Continent Hopping… Asia to South America.

Nov 23, 24, 25th.

It will officially take me over 50 hours from Bangkok to Rio. Unbelievable.

We left Bangkok at11:55pm local time (11:55am East coast time) on Monday. We boarded the plane and were very tired. I set my watch to Tokyo time (which is supposed to help with jetlag). We were just about ready to fall asleep when the flight attendant announced that dinner would be served. At this point it was 12:30am Bangkok time and 2:30am Tokyo time. Unsure what time it really was, and since we were unsure if we’d be getting another meal we decided to take what was given to us. I had chicken cordon blue which was pretty good. It was served with potato salad and olives. It was quite tasty. Dessert was vanilla ice cream. With our stomach full and our bodies confused with the time we both fell asleep. The flight wasn’t too bad. I slept most of the time. We arrived in Tokyo at 7:30am.

We killed time by walking around the airport. We checked out all of the duty free shops and tried to get small gift ideas. I grabbed Starbucks and we went to the gate and waited to be allowed on the plane for our next flight.

We left Tokyo at 11am on Tuesday for a 12 hour flight to the states. This flight was interesting. The first class and business class had almost no one in it. There were probably 50 priority seats and a total of 5 people in them. Coach on the other hand was much more full. Jess and I lucked out because we were sitting in a row with three seats and the lady in the isle seat decided to move to the back of the plane. I was very pleased. The unfortunate part of the flight was the fact that we were surrounded by children. Right across from us was a baby less than 6 months old. Behind us we had two boys, probably 2 and 4 years old. The two year old was definitely going though his terrible two’s because he screamed the whole flight and the two boys kicked our seats the whole time. The parents didn’t seem to care, and despite our dirty looks and loud sighs, let the boys continue behave poorly. Since it was so early we decided that we should have mimosas to start our flight off on the right note. The alcohol was exactly what I needed to drowned out the sound of the annoying kids and help me pass out. I slept for a few hours, but woke up and my body was simply confused. I had adjusted my watch again when we got on the plane so I was trying to sleep most of the flight since it was the early morning hours, but seemed to wake up a lot. I watched a couple movies (it has been really nice that all of our ANA flights have had personal TV’s built into the seats) and the time passed relatively quickly as I drifted in and out of sleep. The flight attendants served breakfast at 7am which consisted of egg and hot dog. Hot dogs are huge in Asia, I’ve seen them filled with everything from cheese to various meats. I am very glad to be over my “dog-dog” stage and didn’t have the slightest desire to try a hot dog at any point during our time in Asia. We arrived in Washington’s Dullas airport at 9:45am Tuesday morning- funny how we could do all that traveling and arrive an hour EARLIER than when we left, the international date line is always so confusing for me!

Jess and I had planned on having about 3 hours together in Washington in which time we could settle up money that we owed each other, use the internet and Jess could give me a crash course on Spanish. As we walked off the plane we were disappointed that we had to separate since Jess and a connecting flight and my final destination with ANA was Dullas, at which point I switch to American Airlines  to start my South American leg of the journey. Jess and I said our goodbyes quickly and were separated. I went through customs and gathered my backpack and carryon’s and breezed through customs. The customs officials yelled at the Japanese people behind me for not following the rules and waiting behind the yellow line. The Asias didn’t understand and it caused quite a commotion. It was my first “ahhh” moment. It was nice to be home where people spoke English and I understand how things work. As I walked myself towards the American Airlines counter the realization of traveling alone started to set in. I had to go to the bathroom and quickly remembered how annoying it is to drag all of your belongings in with you. I had plenty of time to kill so my first mission was to find a hotel or shower serve in the airport and freshen up. I quickly learned that didn’t exist so I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, washed my face and change my clothes. Feeling better I decided to check in and kill time inside the airport.

I was able to find a monitor and use process of elimination to find Jess’s gate number. Since I am flying to Miami before I leave for Rio I was in the domestic area of the airport. I jumped the tram and rode across several runways towards the building Jess was in. As I was getting off of the tram an older gentleman came up to be and told me that my “traveling the world” shirt was the most creative idea that he has seen. He was very impressed. He said that he had friends who may be interested in seeing my resume. I gave him one of my business cards and he said that he will be in touch later today. I was excited, let’s hope something comes from it! I found Jess at the gate and surprised her. Both of us are so jetlagged that we don’t know if we’re coming or going the look on her face was priceless when I sat down next to her.

