friday night in HKG, leave Sunday afternoon to TPE and then head out of TPE on Monday back to the US. All in a weekend I’d fly around the world. The final routing turned out to be IAH-MCO-FRA-MUC-HKG-TPE-SFO-IAH.



IAH-MCO-FRA
First Class Terminal
MUC-HKG
Hong Kong
HKG-TPE-Taiwan
TPE-SFO-IAH

macdonaldj2

IAH-MCO-FRA

Departure day quickly arrived and I was off to IAH for the quick jump to the land of Mickey Mouse to catch my LH flight to FRA. Of course the United C flight wasn’t anything to write home about, in fact I won’t…plane went up and came back down safely. I had a few hours to kill between my connection to FRA, I killed some time making calls to everyone and hanging out in the Delta lounge which I found odd that LH choses that, but it didn’t matter much because – biscoffs. Boarding was a bit delayed for some reason, I had asked if I could board early because I wanted to snap some pictures of one of my last LH F flights I would probably take. I was allowed to board early but it didn’t matter as half the F cabin was already seated, don’t know how but I was still able to snap some pictures of the cabin, and here they are:






While I was snapping pictures and sending them to my father who is still confused as how I fly around the world like this after explaining it countless times, the captain came out and introduced himself. It was a nice touch and can’t remember the last time that happened. He walked around shaking everyone’s hand and thanking them for flying Lufthansa. I was seated and asked for some champagne, which is a far cry from the diet coke in a plastic cup on this flight, but I digress. My wonderful new rimowa amenity kit was delivered along with pajamas that a person of my size couldn’t fit in if I wished them on, but I’ll take them anyway, because one day…

I don’t recall the flight time and or tail of the plane or hell…even the name I’m sure you can look it up if you want to, I can’t actually because there is no internet on board this lovely CRJ. We took off into the night sky and soon menus were distributed, which I don’t have pictures of, but I have pictures of the food, so there’s that and here you go:












After dinner I changed into my own pajamas, because NO ONE should see me in those LH F things, the shirt in particular is hilarious on me and no I don’t have pictures…at least any that I’m willing to put onto the Internet. I climbed into the bed, expecting to actually sleep, as it’s actually a bed, but I couldn’t, it is one of those it’s not you it’s me scenarios, when it’s really you. The bed was ok but it’s not really a mattress, it’s close but not quite there, maybe mattress pad or something would help but I tossed and turned for a while and ended up just watching some Archer on my tablet. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to say that I had a bed on a plane like that, I love the idea and the effort but in the end it wasn’t for me.

Sadly my time on the 747 was coming to an end; I don’t think I asked for breakfast because I knew I would be going over to the FCT (First Class Terminal, but you knew that). We’ll pick that up next.

macdonaldj2

First Class Terminal – FRA

Yes another drawn out piece of drivel about this place. I mean you have to go right? This is the lounge version of a yardstick, it’s how every other lounge should be measured and compared to. It’s a grail for many people, for those people that who have never been and are reading this; yes it’s as nice as you think, you can spend a very long time in here, and I have numerous times, and hope to many more, but unless I win the lottery or have a windfall of United miles I doubt it. I went in with that attitude as it’s my last time here and I will go out with a bang.

My last time in Germany was for a wedding – read unfinished trip report. After I got home I received a letter from some German country, city or some such thing (region maybe?) I don’t know…doesn’t matter. In this letter it was stated that I was caught speeding down the autobahn and I was to be fined. Shocked, it came with photographic evidence; sure enough it was me driving recklessly through Bavaria. They got me doing 62kph in a 60kph zone…whatever shall I do?? Well my rental car company paid the ticket, or took money from my credit card for something that I didn’t care about; I assumed it was because of that. I figured out after some time that it was just a fee because they received the ticket; they didn’t actually PAY it on my behalf. What’s this have to do with the FCT, well I assumed they were efficient enough to catch me driving fast and breaking zeeeee law they would surely send a letter to Interpol to be on the lookout for the infamous MacDonaldJ2…I was expecting not to be let into Germany or have some questions to answer and some fines to pay. I got to immigration, guy looked at my passport, looked at me, fiddled around on his computer, looked at me again and said go ahead. Ok then onto the FCT.

