Back at home!
Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of Tiger bring great health and prosperous to all!
So, where shall I began this post?
Let me begin with my interesting trip back home! (Yes, I'm writing this from home - Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia!) For the Lunar New Year, I took 12 days of my annual leave. (Gonna be a tough rest of the year, with 6 days left for the entire year.) It was all good until the night before my flight, where the weather forecast for the next day was turning tricky in NYC. I had half of my luggage packed (1 suitcase with all the foodstuff: dried plums aka 'prunes', dried apricots, dried cranberry aka 'craisins', almonds, peanut butter, jelly belly and macadamia nuts, all ~40 pounds worth of food) and some of the essentials clothing in the other semi-packed. Thinking that I had the entire night to pack, I decided to work til ~6.30pm on Tuesday night.
Things got interesting for me as while I was on the phone with my realtor, sorting out communications for the next two weeks when I'm back at home, I got another call coming in. I ignored it and got a voicemail. It was my travel agent. Eff! Apparently, my flight from Boston Logan international airport to JFK the next morning was canceled. I tried calling American Airlines (AA) to talk about when will be my next flight if I were to miss this one. Because of the inclement weather, I was waiting on the phone for a good 20 minutes before I got to talk to someone, and another good 20 minutes for the personnel to searching for possible flights and all, before him telling me that it will be a good week (today) before I can get another flight home. TROUBLE!
While waiting on the phone, my mind was wandering everywhere, and I was talking to Mel on Gchat, thinking about possible routes, and finally, I decided to check if there will be a train that can take us to NYC that night. Or, as a last resort, there's always the 'dependable' Chinatown bus. So, I gave up on the AA's help, and decided to take the chances of going to JFK by land and hoping that the flight out of JFK will not be canceled. If it were to be canceled, I was thinking that what I could do will be to stay in NYC til Sunday and go back to work (instead of going home) the next week.
At that time, it was around 7.30pm. I took a quick shower and rushed to pack the remaining suitcase and cleared the trash and left my apartment at around 5 past 8. It was a total mad dash and I was pretty sure I was going to forget something because I was too lazy to prepare a packing list this time around. Fortunately, I had placed all those important documents into my bag the day before. Knowin that things that I will forget are things that I can live without. So far, things that I found out that I forgot : Some clothes, my sunglasses, my SD card for my camera (so much so for clearing the SD card so that I can take more pictures)...
So, I reached my friend's place at 9.05pm. Our cab to Boston South Station was already there. Drove with him to his workplace and back so that I can park at his place. Finally, left his place at around 9.20pm. Thankfully, the cab was willing to wait for us without charge, we gave him a rather generous tip for that. We reached the South Station at around 9.50pm, we missed the 9.45pm train. So, we ended up taking the infamous Chinatown bus (Fung Wah to be precise) at 10pm to NYC.
Normally, the bus ride takes about 4 hours, with a short stop after a couple hours for passengers to grab a bite or to take a P... I guess it was because of the weather getting worse (forecasted), they didn't stop and drove straight to NYC. We reached NYC with my empty stomach (didn't have dinner and only had 1 packet of Cheezit and a couiple of clementines for lunch) at 1.30am. From Chinatown, my buddy and I walked to the nearest subway station, took the J train to 2nd to last stop and from there, took the airtrain to JFK. It just started to snow then. By the time we got to JFK, it was about 3am. By the time we reached terminal 7, it was 3.20am. Too bad, the terminal doesn't open until 4am. So, we waited in the indoor connecting bridge between the parking lot and the terminal til 4am. At 4am, we went into the terminal 7 and waited at the Cathay Pacific counter until it opened at 5.30am to checked in our luggages and went through the security checkpoint to get FOOD. I had never tasted McD breakfast as tasty as that one. The coffee was still bad though. By that time, I had been awaked for more than 24 hours straight (minus an hour or so nap on the bus).
