Through 13 Time Zones… My Self-Described Recap of a Door to Door journey on the way to Thailand…
Ever wanted to know what it’s like to travel to the other side of the world in under 36 hours? Sound like fun? Well, here’s your chance to relive the experience in my shoes, moment by ever changing moment. This is my best attempt (ok maybe not my best, I was pretty freaking tired) to recap the wonderful traveling highlights of what I’d like to call the ‘longest travel day’. Ok, it clearly carries over more than a full 24 hour day BUT technically, we were traveling into the future. Have you been to the future? I have! And I didn’t expect it would be this exhausting…
*For the purposes of this article and chronological time accuracy (if you want to call it that), all times are pretty much set from my departed city time zone. Because lets face it, when you travel ‘into the future’ by 13 hours, how the hell do you ever really know what ‘time’ it is when you’re cresting to the top of the earth only to end up on the other side? Marty McFly never really knew what time it was either…
So Let’s Begin…Through the Jet Lagged eyes of a Passenger
5:47 am – Waking up, and realizing I’m still only half packed… dammit
7:03 am – Scrambling to make some ‘To go’ coffee
7:35 am – Leaving my front door ready to start this 30+ hour journey
7:39 am – Wait… did I forget to lock the door?
8:20 am – Dragging my bags into the airport and realizing I should’ve taken my own advice and not packed so much!
8:26 am – ‘Waking up for the 2nd time today’ after checking out the attire of our check in crew at Jet Blue
It’s a bit blurry, yes… but so were my eyes that morning
8:35 am – Beginning the ‘first’ round of security checks for the day
10:12 am – About to take off on the first of three airplanes – Lets do this….
11:47 am – Touch down in NYC at our second airport
12:26 pm – Going back through security… again
3:40 pm – Sitting around the terminal ‘people watching’ and waiting for the next flight
Who are these happy travelers? Everyone is just so cheery at the airport…
4:45 pm – Standing in line ‘ready to board’ only to realize ‘Air China’ is delayed more than an hour. So, wait, why are we standing in line then?
5:53 pm – Finally taking off on a Boeing 777 and realizing this delayed flight would leave us less than a 50-minute connection to make it back through security and onto our third plane to Thailand!
My First moments of ‘We’re not in Kansas Anymore’ set in…
7:08 pm – Eating my first China meal on the plane and getting flashbacks of having spent 6 months living in this country… “Excuse me sir, would you like rice or rice for dinner or noodle and noodle”
7:09 pm – Realizing I made the cardinal mistake of having not brought an arsenal of Snickers Bars on this flight but rejoicing in the fact I did manage to bring some weird snacks made up of Italian chocolate crackers I bought at the last minute before boarding
7:25 pm – The reality of this 13+hour flight settles in only to realize 90% of the movie selections on my 7” screen in front of me are all in Chinese. All of a sudden 1960’s John Wayne films are looking like the thing to watch. Good thing I brought ‘Atlas Shrugged’ – just 937 pages worth of reading material!
Yep… That’s the window. So close, yet so far away! Damn middle seat!
11:29 pm – After two movies in, I’m in constant battle with myself for sleep. My brain is calling for some ZZZ’s but my neck just isn’t cooperating. Damn those in First Class and their full length beds!
12:10 am – I realize sleep just isn’t going to happen and start on my 3rd movie
3:30 am – Or thereabouts, sleep finally takes hold but only momentarily as I’m jump-started into consciousness as I wake, open my eyes and realize I can’t move my neck as its fully cramped, down and to the right side… I’m stuck, craned in this twisted neck position for about another minute. A fantastic way to wake up!
6ish am – I’m steadily losing track of time after having been through at least 8 times zones at this point but it’s dinner/lunch/breakfast(?) time again! Yay… this time I opt for rice but with seafood this time. I was able to identify the shrimp but wasn’t too sure on the other little guys in that aluminum tray.
6:33 am – Listening to the 60th loudspeaker announcement by the flight crew, in Chinese, and that is later followed by English. Seems the only words I can make out in the English version every time is “Ladies and Gentleman” as I quickly get lost in Chingrish translation after that
This is where it heats up….
7:56 am – Final touchdown in Beijing, Chinaland and with only 54 minutes to catch our next flight. (Technically we only have about 30 minutes since pre-boarding takes place 20-30 minutes prior to our 8:50 departure). Can you feel the adrenaline starting to surge?
8:04 am – Trying to run through an airport at 90mph packed with millions of Chinese all while trying to make sense of the Chinese Characters surrounding us as we search for signs in English directing us to our next flight
8:06 am – Realize there are way too many Chinese people in China (as we try to barrel our way through the crowds of slow walkers)
Pop trivia question: What % of the 1.355 billion people that make up China were in this airport at this exact moment? First person to answer correctly wins a bowl of rice with noodles and rice
8:08 am – Reality sets in that we have little chance of making our flight as we realize we have to go through ‘Immigration’ here in Chinaland even though we are merely making a connecting flight back out of the country.