I’ve been to the FCT previously, and rightfully got lost in the maze that is FRA but you learn from your mistakes kids. Out the door turn left and look for the big grey building with some letters on it that read First Class Terminal. Once through the door take the elevator up to the security that let you in if you pass all the criteria. From there it’s a duck-taking, scotch-drinking, food-eating time. I believe pictures aren’t technically allowed in here, but who is going to say no?

At this point it is before noon and I think my flight to MUC was somewhere around 5-7, don’t know I had some time. When in Tokyo last year at the PHT I neglected to try hibiki in the NY bar, so I made up and ordered that first:



That feeling after you get off a plane and all you want to do is shower quickly came over me, so I asked for my favorite shower/tub combo room and for it to be outfitted with a duck. My wish was granted and I was soon in there cleaning up while getting drunk on hibiki, and snapping pictures:


After the bath and shower, yes for some reason I feel like I need to shower after I take a bath, mostly because it’s a novelty for me to take pictures of a bubble bath, in an airport, while drinking fine scotch and playing with a rubber duck. It was time to get dressed and out back out. Again I came prepared for this, not eating breakfast on the way in helped. Lufthansa knew of this beforehand and put out this:



The lounge was quite for a Thursday morning/afternoon and I felt as I was in there by myself. I sat down in the restaurant and ordered another scotch, this time an ode to Ron Swanson – Lagavulin 16, which I’ve never had before either. The restaurant had a special lunch item that day of beef cheeks, which sounded delicious, and I would usually get the shiniztel being in Germany. The beef cheeks were incredibly good, I would actually be happy with paying for something like this:





Amazing presentation for airport catering, they really do know how to cook there. After lunch I needed to check on the status of the cutting of the pata negra and excellent it was cut and time to take it all, so I did along with some crusty bread and hard cheese, and while I’m here why not…another Lagavulin. I made some more phone calls home, checked in with my wife to see how she was doing and just generally enjoying my time there. I finished my pata negra and scotch and ordered some more scotch…and then some more…well you can see where that train is going. I polished off a bottle in the time I was there, which made the flight to MUC interesting? I don’t particularly remember it that well. In the end and I still claim that I was the only one eating this I left the pata negra looking like this:





I believe I polished off a good 200USD worth of that, and before you judge remember this…I don’t care? Also I do remember reading that it’s actually good for you due to the type of fat…but I think eating that much is probably not that good, but again one last time what the hell might as well. The agent assigned to me came over and found me and told me that the plane was ready to leave and I should go down to get into the car. I was lucky again and got one of the Porsche Cayenne’s over to the plane, sadly though the ride was very short and when we departed I said I should have made the driver take me around a little more and he replied you should have told me and I would have…damn, learn from your mistakes if you’re there, just ask next time.

Right, from past experiences all my flights to MUC start out the same way, in a pseudo combination of jet lag and drunken stupor, I sit down and pass out and wake up when hit the runway for take off and the engines fire up. The short 50ish minute flight was your standard LH C flight, full meal service, multiple drink runs, again comparing it to where I am now, looking at the flight attendants snack and chat…hmm pringles, those look nice, can I have some? You want to pay???? And I’m in 1a…this isn’t really what happened…just assuming. Flight from MUC landed on time and I didn’t think I would have enough time to pop into the MUC FCL, I figured that would be overkill, but the flight was slightly delayed so in hindsight I could have but I had to clear customs in MUC so there wasn’t THAT much time. Onto HKG up next.

