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When I had the opportunity to use frequent flyer miles for an overseas trip, I decided to use them to go over a different sea than usual for a trip to Asia in November 2002. Here is a report on that trip to Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

TRIP TO ASIA, NOVEMBER 2002

Amc
2004-09-13 14:42:34

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in Tokyo and I had a short time in their WorldClub before my flight to Seattle was called.

The Tokyo-Seattle flight was scheduled for 8.5 hours, comparable to many transatlantic trips I’ve taken. I had a Western meal and didn’t have much appetite for the main dish of salmon after a big first course. I got a few hours sleep, and a movie that interested me came on the personal screen. Before the movie was over, the captain announced that there was insufficient visibility to land at Seattle, and we would be diverted to Portland, Ore., which happens to be my birthplace. We landed as I saw the Friday dawn again, but I wasn’t able to go out into it. The first announcement was that we would be parked away from the terminal and no one would be able to leave, even though some passengers were in fact going to Portland. But then the plane went to a jetway and they announced that they’d gotten some customs agents to cooperate; I’m not sure if that meant Portland passengers were able to get off, since that wasn’t actually stated. Anyway, the passengers in general stayed on; in Business Class we were glad to get some more sleep in our fully reclined seats. We stayed on the ground for 4-5 hours; the crew regularly thanked everyone for their great patience, perhaps a bigger challenge for Coach passengers. At midday, the fog had finally cleared enough in Seattle for us to go there. That flight took 30 minutes; as soon as we reached altitude, we were told to prepare for landing. We landed, and U.S. customs did a thorough search of my bags but not my person. At this airport, after customs one exits to a concourse area, so one needs to go through security even if exiting to the street. I also needed to recheck my checked bag from the satellite terminal to the main baggage claim, and took the train to the main terminal.

When I booked the flight 11 months earlier, they said that the available way to return Friday would be to take a one-stop Tokyo-Memphis and connect to Kansas City. The one stop would be in Seattle, and it would in fact mean going through customs there and getting another plane to Memphis. After a moment’s thought, I decided that I would prefer to spend a day in Seattle and complete my trip Saturday. With this late arrival, if I’d stayed with the original plan I would have needed to rebook my continuation; as things were, I’d missed out on a good part of the day in Seattle. It was odd to feel the chill in the air after two weeks of no such thing. I got to the Airport Marriott and was still tired; I mainly just got to see the Museum of Flight. The fog got heavy again that night and when I got up before dawn Saturday. I had some worries about my flight, but it cleared up in time. I slept through most of my return trip via Detroit, and stayed fatigued for quite a few days afterward, making up for the ease of time zone transition when I got to Asia. Overall, this was an amazing trip; I had varying impressions of different places and things, but the full experience was great, and I hope this report has been useful or interesting to some readers.

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