Icelandair (or FI) was running one hell of a promotion so we scored non-stop tickets for $477 round trip. FI operates a fleet of B757's and their strategy is similar to a low-cost carrier.
The cabin is in a 3-3 configuration, you have IFE in each seat, and there is only a drink service. Meals must be purchased...
Luckily, I was sitting next to two wonderful ladies that also took advantage of the great flight deal. One was a librarian, the other a teacher, and they told me "we heard food in Iceland was expensive, so we planned ahead!"
They basically packed their refrigerator. Thus, we essentially had a picnic on the plane.
Now, fast forward to the return flight. I found myself sitting next to them again! and an old teacher of mine was on the flight! This time, we had all acquired some food during the trip, so we ate and shared stories. They did a lot more boozing and partying than we did. :-P
Photos to follow!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Day 10 – Geri and Penny
I hadn't eaten yet all day, thus I'm binging at the lounge.
The sequence of events so far:
0. Sleep in.
1. Get my hair cut.
2. Say bye to Sara.
3. Taxi to Maglev.
4. Maglev to Airport
So on my return flight, I'll be flying First Class on AA. I got lucky and scored a good deal using my miles. This will be my first time flying a "Premium" class. I wish it was on Cathay...
When boarding, the Flight Attendant tried to direct me to Economy. I showed her my ticket and she omg'd a bit. First Class is a bit silly, the seat spans about 4 windows (which is a pain in the neck to close) and eating snacks before the plane ride was a noob mistake. Apparently there's a 5-star restaurant and junk food bar onboard...
^step 1, table cloth and china.
^starters were smoked salmon.
^then salad. Note the tiny bottles for the dressing!
^DUCK!!!
^ice wine and ice cream pairing!!!
Day 10 + 3 hours
The seat lies flat?! alrighty, bedtime!
Day 10 + 10 hours
I was awoken for breakfast. Apparently I had slept through the dim sum service :-(
^Unfortunately, Lucky Charms or Count Chocula were not options... They had omelettes, but I have this weird fear of cafeteria eggs, thus, I do not trust airplane eggs.
Day 10 + a lot more hours
Ok, there's only 1-more hour til arrival. One thing that I do miss up here is chatting with people. I’m not sitting next to anyone, everyone flies in suits and minds their own business, and lastly, AA has the worst movie selection ever... However, I am absolutely pwn'ing at FreeCell!!!
Day 10, I think
oh.em.gee! I'm back in 'MERICA
So flying FC, internationally, will get you not into the AA Admirals Lounge, but their Flagship Lounge. This place is silly but fancy. There's a guy who MUST be an oil tycoon from Texas, and he's chatting with guy who MUST be an oil sheikh. I want to butt in and say, "hi," then ask a jillion questions.
I’m also getting weird looks from the old folks in suits (which makes up 99.9% of the population in this smug place). This may be due to my continuous hoarding of the free food in here. I’m not going to take pictures for fear of further judgment.
Now let's see, all of this travelling has made for great people watching. For today's installment of Overheard at the Airport:
TSA guy: Hi where's your boarding pass?
Lady: Oh, my husband just took it!
The sequence of events so far:
0. Sleep in.
1. Get my hair cut.
2. Say bye to Sara.
3. Taxi to Maglev.
4. Maglev to Airport
So on my return flight, I'll be flying First Class on AA. I got lucky and scored a good deal using my miles. This will be my first time flying a "Premium" class. I wish it was on Cathay...
When boarding, the Flight Attendant tried to direct me to Economy. I showed her my ticket and she omg'd a bit. First Class is a bit silly, the seat spans about 4 windows (which is a pain in the neck to close) and eating snacks before the plane ride was a noob mistake. Apparently there's a 5-star restaurant and junk food bar onboard...
^step 1, table cloth and china.
^starters were smoked salmon.
^then salad. Note the tiny bottles for the dressing!
^DUCK!!!
^ice wine and ice cream pairing!!!
Day 10 + 3 hours
The seat lies flat?! alrighty, bedtime!
Day 10 + 10 hours
I was awoken for breakfast. Apparently I had slept through the dim sum service :-(
^Unfortunately, Lucky Charms or Count Chocula were not options... They had omelettes, but I have this weird fear of cafeteria eggs, thus, I do not trust airplane eggs.
Day 10 + a lot more hours
Ok, there's only 1-more hour til arrival. One thing that I do miss up here is chatting with people. I’m not sitting next to anyone, everyone flies in suits and minds their own business, and lastly, AA has the worst movie selection ever... However, I am absolutely pwn'ing at FreeCell!!!
