A.Travel.Tale

Came back from Seattle last week but was caught in a mad-schedule of rebuilding and recovering data on my failed HDD. Harddisk crash nowadays are more severe than they used to be - I lost both my Vista and Server 2003 partitions over night. Luckily, I could recover some of the work that I have been working on. I guessed the notebook didn't enjoy the travelling as well.

This trip to Seattle is like a 'broken trip' for me. From broken HDD to broken luggage bag to broken shoes. Everything seems to breakdown in this trip. My experience with the 747 hasn't been pleasant either. Somehow, I find that the seats were a little cramped as compared to the 777. Also, they do not have dedicated video and that made my air-trip very boring.

The air hostess are cute like most of my colleagues said. They are tiny, looks fragile and speaks with a squeaky voice. I can't understand Mandarin and their version of Hokkien, so I have to carefully listen to their English.

The onboard food was also not to my liking. I guessed I prefer chicken teriyaki more than Taiwanese chicken rice but the food at the airport was alright. The airport in Taipei was a happening place, lots of stores, particularly electronic stores. There were PS3s and PSPs on sale but no X360s :( Having said that, they don't have X360 games either :(

I was quite tempted to get the Cybetshot camera but held back due to concerns of the eligibility for international warranty. In the end, I decided to get whatever I want back home instead.

On my trip home, I was put to sit in the centre between a popo (an old lady) and a young kid. It was really an uncomfortabe experience. The popo sat with her arms spread open and occupied a quarter of my seat. No one seems to be able to communicate with her as she speaks a unique dialect. She kept replying conversations with "baaaahh". The kid on the other side somehow fell asleep on my shoulder and I only discovered it when I woke up with a numbed arm.

Despite having a lousy trip, I tried to be nice as much as I can. The popo was having problems ripping the seal on her food and I helped her out. Later on, she had problems holding on to her drink while reaching for her medicine in her pocket and I held it for her. Finally, before leaving the plane, I helped her out with her luggage on the overhead compartment and she finally whispered something I could understand - "Thank You", she said.

The kid beside me was playing with his iPod the whole trip. Though I was tempted to say, "Get a Zune kid!", I just let him be. *HeHe*

The travelling time this round is much shorter than the Tokyo-Narita route as there is no need for a an overnight stay in Singapore. But in future, I think I will most probably stick to the Tokyo-Narita route by flying UA instead. I think I need a better on-flight experience.

Well, the week has been very mad. Before I could get readjusted back to my normal life, I was sent again on another trip to Karambunai, Sabah for a company offsite. Today, my body finally breaks down and I'm sick. I felt my body burning from inside the whole weekend and now I'm down with migraine. Luckily, mom made me a glass of Chrysanthemum-Gingseng tea and I feel much better now. As for the migraine, I will have to leave it to the pain-killers for now.