They took my lighter… Then taunted me with a smoking room

But it’s ok, they had those resistance lighters, the kind that you find in cars, but hardly anyone uses.

So this is being written on my way from Beijing to Tokyo. First an A321 from HK to Beijing. It was enjoyable boarding the A321 the first time, when I went to and from Vietnam. But after that, it just gets old. I love the walkways and now realize how convenient they are.

Anyways, usually you’re allowed to bring one lighter (bic type) on the plane (TSA changed their rules but I guess some countries decided not to). Everything was going fine, but we arrived in PEK, disembark the plane and take the shuttle to the terminal, the usual affair: customs and security. Now again, I was not aware that you aren’t allowed to bring lighters into PEK, they probably made an announcement while I was passed out on the first leg of my journey. I got stopped at the security checkpoint and they did the usual and found that I hadn’t put my wallet or my lighter through the x-ray scanner (via a very thorough pat down)… bad news. The person checking me called over to the other works, showed my lighter and wallet, none of which I could understand because it was all in mandarin. She asked for my boarding pass, so I gave it to her.  At this point I was worried. I had no idea why I was getting checked/stopped, I had an idea it was regarding my lighter, but had no clue to how severe it was. The other guard motions me past security and writes down my flight information/ passport information and hands back my passport and boarding pass. She looks me in the eye and says rather sternly in English “No lighter!” and im like ohhhhhhh snap and instantly feel relieved that I got away with only a warning. However, im  a little sad that they took my lighter. It’s the second casualty of lighters in Asia. My first one that I brought from Boston, a nice Bic lighter, was lost in a taxi on the way back from TST to UST. And now this cheap 711 lighter, which I’ve had about a month to bond with, was confiscated in China. Oh well, such is life.

After the lighter incident, everything went pretty smoothly, found where my gate was and noticed the smoking lounge. How could I resist?! But wait, I don’t have a lighter, I figured there would be some kind of fire starting device inside. Lo and behold, they had the electrical resistance lighters that you find in cars.

I decided to grab a post smoking tea. And got the typical airport-robbery-for-a-drink deal, 22 RMB for an iced tea w/ lemon, I got a free candy bar which makes it a lot better! I actually didn’t realize how little time I had between my flights because as soon as I got my drink they began boarding my flight from PEK to Narita. It was a Boeing 737-800, and we used the walk way instead of shuttles, Praise the Lord.

Now something that I’m only getting used to now, Non-english magazines on “foreign” carriers; most of the plane’s that I’ve been on have had bi-lingual magazines. Not Air China. Their magazines are straight up Chinese. Which is pretty cool, but I’ve flipped through the one on the last flight and it had some seemingly interesting articles. Lucky for me, I found one that had English! And the articles were as interesting as I expected. One was on how people around the world (the US, in this article) are wanting to learn Chinese more and more these days. Before it was because some people were interested, but today’s main motivation to learn Chinese can be attributed to the Chinese economic boom. Either way, I found the article okay. The second article I read was regarding how Chinese Air specially chartered flights to help evacuate Chinese nationals from Libya. Despite the obvious nationalistic tone that the article was written in, it was very touching. More importantly, the pictures clearly expressed the emotions of the passengers on these specially chartered flights. I’ll admit, reading the article and looking at the pictures made me cry. The old cliché about pictures is 100% true; a picture is worth 1000 words. I hope to become a better photographer and be able to take candid pictures of people. I want to be able to convey the emotions of the subjects as effectively as the photojournalist did in the article. Even a few years back, when the first wave of troops were returning from Iraq, I teared up seeing the joy and relief of the soldiers returning to their loved ones. Thinking about it is making me tear up a bit…

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Completely unrelated, it’s a very interesting flying these days. Blame it on ignorance, but I’m used to check-in counter clerks and flight attendants speaking to me in English, but these days, its always in Chinese. I guess I can pass off as a local!

EDIT: I feel like such a foreigner. The flight attendant asked whether I wanted chicken or beef in mandarin. I had a vague understanding of what she said, but still didn’t understand. Had to say sorry, English only : (

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One last thing, never have I thought I was this unprepared to take on the world. This past semester has been completely eye opening.

NAM

What an amazing trip.