Thanks FCT –

macdonaldj2

Munich to Hong Kong

I had been watching old videos of Hong Kong Kai Tak airport and always wanted to fly into there again mostly for the novelty, but that’s not going to happen now as I think it’s a cruise port at this point. So LH F on their A346 to HKG, something in the realm of 11 hours, my what again I assume would be my last time in LH F. With 11 hours to kill in the air and oh look Christmas goose on the menu this would surely be one of those memorable flights. I sat down to this:



Would I have to spend 11 hours with NO entertainment, broken things on Lufthasna, for shame. After a few minutes sanity was restored and AVOD was up and running. Menus again were distributed along with pajamas, menus and another rimowa amenity kit. I knew I was getting the goose, but I chose to have it later because I was tired and wanted to grab some sleep, plus after the show at the FCT I don’t think I could have eaten anything else. Shortly after take off I had the bed made up and changed into my pajamas, and then passed out for 9 hours. I woke up in such a haze that I thought this was all a dream, was I really flying to Asia for the weekend? The flight attendant who held my goose came over and said wow you really did sleep that long, we’ll be landing shortly would you like your goose now? I’m not sure about you but after waking up the last thing I want is goose so I sadly had to pass on it and declined any food as I had plans on eating later. So here you were expecting what my last 11 hours in LH F were like, well imagine this, taking off, then sleep and then landing. I think I blew it, but I felt good going into Hong Kong not jet lagged so I could actually see the city properly, and that’s where were heading to next.

Here are the rest of the pictures from the flight…enjoy:

ironmanjt

Now...I've read the famous "8 bottles of Dom" or such thread, and was amused...but I'm a bit confused here. Is this post an attempt to be funny, or? I don't read any "this was a neat experience" and sounds more like a 20-year-old saying "I got wasted on the super expensive stuff and don't care what you think!"

Am I missing the humour

macdonaldj2

nothing to do with scotch...had to do with eating the ham and a lot of it and being possibly judged on over eating...that's all

ironmanjt

Hah, oh! Well, I think we're all guilty of that! *BURP*

Hyacinthe

Great TR. Looking forward to reading the rest of it!

camsean

Eat as much, or as little as you want bro.

Interesting report, please continue ^

aviatorzz

Six hours in a CRJ?? I guess we've all have done something like this for a MR.

Look forward to the rest! Also, curious, what route(s) was the CRJ flown?

macdonaldj2

Hong Kong

Right, first things first SIM card for my phone, read about some place in the departure terminal that sold them and spoke English. After clearing customs, I changed some cash and made my way up to the departure level and found the store, grabbed my SIM and was quickly heading down to Hyatt in Kowloon. Check in was quick and painless, they explained I could have breakfast at 5am if I’d like, no, I would not like that. It was around dinnertime and I had planned on heading to a night market to see what kind of street eats I could get into. I quickly found the MRT, bought a pass for a couple of days (I think) and then figured out what stop I needed to go and how to walk from the MRT to my destination, easy-peasy.

I arrived and started to wander around, I quickly became disappointed as I assumed there would have been tons of vendors selling all kinds of food, but it was mostly store fronts selling dubious looking fare with not that many patrons, always a bad sign. So plan B was quickly hatched, I had limited time and really didn’t plan this out well because I assumed this was dinner and never gave it a second thought. So what do I NEED to eat in Hong Kong was googled swiftly. Snake soup, typhoon shelter crab, dim sum, char siu etc…I went with typhoon shelter crab and found where I needed to go according to the internets and that led me to under bridge. Sigh it was across the bay but close to the MRT. It was getting late at this point and I was hungry after not eating for a while. Figured out how to get over there on the MRT and then walked down to the restaurant. I put my name down for one person, it may sound sad and while I do enjoy eating with others, you get seated FAST, but in this case it was around a forty-minute wait. I spent some time taking photographs of the area and chatting with friends back in the US, most of which still think I’m crazy for doing this trip, but this is totally normal to us.


