Chapter #3: This is gonna be a LONG day
After 12 months of anticipation, preparation, the worries, the 'what if’s' and drawn out goodbyes, we are literally flying into the unknown. Our sky journey will take us from Albuquerque to San Francisco, San Francisco to Taipei and finally Taipei to Penang, Malaysia. The trip ended up taking 36 hours overall, from the time we left our home in New Mexico to landing at Penang International Airport. Now in anybody's book that’s a long journey, with many concerns along the route. For instance, do we have all the paperwork we need? Will we make our connecting flights? Will we get lost navigating an unfamiliar airport and live the rest of our lives next to overpriced candy and magazines? Throwing our fears to the wind we jumped in with both feet (well, not me. Chelle and Riot jumped in with both feet) and hit the open skies. Our first hurdle was trying to get all of our luggage to the airport. In rode our white knightess in her oversized SUV (thanks Michelle W.!). That much luggage and three adults took some space, and we needed every square foot. We each had two large bags, a roll on, and a backpack. In addition we had a 50 lb. bag of prosthetic legs and parts that I would need for a few years (yeah I know, one-legger problems).
To the airlines credit, they don’t charge a bag fee for legitimate medical devices, and they didn’t bat an eye as I stood next to my 'bag-o-legs' and checked it in. Our other bags were permitted up to 70 lbs each and we used every ounce as we tried to think of all the things we would need overseas for two years. Just moving that mountain of luggage was a small feat, but we pushed, balanced and shoved our way to the bag check area. Overall the check in process was easy, albiet long. The counter agents had to verify our passports, documents, e-visas, etc. for each of us which took some time. Pro tip: if you’re going to have to go through this, make paper copies of everything you think you need (and even things you don’t think you need). To my wife's immense credit and meticulous planning skills she had everything they needed organized and ready to be handed over when asked. When you have one-way way airline tickets to a foreign country, there is extra scrutiny. Even with this it took a good amount of time, so plan accordingly (i.e. get to the airport extra early). They did check our bags all the way thru to Malaysia which was a blessing, so we wouldn’t have to mess with re-checking that mountain again along the way.
Now on to security and TSA and we’re ON OUR WAY! Let’s not dwell on me being pulled aside as my prosthetic leg tested positive for explosive residue (dang that final afternoon of target practice before locking away my pew pews). Okay, to be fair I ALWAYS get extra scrutiny by the TSA because of my leg (or maybe it's my Jason Mamoa good looks?) but this "explosive residue" thing was a first for me. Next time I go to the shooting range I’ll just take my leg off and hop around while trying to aim (I imagine people diving for cover, ahhhh, it’s Peglegs turn!!!!). Anyway, we’re now ON OUR WAY! Except for the part where we forgot to put my roller bag through on the x-ray machine belt and just went on our merry way, only to freak out (just a teeny bit) when we realized we were short a bag. I was getting wheeled through security by the friendly wheelchair pushing assistant and somehow one was left behind. We looked back to see it sitting forlornly on the wrong side of the machine (the "unclean" side, and we we’re on the "clean" side). We managed to have it sent through by helpful "unclean" passengers, who were understanding (i.e. laughing) at us. And all under stern looks from security. And now, we’re ON OUR WAY!
Our first leg to San Francisco International Airport was a standard, uneventful domestic flight. It was pleasant, and a little surreal after so many months of thinking about this exact moment. We enjoyed our Biscoff cookies (who doesn't) and water and gazed out the window with anticipation. We were feeling good, strong, not tired, and were confident we would dominate the next two flights coming up (oh how naive we were).
Switching to an international flight in San Francisco required switching terminals, which meant we walked about 300 miles. Fortunately It was super easy for me and I wasn’t tired at all, and could have gone twice as far no problem (It's possible I was being pushed in a wheelchair. Losing that leg is really paying off!). I'm not sure why Rochelle and Riot seemed a little tuckered out. We found our China Airlines ticket agent for the "Permium" ticketed passengers (aka Premium, see pic) and went through the entire document dance one more time, again with Chelle's paper preparation paying off.
So what does one do for 13 hours in one seat in the air? We were fortunate to have that Premium Economy seating, instead of regular economy. So our seats were a little bigger and armrests wider, a little more legroom (not that I need the extra leg space, for some reason I have plenty) with a weird footrest bar (yeah, thanks a lot for that). So as comfort goes, it was pretty good. But for 13 hours? So I passed the time by watching three movies (Two in English and one in Chinese. I don’t speak Chinese, but I was too lazy to move my thumb to push a button), read a book, stared intently at the intricate fabric pattern on the seat in front of me, glared at my peacefully sleeping son on my right, thinking that if there's a problem with the pilot I could TOTALLY land this bad boy by myself (I've seen movies, how hard could it be?), giggled as I remembered old Bugs Bunny cartoons, glared at my peacefully sleeping wife on my left, pondered quantum string theory and its relationship to current chaos theory. You know, just regular stuff that we all do.
