The magic of time

I left my apartment in Kansas on 28th Jan. morning before 9am. Went to airport in a cab, took two mints from the cab driver's tray. It was about 10degF that morning.

I flew out of Kansas noon, arriving at LA about 2pm, Pacific time. I didn't adjust my watch. After a few fumbling and hauling, I arrived at the LAX international terminal at about 3pm. The culture shock kinda started sipping in. There were many Asians, from south to south east to far east... People taking more than one seats, sleeping on the already limited seats, talking loudly, extremely crowded A counters...

I took a mint to chill my brain. Decided to keep the other mint for my arrival at Hong Kong or Malaysia.

That was the first time I realised that I haven't adjusted my clock, because my stomach started to make noise -- it was about 5pm in Kansas. I need to wait 3 more hours before the check in counter opens. There was no internet access at the international terminal, even after checking in, and went to the oneworld lounge, the internet access was ridiculously slow. I can't even check email. The food wasn't good.

I recalled that the oneworld lounge has shower facilities, so I asked for it, went in and took a great shower. That was the single happiest thing that I had during the entire trip -- the shower room was big, it had a shower cubical, a basin, a toilet bowl and huge mirror. Shampoo, shower gel and towels were provided. The room was secure and clean.

The checkin was reasonable, the flight was fine, I felt hungry throughout the entire journey, but at least I got some good sleep. Arrived at Hong Kong International Airport on 30th Jan. 5am. Struggled to find the airline counters, struggled to find the Travelounge. The signage in the airport wasn't good -- I spent 1 hour walking up and down to find the Travelounge. Took my second shower in the Travelodge, not impressed, because there wasn't even tissues in the shower room, lighting was very poor in the shower room.

The second wave of culture shock came in during my stay in HKIA. I will pass the cultural and common habitual differences we all knew. I noticed the interesting habit of walking among the travellers. Those that come from right-hand-drive countries would tend to stand on the left side of the elevators; while those that come from left-hand-drive countries tend to stand on the right side. Unlike when coming up from the New York subway, almost everyone would choose the same side to stand. Things like this weren't just at the elevator, but also at the hallway. Notice the way different people make a turn. There were at least 10 near-miss "collision" when I was strolling around the airport.

My flight was at 9am morning. I saw the Yangping mountain from inside the cabin. It was like a dream -- I was there few years ago, riding the cable car with my friend, going up that mountain to see the huge Buddha statue. Here I am again today, looking at the same mountain, while my friend is no longer in HK. I couldn't feel the temperature difference, but the announcement mentioned that it was 9degC that morning. And I thought, I had not only travelled across the time, there was also the change of temperatures and units. I am lost in the units and couldn't comprehend how cold was 9degC at that time. Everything felt surreal when you are lost in time and units.

The entire journey was surreal, as the golden clouds above HKIA reminded me of my flight from Kansas to LA at the beginning of the journey. When I looked back, it was already two days ago.

I arrived Malaysia few hours later, the rain had brought down the temperature. From that point onwards, I have been terrified by the left-hand-drive traffic in Malaysia -- I tend to turn into the opposite traffic lane even until today. It made things worse when I am sitting on the passenger seat...

Anyway, I feel lucky and blessed that despite all the natural disaster around the globe, I managed to get home safely to spend the Chinese New Year with my family and friends.