Plane Rides Suck
I have to be honest here: I hate plane rides. I’m sick of it.
I don’t mean it literally - I don’t vomit while I’m on the plane, or feel dizzy. It’s just that, whenever I go from one place to another, the most uncomfortable part is always the plane ride.
That especially applies to 23 hours of being inside the plane while on the way home from a vacation that I thought was too short.
Just this Friday, my trip to the city-that-never-sleeps, ended. Far worse, my plane departs at 5:50 AM, and I’m expected to reach Philippines at 930 PM of the next day. That’s a whole lot of time travelling and not to mention, transferring. To recall, I went from Newark to Houston, then to Hawaii, then to Guam, and then to Philippines. that’s 20+ hours of being seated at the not-so-comfortable seating of Boeing airplanes, climbing over seatmates (because I wasn’t assigned at the aisle seats) whenever I want to take a leak, eating so-much-lesser version of all those fantastic foods I ate in NY, sleeping with a blindfold wrapped uncomfortably at my ear, trying to read "The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath" when I lost sleep, hearing babies cry, and listening to ear-grating noises of jet engines. Who likes those kind of experience anyway?
To make it even worse, the movie, Madagascar, was played just to remind me of the beautiful city I’ve just left. I saw in the movie all the places I’ve visited, loved, and will miss! There’s the Central Park Zoo, the Time Square, the Rockefeller Skating Rink, and the Grand Central Train Station. Heck, the animators even depicted in full CG glory the streets of Madison Avenue, down to the subway of 59th Street Lexington Avenue - the station nearest the place where I live. I almost wanted to throw tomatoes at the flight attendants who thought of playing this movie!
Worse of all, that’s 20+ hours of time and date transitions! Before I’m even aware of it, it’s suddenly the next day, then it goes back to the previous day. Factor it with a daylight in one place and a nighttime in another, and things can get pretty confusing. SHould I say, jet lag?
Until now, I’m still experiencing jet lag, which has caused me to become so counterproductive. I sleep all afternoon, but stays awake all night.
November 11th, 2005 at 8:02 am
i know what you mean; ive made that trip before so many times, but through a different route: st. louis-detroit-japan(osaka-nogoya-tokyo-take your pick)-manila. but even though it’s a rough one, i still love the experience, which i cannot separate from the anticipation of returning home.