Speaking of normal I’m still two hours into a 6 hour trip R/T on a CRJ, I don’t remember why I chose this routing, but I did.

Back to crab, since I LOVE chili crab in Singapore, I figured this would be similar in the way it’s prepped, but I was wrong but in a good way. I was seated upstairs alone, and I appeared to be the only Caucasian person in the place, again another good sign, some tsingtao or insert generic henekin Asian knockoff version here add some crab and you’ve got a pretty happy camper. Here are some shots of the crab I assume before because my hands were disgusting after:








After crab it was time for me to head back as it was getting late and I was tired again, another ride on the MRT, back over to Kowloon and walking through the propositions for sex, cheap suits and fake watches I made it back to the Hyatt, which was really nice by the way. I needed to figure out what I should do on Saturday, I know I wanted to take the tram up to the Peak, but what else? I’ve never been so I fired up the trusty interwebs again to find a tour, I settled on some all day bus tour that hit all the highlights, usually I would avoid these things because I would have a solid plan going into something like this but this time was different. After paying I settled down for the night.

Woke up the next morning and headed out to find breakfast near the hotel and stumbled into this restaurant selling things? Not really sure, but it involved spam, eggs maybe and some noodle dish with fermented other things on it, not really much of a description I know, but I think I have a picture somewhere…maybe not

I do believe all of it was less than 2USD. I headed back over to the hotel to wait for the tour to start and they quickly arrived and off we went. This tour would cover a temple near the peak, the peak itself and the tram ride up, onto the boat city where we would have some dim sum at Jumbos, and then head over to the new territory where the beach area was where we could ‘shop’. I was pleasantly surprised that a Delta A330 crews on rest before their flight to NRT were on the tour with us. They were a great group of people and it turned out some of the people on the tour were actually on the same flight the next day as well. We all ended up chatting about planes, biscoffs, my love for channel 9, what I was doing in Hong Kong and our shared general love for all things plane related. With the exception of the seats on a CRJ…I believe it’s time to land…gotta run. Here are some pictures from the day:












Right sorry, decided to watch a movie instead of finishing this up, but luckily or unluckily the movie was quick and I’ve got some time to kill before we land. This crew has probably been the best crew I’ve had on a United flight.

Back to Hong Kong, after touring I was hungry and from my searching the previous night I wanted to grab some snake soup, yes you read that right, snake soup. I also wanted to check out the light show that Hong Kong puts on at night, I mistakenly decided to head across the bay because I assumed that’s where you want to be in order to properly see the show. I stopped for snake soup first at a place that escapes me now. However I waited in a line that snaked out the door…that’s just good writing there. I got in and was seated with two other locals and then another gentlemen sat down next to me, again I was the only Caucasian in the place, and I don’t speak Cantonese. A waiter came over and tossed a menu my way, it was only in Cantonese, no pictures, nothing. I looked around as I usually do to see if I could point at anything and thankfully I noticed the guy sitting next to me on facebook, and it was in it appeared to be in English. I leaned over and asked him if he spoke English and to my surprise he said yes. I politely asked him to order me whatever he got, which was snake soup and then duck sausage with rice. Everything came relatively quickly and you’re probably saying to yourself…snake soup…ew. People often ask me why I go out of my way to eat odd things, to me it’s about the story, it’s about trying something I would never be able to try otherwise, plus you’ve probably had weirder in your life and you’ve never once stopped to think about it. Have you ever thought about what EGGS actually are?? Yeah…think about the next time you’re not willing to try something. I have to tell you I’ve eaten all over the world and this was memorable, and I hate to say it but it was exactly like chicken soup but heartier and more reptiley. While eating the couple across from me just stared at me like they’ve never seen a white person eating there, which was fine because I’d probably do the same in their situation. I know the look, I’ve gotten it before in many places, I guess they were in shock as someone from what the US wasn’t eating at the golden arches. Snake soup:



After dinner it was time to head out to watch the Hong Kong light show, I stayed over in (insert proper side) of the bay for the show. I saw images and videos from previous nights and I was looking forward to the show. However it was more hype than anything as it was fairly lackluster, but still interesting that the city even puts something like this on every night.



