At 6:40pm GMT+8 on Wednesday, May 28th, I took off from Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan. At 3:35pm PST on Wednesday, May 28th, I landed at Los Angeles International Airport. Gotta love how time zones work.
In order for jetlag to be minimized, I had to stay awake the entire flight, since I was taking off at 3:40am PST, and not sleep until Wednesday night, PST. But I fell asleep at 9pm for a few hours…
I got to Taoyuan pretty early, with two hours between passing security and my flight’s boarding call. Taoyuan’s a pretty big airport in terms of connected shops. There was a map of the gates, with a “time to gate” estimate from where the map was located. The furthest ones were 35-minutes from the center. And of course there was a giant Hello Kitty Sanrio store that spanned two gates.
My flight, was EVA Air’s new Star Alliance livery Boeing 777-300ER, B-16701. I just found out that it was actually repainted from the Rainbow livery (see below)…which means I’ve flown in that very Boeing 777-300ER the last time I went to Taiwan, five years ago. Huh.
And it also means I’ve got both liveries of the same aircraft in model form. Heehee.
On the flight, I sat next to an elderly grandma. I spoke to her in Taiwanese when I first got to the row (“Pai-tse” in Taiwanese or “不好意识” or “Sorry to trouble you”) since I was in the window seat. And doing that, as a young person, immediately opens up elderly Taiwanese, and made the trip quite nice, with me helping her out with the gadgety doo-da that is the TV console and light system and her just being pleasantly nice.
The food was superb as well, first with this delicious pork and rice and the omelette and hash browns were the best I’d ever tasted…
Wait, I just realized I have Hulu again. With 22 shows lined up.
…
Bye.
It was great getting the chance to be back in Taiwan to see my relatives and where I had spent each of my summers as a kid, even if for just 11 days. Both that short duration, and seeing the country now, reminds me that although I’ve grown up, I still have roots to my childhood and can always try to find one to travel back through. Thanks to everyone who made my short vacation possible, including my parents, relatives, and friends in Taiwan!