When Pigs Fly

I’ll admittedly say this post won’t be all that exciting – it’s mainly for our memoirs.  We’re currently winging our way to Bangkok from Taipei – the short leg of the trip.  The flight from Seattle was a long one – 13 ½ hours.  

When we checked in at Seatac I realized that I didn’t research very well, or I’d researched so long ago that I forgot.  Even though I packed in a small roller bag, the weight was over the 7 Kilo limit for carry-on, so we had to check it.  That was a bit of a bummer because we arrived really early to the airport and I was concerned my bag may get lost in the shuffle and I’ll be sans clothes in Thailand.  But being as early as we were also helped because they offered the exit row to us.  Eric was very happy to have the extra leg room.  

We found a nice little wine shop to spend our time before heading to our gate.  When that closed we went next door to Starbucks and splurged on a gluteny Guinness.  “It’s a fine day for a Guinness”.  

It was finally near time for boarding so we made our way to the tram that would take us to the south satellite gates.  On our way I heard a marching click clack click clack click clack.  I looked down the hallway and saw a horde of flight attendants headed our way.  It was the flight attendants for our flight.  All FOURTEEN of them.  That’ll give you an idea of how big this plan was.  

Our seat was in the bulkhead which didn’t give us normal bag storage, TV trays or seatback storage, but Eric did have some nice leg room.  Seeing as how my dachshund legs didn’t require it I was just happy for him.  They served dinner right away.  At 2:30 AM.  I accepted it and had some very cafeteria-worthy orange chicken and rice.

The menus:

After dinner, breakfast, midnight snack?  I was hopeful to get some sleep but couldn’t get comfortable.  I finally used some pillows to prop my feet up so I wasn’t "tip toeing" the floor and got my neck pillow just right.  The guy behind me was a bit larger so I couldn’t really lean my seat back very far.  AND he was a chatty Kathy.  Read the room, Mister.  The lights are out and you’re the only person on the entire plane that’s holding a conversation.  In go the earbuds and I listened to some Chinese music that I didn’t understand.  I think I was able to snatch about 4 combined hours of sleep throughout the flight.  Not great.  Come on No Jet Lag – don’t fail me now.  

I did see something I’ve not seen on an airline before.  Who knows, maybe they’re common place, but the person in the bulkhead next to us had a basinet that attached to the wall in front of them.  It was pretty cool.  What a way to travel with a newborn – no need to hold them in your arms the entire way. 

During the flight I read, watched the movie A Star is Born (and yes, I cried), played Pacman and we both played some Angry birds. 

We finally touched down in Taipei.  OK this may be too much information, but the first stop was the bathroom.  Now, I can't speak for the men's room, but the women's stalls were large enough to try on about 30 different outfits. I guess these people travel with some serious luggage.

The gates here all have their own theme.  Ours was a postage stamp.  Here is a picture of the Hello Kitty gate.  

Made it kind of fun to walk down the halls.

We noticed an interesting condiment at a coffee shop – fructose syrup… Hmmmmm.

We couldn’t pass up a picture with the interesting rabbit.  It’s not year of the rabbit, is it??

And PIGS FLY HERE!

So, you know how I had mentioned my fear of losing the luggage earlier?  Well, the EVA Airways app sent me a push notification while waiting to board that my bag had been loaded onto the plane.  Now, that’s cool! 

One last interesting tidbit.  This airline explains the pre-flight safety information through dance.  Yep - not kidding.

 

Eric's Vlog