Day 10, I think
oh.em.gee! I'm back in 'MERICA
So flying FC, internationally, will get you not into the AA Admirals Lounge, but their Flagship Lounge. This place is silly but fancy. There's a guy who MUST be an oil tycoon from Texas, and he's chatting with guy who MUST be an oil sheikh. I want to butt in and say, "hi," then ask a jillion questions.
I’m also getting weird looks from the old folks in suits (which makes up 99.9% of the population in this smug place). This may be due to my continuous hoarding of the free food in here. I’m not going to take pictures for fear of further judgment.
Now let's see, all of this travelling has made for great people watching. For today's installment of Overheard at the Airport:
TSA guy: Hi where's your boarding pass?
Lady: Oh, my husband just took it!
(Note: The husband was not in line...)
TSA guy: um, okay. Step to the side please.
Lady: Why?
TSA guy: um, okay. Step to the side please.
Lady: Why?
Human on phone:
You know how the tv’s on the planes can tell you how cold it is outside? Does Fahrenheit and Celsius become the same when the temperature goes negative?
My brain nearly exploded, and yes Xing, you're correct... but that's not what she was asking.
Oh yea, Geri and Penny were my Flight Attendants!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Day 9 - Hangzhou
Hangzhou. Marco Polo considered the city, "beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world." Many artists and poets have lived and worked in this inspirational city...
So, after four hours of sleep, Sara and I caught a bullet train to see what it was all about.
O-M-G it's mad early and I don't know why we have chosen this ridiculous hour to start a day trip. Nevertheless, we trudge along with the masses....
I swear, as we're walking out of the train station it starts raining... we decide to half the day and check out the touristy portion, West Lake.
Sara can't quite stay awake so she bolts for a Starbucks while I hang around the lake for photos.
After some time, we meet again and decide it's time for lunch. After much interneting and discussion with some police officers, we chose a hole in the wall/mom and pop restaurant for the local cuisine: Beggar’s Chicken, which is wrapped in fresh lotus leaves and baked on fir.
^it was AMAAAAAZING. and we headed to a Taiwanese cafe afterwards for drinks and dessert to wrap up the binge eating.
After we satiated our appetites we still had a couple of hours before our train so we checked out the China Academy of Art.
Where there were copious table tennis tables.
After scoping out the campus directory...
We checked out the illustration studio
Where students were working on a "quit smoking" campaign for the city:
Students in the sculpture studio
Were busting these out:
We then found ourselves in the gallery, where we had to sign in:
and were informed of some rules:
Painting #1
Painting #2
Painting #3
^which summed up what we wanted to do...
We wandered around some more, tried to find a donut shop, stopped at a bao-ze shop, bought souvenir foods for our offices, and then bolted for the train to grab some glorious nap time.
We finished the night by trying out a Chinese Pizza Hut. All Pizza Huts in China are MAD SWANKY.... and have ridiculous flavors:
So, after four hours of sleep, Sara and I caught a bullet train to see what it was all about.
O-M-G it's mad early and I don't know why we have chosen this ridiculous hour to start a day trip. Nevertheless, we trudge along with the masses....
I swear, as we're walking out of the train station it starts raining... we decide to half the day and check out the touristy portion, West Lake.
Sara can't quite stay awake so she bolts for a Starbucks while I hang around the lake for photos.
After some time, we meet again and decide it's time for lunch. After much interneting and discussion with some police officers, we chose a hole in the wall/mom and pop restaurant for the local cuisine: Beggar’s Chicken, which is wrapped in fresh lotus leaves and baked on fir.
^it was AMAAAAAZING. and we headed to a Taiwanese cafe afterwards for drinks and dessert to wrap up the binge eating.
After we satiated our appetites we still had a couple of hours before our train so we checked out the China Academy of Art.
Where there were copious table tennis tables.
After scoping out the campus directory...
We checked out the illustration studio
Where students were working on a "quit smoking" campaign for the city:
Students in the sculpture studio
Were busting these out:
We then found ourselves in the gallery, where we had to sign in:
and were informed of some rules:
Painting #1
Painting #2
Painting #3
^which summed up what we wanted to do...
We wandered around some more, tried to find a donut shop, stopped at a bao-ze shop, bought souvenir foods for our offices, and then bolted for the train to grab some glorious nap time.
We finished the night by trying out a Chinese Pizza Hut. All Pizza Huts in China are MAD SWANKY.... and have ridiculous flavors:
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Day 8 - No plans whatsoever
I just woke up and realized it was nearly noon. Sara was already at work and Alicia and Sam were on their ways back to London. With nothing planned, I lounged around, caught up on the news (bp spill) and tried to facebook to see what would happen:
^Photo hunt item #8, "An example of censorship."
