Thursday, February 21, 2013

why am i in china

i'm so confused.  is taiwan china or not?  i think it is now, but the dutch had it, then japan.  and for some reason i keep thinking that england had her fingers in it too?  which island around here did england keep until 1999?  i did a report about that in high school and now i can't remember.

so as you can tell i'm in taiwan for a few hours.  nothing like going somewhere and realizing you don't remember a thing from high school history.  i'm sitting in a big comfy chair (the one i slept in last nite) looking outside and its cold here.  coats and scarves cold, so why would they have the air conditioning cranked so high inside?  i woke up a few times shivering.  i bought an extra bag to carry on and crammed it with presents and clothes and i had to keep rummaging through it for blanket material.  when i woke up for good i was wearing my regular clothes, jacket, tshirt and yoga pants, plus 4 tshirts i bought stuffed in my jacket hood and 2 dresses wrapped around my legs.  i have become an airport bag lady.

this is a super confusing airport.  in chiang mai they would only check me in through here and i had to find a desk for my next flights.  but they said my bag would make it to lihue?  doubtful.  none of the desks were open when i arrived at 3am so i was wandering around looking for a place to sleep and people kept shooing me to places i didn't want to go, namely away from the desk i needed.  there were big comfy chairs nearby but all the doors were locked and i ended up getting escorted through security to the next floor.  nap and worry about it later, i guess.

the desk was open this morning and i had to talk my way back downstairs.  i ended up walking backwards through security with all my bags and setting off every alarm they had.  but they let me do it.  the women at the desk could only check me in through honolulu, then i'm going to have to go to baggage claim and start check in all over again.  i was really hoping for one check in and done, now i have to do it at 3 airports, this really sucks.  i showed them my baggage claim ticket for lihue and the women just giggled and said they're 'searching for it now'.  thanks, thailand.

another problem with that is the booze that is on my shopping list, there are miles of duty free shops.  if i go to check in in honolulu they will confiscate my booze at security.  and that really pisses me off.

i've been wondering why every single chinese person i've seen at airports repacks all of their bags while waiting to check in.  it was really starting to bother me.  last nite in chiang mai i was the only white person in the entire airport (seriously), there were loads of tour buses and me.  every single person opened their checked luggage and rummaged around and repacked.  and i'm watching people do it here.  and i've seen it before.  but just asian travelers.

is it the last minute duty free packing because they know their airports all suck and they have to keep checking in every where?  i think that might be the answer.

there's not much left in my backpack that's legal for carryon but i think i can find space enough for a couple bottles of booze if i wear more clothes.  or tie my sneakers onto my carry ons.

we had the most amazing day yesterday riding elephants and here i am blogging about my airport problems.  i'll get to the elephants, i promise.






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