After the show I made it back to the hotel, but I wasn’t particularly tired and since the hotel is near the ferry port I decided to splurge and spend the fifty cents or whatever it turned out to be to cross the harbor again, the journey was relaxing and more scenic than crossing on the MRT. I connected right back on the MRT and made my way back to the hotel.

At this point at night I decided to check out ideas for brunch the following day as my flight to TPE wouldn’t be until later in the afternoon. I settled on the Ritz Carlton, which seemed expensive, but hey you only live once. I mapped it out on the MRT and then figured out how to walk from the nearest station. Waking up the next morning, I finished packing and headed out to the Ritz, now when I was there the entire area near the Ritz was undergoing MAJOR construction, roads, walkways, everything was changed, I saw where the hotel was, but couldn’t actually navigate myself to it. I actually consider myself good in these situations; I mean I got lost only a handful of times in Venice, and knew where the gelato shop and the hotel were. For the life of me I actually could not figure out how to get over to the Ritz, so I eventually gave up after walking about 10 miles. I had a backup plan, however when I got there, the line looked like this (insert picture of line), so instead I just headed back to the hotel, sad and downtrodden. I assumed I would just find something on the way back, which I did. Something magical called pork floss and some random bakery; there were some other random things that I purchased to hold me over until I got to the airport. Here are some random pictures from Hong Kong and up next a BR Hello Kitty 77W in C to TPE.

Pork Floss:



The line that caused me to find pork floss:



View more at flickr if you want –

https://www.flickr.com/photos/josh_m...7644865503304/

macdonaldj2

HKG – TPE and Taiwan

On arrival at the airport the check in agent asked if I wanted to jump on the earlier flight to Taipei, I declined for some reason not remembering why I didn’t go earlier, but I knew I had to have a reason, maybe I planned on staying longer in Hong Kong, but it was probably airplane related, and when I hit the Virgin lounge, through the gin and tonic glass it hit me as I saw the Hello Kitty 777 saunter passed. Then I realized that I shouldn’t drink and book flights at the same time.



I bounced around to check out the lounges and see what they all offered, I think I hit the Thai Lounge and the Silver Kris lounge, both were decent, the Silver Kris lounge didn’t provide any tarmac views, but had good food, wifi, and pretty much anyone would need in a lounge, the Thai lounge had some good tarmac views and decent food, didn’t stay that long there, and the Virgin lounge had the best views, with food to order and really good drinks.

I made my way over to the gate to snap some pictures of the plane from the outside. There were a lot of people attempting the same thing. I took a picture for a group of flight attendants from a regional airline (the name escapes me now). The plane seemed to put a smile on everyone’s faces, mine included.




Boarding was called and before I knew it we were heading out to the runway, watching everyone on the tarmac stop, wave and take pictures as we rolled passed. It was quite a sight to see the plane as it reflected against the terminal glass; I just sat there laughing as I think I booked this flight to say I flew on a hello kitty plane. It had less to do at the time of booking than seeing Taipei. The flight was uneventful, the plane went up, and the plane came back down, don’t remember anything about the food, the service, or really much anything, sorry actual #AVGEEKS, I didn’t even get the tail number, but there can’t actually be that many 77Ws painted with a bunch of cartoon kittens on it.