Now this brings up a rather interesting point. Yes, Facebook is blocked in China, yet I would not consider it censorship. 'Merica absolutely LOVES making China look like the oppressive bad guy, but I would disagree; China is merely protecting its own interests. China has its own version of Facebook, and the following:
Blocked sites Chinese variants
Facebook RenRen
YouTube Youku or Tudou
google Baidu
China is simply promoting it's in-house products (yes, by blocking competitors) but we have done the same in the past (remember the Ford Motors employee parking hoopla?) and are doing it now (USAF Tanker contract anyone?). And if one REALLY wanted to access those sites, he/she could easily get a VPN account in order to do so (China isn't actively stopping those services). I won't get too deep into this, just some thoughts...
Anywho, after bumming around for a while, I went back to the market where I got my glasses to explore the camera market.
^the subway station had put up a new ad. I like their logo better.
The photo market is pretty much two floors of shops jam packed with new photo gear, used photo gear, vintage photo gear. Essentially, I wanted to buy everything.
^I held out and left the mall with just two pairs of glasses... wait what?!
Yes, while at the market, the saleswomen recognized me from the other day and pounced on me. We chatted about life in the US, life in China, my horrible chinglish and all sorts of other stuff. I ended up with another pair of glasses and sunglasses for 220 RMB.
^photo hunt item #1
After this, I headed for 1933, a slaughterhouse (built in 1933) that had been recently refurbished into retail space/restaurant space/gallery space. It was getting late in the day and the light was getting nice.
Now, 1933 is a multi-level concrete structure with large amounts of detail. The place as a restaurants/gallery area is already kind of spooky... I can't imagine what the place was like when it was fully operational.
^I wonder what they did here...
The large spaces from the photos above broke off into smaller rooms:
The top floor had a glass floor:
Looking down into the building... there were many chutes for transport of parts... and drainages for managing the blood...
After getting my architecture fix, I had to get back to the city center for dinner...
I stopped for photos and wound up late:
(I also stopped at uniqlo but did not document that)
Tony and his friends had planned this big dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant. I was able to eat many things I have not had in a while (kong ching tsai, refried yo-tiao, etc).
^dessert was the BEST part.
Afterwards, we went to a wine bar
and ended up at a bar on top of the Shanghai Hyatt (conveniently named Vue).
I got sleepy and took a nap in the lobby
^Photo hunt item #8, "An example of censorship."
Now this brings up a rather interesting point. Yes, Facebook is blocked in China, yet I would not consider it censorship. 'Merica absolutely LOVES making China look like the oppressive bad guy, but I would disagree; China is merely protecting its own interests. China has its own version of Facebook, and the following:
Blocked sites Chinese variants
Facebook RenRen
YouTube Youku or Tudou
google Baidu
China is simply promoting it's in-house products (yes, by blocking competitors) but we have done the same in the past (remember the Ford Motors employee parking hoopla?) and are doing it now (USAF Tanker contract anyone?). And if one REALLY wanted to access those sites, he/she could easily get a VPN account in order to do so (China isn't actively stopping those services). I won't get too deep into this, just some thoughts...
Anywho, after bumming around for a while, I went back to the market where I got my glasses to explore the camera market.
^the subway station had put up a new ad. I like their logo better.
The photo market is pretty much two floors of shops jam packed with new photo gear, used photo gear, vintage photo gear. Essentially, I wanted to buy everything.
^I held out and left the mall with just two pairs of glasses... wait what?!
Yes, while at the market, the saleswomen recognized me from the other day and pounced on me. We chatted about life in the US, life in China, my horrible chinglish and all sorts of other stuff. I ended up with another pair of glasses and sunglasses for 220 RMB.
^photo hunt item #1
After this, I headed for 1933, a slaughterhouse (built in 1933) that had been recently refurbished into retail space/restaurant space/gallery space. It was getting late in the day and the light was getting nice.
Now, 1933 is a multi-level concrete structure with large amounts of detail. The place as a restaurants/gallery area is already kind of spooky... I can't imagine what the place was like when it was fully operational.
^I wonder what they did here...
The large spaces from the photos above broke off into smaller rooms:
The top floor had a glass floor:
Looking down into the building... there were many chutes for transport of parts... and drainages for managing the blood...
After getting my architecture fix, I had to get back to the city center for dinner...
I stopped for photos and wound up late:
(I also stopped at uniqlo but did not document that)
Tony and his friends had planned this big dinner at a Taiwanese restaurant. I was able to eat many things I have not had in a while (kong ching tsai, refried yo-tiao, etc).
^dessert was the BEST part.
Afterwards, we went to a wine bar
and ended up at a bar on top of the Shanghai Hyatt (conveniently named Vue).
I got sleepy and took a nap in the lobby