So, we hung out at the McD after our breakfast, and waited for Mel! She got there around 6.30am. She had breakfast too and then, we went shopping for stuff at the duty free shop. The price was just reasonable. So, I didn't buy anything, and decided to buy them on board. All but 2 flights were canceled, one Cathay Pacific to HK flight and the other is British Airways to London flight. So, the terminal was pretty empty most of the time.
There was a minor delay at JFK because it took them more time to clear the runway and also to de-ice the plane. It was delayed for about 1.5 hours. It was a long flight... How long? 16 hours + long. Given that I always have a hard time sleeping on the plane. The 16 hours was hard to kill. I saw 2 movies (law abiding citizen & cloudy with a chance of meatballs) and gave up on 2 other movies (surrogate & district 9). Spent a couple of hours studying (Materiality, Preamble, and yada yada yada on Statement of Actuarial Opinion...) and 3 1 hour+ naps. The food was OK, but I particularly enjoyed the instant noodles. I guessed I was really hungry and also it had been quite a long time since I had instant noodles. I want to say, it must have been more than 2 years, closer to 3 years since I last had instant noodles.
We reached HK at about 3.50pm (more than an hour later than scheduled.) We were hoping that the plane that we were supposed to be on was delayed, hoping that many of us who were on the plane from JFK were going to be on the connection to Kuala Lumpur. And indeed, there were more than 30 of us. So, they held up the plane for more than an hour for us!!! While walking to the very end of the plane to our seats, we saw quite many unhappy faces. Even more so when we had to 'kick' the people who were occupying our seats . People, really, please follow your allocated seat.
We reached KLIA about an hour late at around 8pm. After clearing the immigration and finally collected my luggage, I met up with my dad outside, and my brother waiting in the car. I saw my friend Laura at the airport as well! The weather was crazy hot and humid. It's bad for your body to jump out from a freezer (it's way sub freezing in Boston, MA) into a sauna steam room (35C/95+F and 100% humidity here). I finally got home at about 9.45pm. So, from door-to-door, it took me a good 36 hours and 45 minutes to get home. How fun!
I'll write up a separate post on the food I've had so far. :-)
So, where shall I began this post?
Let me begin with my interesting trip back home! (Yes, I'm writing this from home - Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia!) For the Lunar New Year, I took 12 days of my annual leave. (Gonna be a tough rest of the year, with 6 days left for the entire year.) It was all good until the night before my flight, where the weather forecast for the next day was turning tricky in NYC. I had half of my luggage packed (1 suitcase with all the foodstuff: dried plums aka 'prunes', dried apricots, dried cranberry aka 'craisins', almonds, peanut butter, jelly belly and macadamia nuts, all ~40 pounds worth of food) and some of the essentials clothing in the other semi-packed. Thinking that I had the entire night to pack, I decided to work til ~6.30pm on Tuesday night.
Things got interesting for me as while I was on the phone with my realtor, sorting out communications for the next two weeks when I'm back at home, I got another call coming in. I ignored it and got a voicemail. It was my travel agent. Eff! Apparently, my flight from Boston Logan international airport to JFK the next morning was canceled. I tried calling American Airlines (AA) to talk about when will be my next flight if I were to miss this one. Because of the inclement weather, I was waiting on the phone for a good 20 minutes before I got to talk to someone, and another good 20 minutes for the personnel to searching for possible flights and all, before him telling me that it will be a good week (today) before I can get another flight home. TROUBLE!
While waiting on the phone, my mind was wandering everywhere, and I was talking to Mel on Gchat, thinking about possible routes, and finally, I decided to check if there will be a train that can take us to NYC that night. Or, as a last resort, there's always the 'dependable' Chinatown bus. So, I gave up on the AA's help, and decided to take the chances of going to JFK by land and hoping that the flight out of JFK will not be canceled. If it were to be canceled, I was thinking that what I could do will be to stay in NYC til Sunday and go back to work (instead of going home) the next week.
