After breakfast we were off to our annual birding trip to High Island - a place that the migrating birds first see after their exhausting trip across the Gulf of Mexico. Several years we had hit the wrong days and the birding was fine but not spectacular. But today we hit it right - we spent the day birding the Boy Scout and Smith woods and then Bolivar Flats. we know these places very well after so many years. It was great we saw 80 species and 13 different warblers.
Happy with our success we arrived at the airport four hours early to board our China Airlines Boeing 777. We changed our seat from aisle and window to aisle and center as the plane was full. Almost everyone was Chinese. This is an Affordable Asia Groupon trip so we are not expecting luxury that one usually gets on an international flight. But it was really low key. I skipped the dinner and Zosia didn't think much of it. I don't recall them offering drinks before I fell asleep (this flight started at 1:00 am). The movies were mainly Chinese without English dubs. And if you wanted water or such you would go to the back of the plane and pour it yourself. Too bad the bar wasn't set up back there.
So time is screwy - we boarded at midnight and it was a 14-1/2 hour flight. I got into my PJs before take-off so my clothes would be fresh when we landed. The second dinner was better, but wow what a long trip. But we both had no really bad reactions and landed at the Beijing airport at 4:30am. Here we encountered our first Groupon fellow travelers - Winston and Renee, newly wedded (on Saturday) on their honeymoon from Dallas.
We wander around together not knowing what is going on as none at this hour speak English. So now we have a couple who will watch our back as we watch theirs. Thank goodness she is with the Air Force, properly trained.
So now we have nine hours to kill - the other downside of the budget groupon. But we are in good spirits and this airport is one of the most beautiful and enormous ones in the world. We're reading our ebooks and sitting at the charging stations as the phones and IPAD are running out of juice. We have no Yuans so we need to charge whatever we get. This airport also has the runways and tarmacs that can handle the new double-decker Airbuses that hold 650 people - one just took off for Frankfort.
Happy with our success we arrived at the airport four hours early to board our China Airlines Boeing 777. We changed our seat from aisle and window to aisle and center as the plane was full. Almost everyone was Chinese. This is an Affordable Asia Groupon trip so we are not expecting luxury that one usually gets on an international flight. But it was really low key. I skipped the dinner and Zosia didn't think much of it. I don't recall them offering drinks before I fell asleep (this flight started at 1:00 am). The movies were mainly Chinese without English dubs. And if you wanted water or such you would go to the back of the plane and pour it yourself. Too bad the bar wasn't set up back there.
So time is screwy - we boarded at midnight and it was a 14-1/2 hour flight. I got into my PJs before take-off so my clothes would be fresh when we landed. The second dinner was better, but wow what a long trip. But we both had no really bad reactions and landed at the Beijing airport at 4:30am. Here we encountered our first Groupon fellow travelers - Winston and Renee, newly wedded (on Saturday) on their honeymoon from Dallas.
So now we have nine hours to kill - the other downside of the budget groupon. But we are in good spirits and this airport is one of the most beautiful and enormous ones in the world. We're reading our ebooks and sitting at the charging stations as the phones and IPAD are running out of juice. We have no Yuans so we need to charge whatever we get. This airport also has the runways and tarmacs that can handle the new double-decker Airbuses that hold 650 people - one just took off for Frankfort.
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