Flying Again

For those of you who read my blog last year when I traveled to East Africa, you may know that I experience much more luxury on my international flights than at just about any other point in my life. It’s one of the few times that I just sit and relax and enjoy most everything that comes my way. That’s why it should be no surprise that when given the following choices, I chose B.

A) $950 ticket on China Air, 18 hours of travel time going there, 20 hours coming back.

B) $850 ticket on Emirates going the wrong way around the globe, via Dubai, 33 hours going, 28 hours coming back.

I must say that I was a bit concerned about how I’d face a sixteen hour flight from San Francisco to Dubai. Now I’m concerned that I won’t have enough time for all the things that I’d like to do. I’d like to sleep—and have three seats for doing so—eat and then eat some more, maybe have some free drinks, and watch a whole host of movies and TV shows that I’ve wanted to see. This airline is really luxurious. You should see the seats up front: even in business class, the travelers have little pods that they can retreat into, basically making their seat into a bed (for those who don’t have three seats). First class must be even better, but that’s off limits for us little guys. But even for us, the going is quite good, and I’m not doing any complaining. The steam towels that they brought were flavored, maybe with kaffir lime leaves, the menu looks quite nice, and they just brought me a lovely little goodie bag with, among other things, the cutest toothbrush-toothpaste thingy in it. Now I might have been a little less excited if the flight were full and I were locked in for sixteen hours, or if the horribly smelly man sitting kitty corner from me were sitting a bit closer, or if they had forgotten my special meal. But for the moment, life is really good. I think I’ll try to catch up on a bit of sleep now…