At that time, it was around 7.30pm. I took a quick shower and rushed to pack the remaining suitcase and cleared the trash and left my apartment at around 5 past 8. It was a total mad dash and I was pretty sure I was going to forget something because I was too lazy to prepare a packing list this time around. Fortunately, I had placed all those important documents into my bag the day before. Knowin that things that I will forget are things that I can live without. So far, things that I found out that I forgot : Some clothes, my sunglasses, my SD card for my camera (so much so for clearing the SD card so that I can take more pictures)...
So, I reached my friend's place at 9.05pm. Our cab to Boston South Station was already there. Drove with him to his workplace and back so that I can park at his place. Finally, left his place at around 9.20pm. Thankfully, the cab was willing to wait for us without charge, we gave him a rather generous tip for that. We reached the South Station at around 9.50pm, we missed the 9.45pm train. So, we ended up taking the infamous Chinatown bus (Fung Wah to be precise) at 10pm to NYC.
Normally, the bus ride takes about 4 hours, with a short stop after a couple hours for passengers to grab a bite or to take a P... I guess it was because of the weather getting worse (forecasted), they didn't stop and drove straight to NYC. We reached NYC with my empty stomach (didn't have dinner and only had 1 packet of Cheezit and a couiple of clementines for lunch) at 1.30am. From Chinatown, my buddy and I walked to the nearest subway station, took the J train to 2nd to last stop and from there, took the airtrain to JFK. It just started to snow then. By the time we got to JFK, it was about 3am. By the time we reached terminal 7, it was 3.20am. Too bad, the terminal doesn't open until 4am. So, we waited in the indoor connecting bridge between the parking lot and the terminal til 4am. At 4am, we went into the terminal 7 and waited at the Cathay Pacific counter until it opened at 5.30am to checked in our luggages and went through the security checkpoint to get FOOD. I had never tasted McD breakfast as tasty as that one. The coffee was still bad though. By that time, I had been awaked for more than 24 hours straight (minus an hour or so nap on the bus).
So, we hung out at the McD after our breakfast, and waited for Mel! She got there around 6.30am. She had breakfast too and then, we went shopping for stuff at the duty free shop. The price was just reasonable. So, I didn't buy anything, and decided to buy them on board. All but 2 flights were canceled, one Cathay Pacific to HK flight and the other is British Airways to London flight. So, the terminal was pretty empty most of the time.
There was a minor delay at JFK because it took them more time to clear the runway and also to de-ice the plane. It was delayed for about 1.5 hours. It was a long flight... How long? 16 hours + long. Given that I always have a hard time sleeping on the plane. The 16 hours was hard to kill. I saw 2 movies (law abiding citizen & cloudy with a chance of meatballs) and gave up on 2 other movies (surrogate & district 9). Spent a couple of hours studying (Materiality, Preamble, and yada yada yada on Statement of Actuarial Opinion...) and 3 1 hour+ naps. The food was OK, but I particularly enjoyed the instant noodles. I guessed I was really hungry and also it had been quite a long time since I had instant noodles. I want to say, it must have been more than 2 years, closer to 3 years since I last had instant noodles.
We reached HK at about 3.50pm (more than an hour later than scheduled.) We were hoping that the plane that we were supposed to be on was delayed, hoping that many of us who were on the plane from JFK were going to be on the connection to Kuala Lumpur. And indeed, there were more than 30 of us. So, they held up the plane for more than an hour for us!!! While walking to the very end of the plane to our seats, we saw quite many unhappy faces. Even more so when we had to 'kick' the people who were occupying our seats . People, really, please follow your allocated seat.
We reached KLIA about an hour late at around 8pm. After clearing the immigration and finally collected my luggage, I met up with my dad outside, and my brother waiting in the car. I saw my friend Laura at the airport as well! The weather was crazy hot and humid. It's bad for your body to jump out from a freezer (it's way sub freezing in Boston, MA) into a sauna steam room (35C/95+F and 100% humidity here). I finally got home at about 9.45pm. So, from door-to-door, it took me a good 36 hours and 45 minutes to get home. How fun!
I'll write up a separate post on the food I've had so far. :-)
Labels: american airline, cathay pacific, cny 2010, home, traveling, vacation
posted by Voon Seng at 9:06 PM
3 comments