I had done very little research on what to do/see in Taipei and since I was only there for around 18 hours left me with little opportunity to really explore, which turned out to be a great thing because it made me want to go back as there is just so much left to see and do. I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, arriving somewhere around 8-9pm and then dumped my bags and took another taxi over to Shinlin night market. For a fat, adventurous eater this was great place, they had everything and anything you wanted, and probably some things you didn’t want. I let me nose lead me and then had my eyes decide which stall had the longest line. First up was right at the main entrance, Hot Star fried chicken, where 1.50 gets you this:






The chicken set the mood as I meandered from stall to stall to see what everyone was cooking up, stinky tofu, soups, grilled anything, frogs eggs, it was truly incredible. I stopped at this stall that I never got the name and was quickly seated and presented with a bowl of…really I don’t know, but the line to the place was long, there were no Caucasians around which in my eyes is a good thing. Here is a picture of the mystery bowl and if anyone knows feel free to tell me. I assumed there was either intestines and or another magical mystery part which the men reading this would not want to hear…use your imagination. After the soup, I picked up some grilled meats and talked myself into trying stinky tofu as it’s an either love or hate relationship with that. Now I’ve had durian, many, many times and I always say it will be good this time, it’s a lie, if you like it I understand there is that initial hit of sweetness, but I can’t get passed that rancid aftertaste. Stinky Tofu is right up there, now I don’t know if there was an open sewer nearby or if it was the tofu, but my nose and brain were in a battle to sway my decision. The brain would get me there, but the nose would make me turn away, this process repeated itself over the course of a couple more hours before finally giving up and not trying it. I regret it now looking back and writing this. It was getting late and I picked up some more snacks that looked like…well another part of the male animal, but turned out to be candied fruit instead. Some photos of the market:





Hot dog, stuffed in another sausage of glutinous rice:


Questionable soup:



My night was over after that, back to the Westin I went and planned out the next day. Side note about that hotel, they have literally the biggest pillows I have ever seen, it was the size of a large dog bed, I compared it to the TV:



Last day in Taiwan, on the docket today would be focused on Taipei 101, which is the third or fourth or sixth tallest building in the world, can’t actually check as I’m back on a CRJ heading up to DTW for another mileage run. They do or did have the world’s fastest elevator in the world. Here is a link to the video I made of the trip up – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=205HMAHlORo

I walked around the observation deck and took some photos which you can see here:









When I was finished I headed to the basement where happily they had an outpost of Din Tai Fung, which also happens to be where they make the best dim sum, in my opinion of course, and if you know of better please let me know. The line was insanely long to get in, but thankfully I was dinning solo so I got in fairly quickly.



Once inside the hostess who sat me asked me if I wanted anything else on the menu as I had already picked outside before sitting, she mentioned me that I should probably get more and other different things, so I told her to check whatever she wanted off on the menu that I should eat and or try while I’m here. I told her I was in her hands and I trusted her decisions. If you’ve made it this far I put a lot of food choices in the hands of others when I’m overseas and in the past it has never failed me. This was no exception. I’ll let the food do the talking for the rest of it:

















Masters at work –


Post lunch I headed over to the airport for the very long wait and eventual delay of my flight out of TPE, I had changed my LAX routing to SFO as I saw the LAX-TPE flight was delayed something in the realm of 10 hours causing a misconnect, so I moved myself onto the open SFO flight, which shockingly was also delayed again causing a misconnect. I had to change my routing from SFO to IAH on the last flight out that got in around 1am. If we did take off with the delay I might have made it onto the earlier flight, but I’d worry about that when I land in SFO. Up next TPE-SFO-IAH and the mystery of if I made the earlier connection…dun dun dun..(I didn’t).

Again if you want to just go through pictures follow the flickr link –

https://www.flickr.com/photos/josh_m...7644865503304/

macdonaldj2

TPE-SFO-IAH

We’re back on board, this time an A319 (woo) and with Channel 9 AND Wifi, it really doesn’t take much. A very early arrival at TPE meant a long wait, but I wanted to check out the lounges, I got to experience more than I wanted really with every flight to the US experiencing some hefty delays for reasons I couldn’t figure out. I had switched my delayed LAX flight to the lesser-delayed SFO flight in hopes of arriving back in IAH at a somewhat reasonable hour. It was not looking good for anyone on a North America bound flight that night. I found myself in the more ‘hip’ and ‘funky’ EVA lounge with extremely strange offerings, they had hot dogs and doritos next to more traditional offerings. I spent most of my time looking for routings that would get me back due to the delays but there wasn’t much that would work and since everything was delayed anyway I decided to just drink (soda) and watch movies. The lounges were fine for what they were, I think I eventually found myself bored and tired with the entire situation and decided to walk around the terminal to see what I could get into. There were some shops, nothing to write home about, so I won’t.