I was relieved that she made it through customs with no problem since she put my suitcase under her name. Bringing boot legged DVD’s into the country is not really encouraged by US officials so I was glad they didn’t give her any trouble. We had just over an hour together before Jess departed. I took the tram to the section of the airport where my flight was leaving from and paid the $6 fee to get 24 hour internet access. I got updated on posting my blog and pictures and made a few skype calls to kill some time before my flight to Miami.

The flight from DC to Miami is three hours and was supposed to leave at 3:15pm, but of course ended up leaving 15 minutes late. The flight was packed. It is very clear that I am traveling on one of the busiest days of the year. People flock in all directions with talk of Thanksgiving plans. I did manage to luck out somehow and literally the ONLY empty set on the plane was next to me.

Miami was quite an experience. I had planned on going to Bayside, an outdoor shopping area with all sorts of neat shops and restaurants. I had hoped to have dinner here, pick up a few things that I need and hoped to meet my friend Hilary from Semester at Sea. My arrived in Miami early, but the gate that we needed to pull into was occupied to we waited and waited for the plane to leave so we could pull in. I really doing like Miami airport, I think its poorly laid out. I walked from one side of the other just to get outside the terminal. I stopped at the American Airlines desk to try to change my flight (I am currently scheduled to return to the US on Dec 21, but need to get it switched to Dec 24th because my Amazon and Machu Picchu trip will go until the 23rd) only to spend a long time on hold and learn that it’s a $200 fee to switch the ticket plus the additional difference in price between what I paid and the current price of the ticket. This is all very contrary to what STA told me when I booked the Machu Picchu trip with them, if that was the case I probably wouldn’t have booked it. I guess I will be needing to get in touch with them at some point in the near future. I still had more than 3 hours to kill and I had planned to jump on the local bus to Bayside. I asked information and they didn’t think that I’d have enough time to take the local bus and said the only way it would be possible would be to take the Super Shuttle or a taxi. The Super Shuttle cost $21 and a taxi minimum of $25-$30.  Disappointed I decided that it wasn’t worth the $40-$60 to get there and buy dinner and a drink. The next thing I needed to do was get intenet access to skype or email. It was at this point that I discovered that Miami doesn’t have wireless internet, or if they do its NOT easy to get on. I played around for at least an hour to try to get online (I was even willing to pay for it) but had no luck. I was really disappointed  and annoyed and felt horrible for breaking my plans with Hillary and having no way to contact her. Even if I could call her, I still would have needed internet to get her numbe. I was also annoyed that I had so much time to kill and would have loved to catch up with my friends on Skype if I had to be stuck in the airport, no such luck.

The plane from Miami to Rio boarded at 11:30pm. I was basically falling asleep in the terminal at this point. I kept setting my ipod alarm because I was nervous that I’d fall asleep and miss the flight. I luckily had a window seat on this flight and as soon as we could board got myself situated. A Brazilian woman sat down next to me. People were still filing onto the plane but my eyes were so heavy that I fell asleep before we even left the gate. I woke up briefly as the plane was taking off. The Brazilian woman disappeared by this point, which was wonderful. I sprawled out and quickly fell back asleep. I was woken at 12:30am by the flight attendant who had to ask me three times if I was Brazilian or a foreigner before I could process the question in my groggy state. He gave me the appropriate customs papers which I threw in my bag and fell back asleep. I was woken up again at 1am with the question “beef or chicken?” I was so shocked that I quickly answered beef, even though I wasn’t hungry and only wanted to sleep. I have been so confused about the meals on every plane that we have been on. I realize that it’s a long flight, but they serve dinner at the handsomest times. In Miami (where we left from) it was 1am and Rio (where we were heading) it was 4am. Who would ever want dinner at those times? I fell back asleep and woke up at 8am. I couldn’t sleep anymore for some reason so I did some reading to pass the time.

We arrived in Rio at 10:45am. My bag was of course the last one to come through at baggage claim which gave me a heart attack. But I was so relieved to be leaving the airport at that point that I didn’t even care!

That’s all for now.

Love,
Katie