To China Airlines credit they did a great job on the flight. It can’t be easy to deal with a huge passenger load for that long, but they were practiced and efficient. Providing us with refreshments and snacks multiple times (almost too many times) as well as three very good meals (Seriously. They were tasty!). Sleeping was a hard fought battle for me, a battle that I lost. I did get some sleep, not good mind you, but sleep nonetheless (Two, no, THREE minutes at least). A recommendation to those who have one of these long flights in their future: buy the best seats you can justify, it’s WORTH IT. I wish we could have had those lay down premium seats, but it wasn’t in the cards (or Intel's wallet) for this flight. And where IS that teleporter we’ve all grown up watching on TV?! And why weren't there any Bugs Bunny cartoons in their video offerings? This could have been sooo much more pleasant.
The majority of our flight was mostly in the dark, with our plane chasing the moon and keeping us in what felt like an endless night. We finally saw the sunrise as we drew close to Taipei, and we all looked forward to being able to walk around and get our blood flowing again. The Taipei Airport was surprisingly empty, and a wheelchair was waiting for us at the gate that whisked us/me away to the China Airlines lounge to await our final flight. The lounge was a very nice place featuring friendly and helpful staff (like Disneyland employees were 20 years ago). A complimentary breakfast buffet awaited us as well as comfortable couches and chairs to stretch out on and rest, the spotless restrooms were just icing on the cake. Being able to wait here during our layover was a wonderful perk, and was included with the upgraded tickets we had for final leg of the journey. As we drew closer to our departure time another wheelchair assistant magically showed up to wheel me to our gate. I was surprised and impressed with this level of service. China Airlines was very good (at least for us). And made a fantastic first impression.
As we arrived at our final gate we were excited to see that we were flying on the Pikachu Plane! It had the Pikachu theme on the fuselage and throughout the plane, on the goodies, swag and pillows. We couldn't help but take a million pictures for our Pikachu loving granddaughters. It was an unexpected thing that made the final leg just that much more special. It was a four hour flight, and when we boarded we found we now had those special laydown seats (that I had wished for on our previous leg). Fantastic seating and but we only had a FOUR hour flight (funny how four hours seemed so short now). We felt like royalty as we sipped on fruit juice before take off, all the while stretching our legs out and hugging our Pikachu pillows. We were like little kids playing with all the features offered with these seats, and I was determined to stay awake to take it all in while I could. So naturally I fell asleep. Not right away, we had another great meal, and then I crashed, HARD. The sleep of the dead. No more treats, no more drinks, no more Chinese movies, just me and Pikachu, snuggled in my own tiny bed. And it was glorious.
I awoke wishing the flight was longer than that measly four hours (silly me), but our descent into Penang International Airport had me glued to the window as the first views of our new home filled my eyes. And what I saw was, well, an island. Being from Hawaii I've seen islands from the air before, and it looked similar. Which was somewhat comforting to me. It was not completely foreign, at least from up high.
We landed safely, and brave Pikachu now rested contentedly on the tarmac, our noble Pokemon preparing for its next journey. The airport itself felt just like many others. Still not foreign in feeling. Immigration was relatively quick with no delays. Which honestly surprised me. We've all heard horror stories of it taking hours, but here in this small airport it wasn't an issue. We collected our bags, and found our driver waiting for us (Whatsapp is a wonderful thing) and exited the baggage claim into a different world. With different smells, different colors, different sounds, but at the same time familiar in the tropical feel of it all. We used our Tetris Game Boy skills to load our many bags into his van (bench seats made it fun to fit it all in) and we we’re off to our hotel.
Our first drive in Malaysia was eye opening. The unfamiliarity of everything was exciting and a little intimidating. Driving on the opposite side of the road, strange cars were everywhere, scooters zooming in and out and passing everyone in traffic, signs that we couldn’t read (and the surprising amount we could). We rolled past Buddhist temples and shrines, Hindu temples and Mosques, and saw street food hawkers setting up for the days business. A huge overload to the senses, and we loved it. Checking in at our hotel (The Jazz Suites Residences in Tanjung Bungah) we found ourselves on the 17th floor with an amazing view of the Malacca Strait. Our waiting was over, we were here in Penang, Malaysia! The start of our opportunity of a lifetime! No time to waste, let's get going! We walked around our hotel, checking out the amenities, we reveled in this new place we would call home, taking it all in, absolutely determined not to waste a single minute! So of course, all three of us were asleep by 9pm.