Eventually it was nearing boarding time and I had we were all placed in some pseudo waiting room with people yelling and screaming about the delayed flight, by the time I got down to the holding area there were no seats available, so I sat on the floor and waited more, I do believe I have a picture of that somewhere, I think it was time for my come upping’s after this wonderful trip. I just sat there and waited…and waited…and waited some more and watched the situation escalate to the point where I saw the worst in human behavior, more yelling followed by crying followed by more yelling.

Boarding was eventually called and it was a mad dash with no organization, I just went and the followed the hoard and eventually made it to my seat. I can go back on check but I don’t remember the number, I know it was in the middle of the 1-2-1 set up and I was on the right side of the aircraft. Sadly I have no pictures of anything on this route so you’ll have to use your imagination. It was a normal 77W from EVA so no Hello Kitty on this route and I was fine with that.

I can’t remember if the amenity kits were placed on the seat or were distributed prior to take off, but I did receive one, menus were also offered and I may have had a champagne prior to take off or shortly after, sorry about the details as I don’t remember much about this flight other than the long delay and the terrible time I had in SFO. I do remember I had a steak for dinner and I slept most of the way so that was nice.

We landed in SFO with enough time (if I hurried) to catch my connecting United flight. I cleared thanks to global entry and hustled over to the United check-in agents to see if I could get onto the earlier connection. The agent agreed and printed up a boarding pass and I made it over to TSA who told me that I couldn’t clear as I had an extra bag with me. The united agent said the flight was close to empty so there was no issue with carrying on an extra bag and I couldn’t check my bad as the time had passed. The TSA agents did not care what the agent said so I had to do the repack of shame and eventually fit everything in. I cleared security and made it over to the gate only to see that the doors had been closed for a good 10 minutes. Le sigh…off to attempt to get into the United lounge and wait for the original flight that would now get in somewhere around 1am CST.

I arrived at the lounge only to be initially turned away for some reason. I presented my C boarding pass from EVA, but the agents said I shouldn’t be allowed in. I tried explaining my situation while in the middle of repacking again. The agent started to look up if I could be allowed in or not but took a fancy to my rimowa amenity kits that I’ve collected along the way, I ended up with 4, thanks to whoever left it on the LH flight to HKG. Since I had two of the same color I offered one to her and by this time she had let me in the lounge so I was grateful and I wasn’t going to need two of the same color. In hindsight it was a pretty poor exchange, but I appreciated her service so if I could make someone happy then that’s all that counts.

Boarding was called before I knew it and we were off on a domestic United C flight. It as much like the one I’m currently on or was on when typing this, uneventful and nothing to write home about. I arrived back to IAH and my wife was graciously waiting for me.

All in all the routing was around 20,000 miles for 130,000 miles R/T from US to Asia with HKG the destination and TPE the stopover. Hotels were: Hyatt Regency Kowloon at 15k points a night and then Westin TPE on a cash and points rate. Thanks for the read or thanks for enjoying the pictures or thanks for both. I might finish my Germany Trip report at some point and probably start up my next trip report of our most recent around the world journey to Vietnam on Asiana Suites out of JFK and Air China Forbidden Pavilion out of PEK.

macdonaldj2

There was much more eating

Thank you

More food up now...sorry if you're into dim sum

IAH-DTW...turned out to be in total of 12 hours in CRJ and 3 on a 319

themapelligroup

Great trip report! I loved the pictures. Thanks for sharing.