Halfway Around the World

I left Mark and Erica at the entrance of the airport and got in line to check my baggage. I felt fine until I walked up to the next counter to have my passport checked, but as I laid my passport on the counter, I felt my knees get weak and my head start to spin. Breathing deeply, I slowly regained my composure before I lost my grip and thanked the man before walking to my exit. I hoped that incident was not a sign that I should have postponed the trip after all.

My seat on the plane was at the very back in the seats that did not recline. I was disappointed that I would not be able to get comfortable, but glad that I had such easy access to the bathroom. Knowing that the dry air on airplanes could further dehydrate me, I had come prepared with a large bottle of water and it kept me running to the bathroom throughout the flight. Luckily, I was the only one in my row for the leg from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur and I was able to lay down and sleep.

My stop over in Kuala Lumpur was over six hours and I was not looking forward to walking around the airport all that time. I had spent a good deal of time in airport on the trip over and was pretty familiar with it as it is not that big. I thought I remembered seeing a sign for a hotel, so I decided to see if there was a hotel connected to the airport where I could rent a room for the duration of my layover. I figured that any hotel connected to an airport had to be prohibitively expensive, but I was feeling so drained that I was willing to pay for the privacy and opportunity to rest that such a room would afford.

Sure enough, there was a hotel attached to the airport and they rented rooms by the hour. I thought that this was a wonderful idea and wondered why airports in the states do not have such conveniences. When I asked the woman behind the counter how much it would cost me for a six hour stay, she pointed to a list of prices on the counter, revealing that a stay of six hours would cost over $150! I was startled at the price, but had begun to consider putting the room on my credit card, when she explained that the prices were in Malaysian Ringgits, not US dollars, bringing the six hours stay down to a more reasonable 45 US dollars. Relieved, I handed over my credit card.

The room was luxurious and the bed, with its down pillows and feather soft mattress, was a treat. For the first few hours, I slept, but once I woke, I found that I could not go back to sleep and began to get restless. I put on the television and alternated between watching a program about elephants in Thailand and bordering on sleep for the next few hours. Finally at noon, I decided that I’d better try to get something to eat before catching my next flight at 1:30.

The KL airport boasts numerous dining establishments, but none that appealed to me due to my continued lack of appetite. I decided on a Chinese style restaurant where I ordered a bowl of soup.

On the next leg of my trip from Kuala Lumpur to Taipei, I was in the same un-reclining seat, but this time I had seatmates. A woman and her husband were seated in the seats next to my seat on the isle. I settled in for what I thought would be a most uncomfortable flight, when I noticed a girl a few rows in front of me get up and move to an empty seat. Even though the flight attendant came by and asked her to remain in her assigned seat until take off, the realization that I could move to another seat was a boon.

Once we were off and the seatbelt sign had been turned off, I left my seat in the back and found an unoccupied seat a few rows up on the other side of the plane. Partway through the flight, the woman who had been seated next to me disappeared and the woman who had been seated in the middle, stretched out over all of the four other seats to sleep. After a few hours, the woman, got back up and I decided to utilize the seat next to me just to change position for a few hours, but when I laid down, I immediately felt an elbow crack against my head. Knowing it was the woman next to me, but being entirely too exhausted to sit up and argue that she had no more right to the seat than I did, each of us only having paid for one seat, I decided to simply stay where I was and let my inaction speak for me.

Apparently inaction does not come across as well as action, because a few minutes later, she forcibly elbowed my head again. Incredulous, but now determined more than ever not to move, I held my ground. After one more vicious elbow to my head, she gave up and let me have the seat. Unfortunately, my victory was short lived, as soon after the elbowing stopped, I decided that the position was too uncomfortable to stay in and wound up sitting up anyway.

We landed in Taipei and deplaned for an hour for the crew shift change and then re-boarded for the final leg to Los Angeles. When we finally arrived in Los Angles, more than 36 hours after I had boarded in Dhaka, I could not believe I was finally home. I practically floated out of the terminal and into the cool September air. After waiting in line for abotu 15 mintues, I was able to get on the next flight out to Atlanta, and after another three and a half hours, I was home.