I went to Vietnam for 6 days and has been my best trip so far! ( I know I probably say that about all of my trips right after they happened, but this is different). Some back-story here, this trip was planned about a month advance (much more than other trips which are usually booked the week of). Me and my friend also learnt that we very much disliked large groups so we opted to keep it just between the two of us.  However the most planning we ever did was book one night at a hostel and the plane tickets; everything else was being left up to when we landed. That was great idea.

 I cannot stress how important it is to approach traveling as an adventure. Sure you can plan your itinerary so you have very little time to explore and see everything you want. But that just will lead you and your fellow travelers to be stressed. If you travel with no plans, you have absolute freedom to do what you want. Meet people, talk to them, figure out what they have done and where they have been. Travelers are some of the most interesting people out there.

Anyways, the day before we leave I had my heat transfer midterm. I studied my ass off for that, basically engineering here is the same as engineering at umass. Teach yourself from the book and you’ll be fine.  The test itself went pretty well, I felt I was sufficiently prepared and managed to understand 95% of the questions being asked on the test. So when I left the test room I was feeling rather good. Grab a cig, head to my room, nap, pack like a boss. Half a duffle and a backpack taking nothing more than enough clothes, my tripod, my camera (w/ my 35’ and a borrowed old fish-eye lens) and a power adapter. 

The next day we get to the airport and I somehow get all disoriented. Now usually I’m pretty good at getting my bearings and finding where im supposed to go, but I was just off my game; leading to jokes between me and my travel partner who was originally going to rely on me finding out where to go.  

Vietnam airlines is a sick carrier to fly on. On our 2-2.5 hr flight from HKG to SGN, they gave us food which is a definite plus when it comes to flying. You don’t get any of that back in the states. The plane itself was an A321 and we had to take a bus from the gate onto the tarmac where we boarded the plane via stairs. Its been a while since I’ve done that.  When we land, it’s the same deal, disembark the plane and go through immigration. We arranged to be picked up from the airport by the hostel, and for once I was one of those important people that have their names written on a sign with a driver waiting to pick you up.

We get to the hostel check in etc. exchange our money. In under a second, I become a millionaire! Well a multi-millionaire… 1 USD = 21,000 VND at the rate that we were getting. So me and my friend each had 2.1 MILLION Dong.

We get to the room. King sized bed, AC, Fan, TV, window, bathroom w/shower + hot water. Good deal for ~10 USD / night, which is pretty expensive relative to the other hostels in district 1. We leave the hostel in search of food. We find a place and grab Pho for 40k dong. Pretty cheap now that I think about it. After, we wander and find a tea place, get some tea go to the park and chill. Went to the hostel, called it an early night and passed the fuck out.

Having to wake up at 7am to get breakfast and get on a tour bus is something completely foreign to me. anyone that knows me, knows that I am not a morning person. But the breakfast that was provided at our hostel was awesome: Omelet and a fairly big sized baguette. BREAD! I hadn’t had bread in so long, I don’t think buns count, and the bread for things such as sandwiches doesn’t count either. As I said before, we got a small thing of bread on the plane but that was just an appetizer for all the bread that we got in Vietnam.

Tours etc.

-          Cu Chi Tunnels

This place was simply amazing, and it makes you realize why the Vietnam war waged for so long and was so hard for the western countries. The North Vietnamese had a tunnel network that spanned over 250 Km! we were given the opportunity to crouch walk through 50m of some tunnels. By the time I emerged from the other side, I was drenched in sweat and exhausted as hell.

Oh I was also able to shoot an AK-47 and a carbine! It was so cool! I would highly recommend this to anyone visiting Saigon.

-          Me Kong Delta (2 day trip)

We were able to see Vietnam through a different lens. Getting away from the city was just what I needed.  Yeah, they took us to some ridiculously touristy places, but I think I got a good view of what life was like down in southern Vietnam. We opted to do a home-stay instead of staying in the hotel with everyone else.  Seeing the floating market was a unique experience, people gracefully navigating their boats around others.

-          War Remnants Museum

Being able to see a different perspective of the Vietnam war

Ah this post does not do the trip justice at all. Just find me and I can tell you all about it! The things we saw, the people we met. Most definitely the best trip I’ve ever taken.