8:14 am – We’re through that Immigration nonsense and making our way to security only to realize we could bake a cake faster than how quickly this line was moving!
8:34 am – After having been pulled out of line and my carry-on bag completely emptied by the security agent, we finally make it through security and realize we only have 16 minutes to take off. Worth trying? Yep, it was that or stay in Beijing for the night. I was already breathing in the smog in the airport from the dirty Beijing air and wanted nothing of spending another day here after already having spent 20 some days in this city before…
Beijing, China…. Does it look cloudy outside? It wasn’t. The sun was overhead and that there is pure smog. You could actually see it lingering in the air when you looked down long corridors inside the airport. At this point I’m reflecting on the joyous fact I no longer live in China after spending six months here…
8:35 am – Miraculously find one of the ‘airport buggy transporter guys’ rolling up as we were grabbing our bags. Could I still speak the numbers in Chinese that I formerly knew? Wait, it didn’t matter, we hopped in, overloaded his ride and showed him our departure gate on our ticket but more importantly, our DEPARTURE TIME of 8:50. Step on it!
Yep, we took one of these things… but a lot smaller and a lot less cool!
8:38 am – I realize it was probably a bad idea to hire this airport buggy as the last thing I wanted was be an accessory to murder considering this guy nearly drove over 7 people so far in this airport! Apparently the horn is useless but shouting at wandering strangers works pretty well!
8:41 am – Arrive to our departure gate only to realize this ‘dangerous at any speed’ golf cart driver wanted to be paid. I hope he takes USD!
8:42 am – An all out sprint down an escalator, waving frantically to the poor lady beside the double doors that exited outside of the airport. She acknowledges us and said she knew we were coming. Really?
8:43 am – We hop into a bus that speeds us across a runway to our waiting Boeing 737. I couldn’t see the passengers yet but I could sense anger pouring out through those little rectangular windows as this was surely delaying the flight
8:48 am – Bam, Shazam! We finally make it into our seats! Just 2 minutes to spare… Would that have worked on a flight in another country? I doubt it. Seems no one on this plane seemed too much in a rush to take off except us. Weird…
9:03 am – We’re airborne and on our way to Thailand!
10:25 am – More food options make their way down the aisle for my 4th ‘meal in flight’ so far… and yes, you guessed it… more rice and noodle options. At this point, I wasn’t even sure if I was about to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner. Nor did I care, I was quite hungry after having ran a series of sprints through the Beijing International Airport!
1:32 pm – Touchdown in Phuket, Thailand! I realize this was much shorter of a flight (just ‘5-1/2’ flight hours) vs. the 13-hour flight taken to Beijing but it felt sooo much longer. I guess it was the lack of sleep, lack of legroom on a smaller plane and maybe a struggle for patience after having now been traveling over 26 hours straight prior to this flight. So yes, I realize now why they offer paid showers in the airports:)
2:06 pm – We exit the airport and have our first run in with the rip off – taxi drivers trying to overcharge ‘fresh’ tourists here in Phuket. But oh no folks, we are seasoned SE Asia travelers and manage to get them down to the honest and fair price to get us to where we were going. They aren’t happy but we pile in, ready for a change in transportation modes.
2:56 pm – Arrival to our hotel in Kata Beach and wait in the open air lobby a good 30-40 plus minutes for our check in
3:45ish pm – Finally arrive to our hotel room door (note to you awesome readers that made it this far through this traveling saga… it’s actually morning time here in Thailand, so imagine checking in between 2-4 am in a place after traveling a day and half)! What do you do? Sleep my friends… you sleep even though its still the middle of the afternoon based on your home watch. But wait, what did we do instead? Why we went to 7-Eleven of course, grabbed some beer and reflected back on our crazy journey…Good morning Thailand!
And Now, Finally, Some Travel Stats to chew on:
# of total hours of travel time, door – to – door: 32 hours
# of times I had to show someone my passport: 13
# of times I took off my shoes during this 32-hour journey: 8
# of times I dozed off: probably 38 times (no I wasn’t counting in my dizzy haze of tiredness but this seems about right)
# of hours slept: maybe 3 full hours (this I’m pretty sure of)
# of airports: 4
# of planes: 3
# of buses: 1
# of trams: 2
# of golf cart buggies: 1
# of taxis: 1
# of cars: 1
# of escalators: 18
# of people movers: 11
# of meals on a plane: 4
# of meals on a plane with rice or noodles: 4
# of movies watched: 5
# of time zones crossed: 13
# of times people in front of me on the plane nearly spilled my drink from putting their seat up too fast: 7
# of times I’ve put myself through these insane 30+ hour traveling marathons: 5
# of security checkpoints: 5 (yes, 5… China will pre-screen bags, then do a formal security check then do another bout just before boarding the plane and will even take the water bottle you bought in their airport)
Next time I’ll narrow down my 32 hour journey to just 3 minutes of video! Stay tuned…
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Amazing! Thanks for sharing