北海道自転車旅行：Jun 30, 1st half: The flight

A nice cool morning, 4am. Woke up slightly tired. Yesterday was a busy one, with a whole morning of report typing and packing in the afternoon way into midnight. Packing a bike is way harder then I thought. Factor in the box modding (cutting it smaller), disassembling the bike and fitting it in, and then controling the weight within 18kg(the limit was 20, but I wanted to be on the safe side).

Well, after breakfest, loaded my baggage and got in dad's car to the airport. The work on the box was will worth it, as it fitted just right in the trunk. My friends were already there when I arived, sealing their boxs with tape. As airport usage was so familiar to me as 2nd nature, I got the name tags, stickers and "fragile" labels, and start working. Check in took so long because it was so overbooked, and they tried to talk us into taking another flight, 1hr later. Well, the youth hostel we booked had a relatively early check in office hours, so it was eventually no deal. Good bye to the free breakfast & 2000NT compensation for enough time to get from the airport to Sapporo.

It was 毅軍's first flight abroad. He was so excited and intrested with everything in the airport, taking pictures of practically everything. Now, the fun part is in the take off. He was shouting like a kid, going like (translated): "Oh my god, I'm flying, I'm flying, my heart's beating so fast, the plane's shaking, we're floating... I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky... We're turning..."

For me, it's first time on China airlines. It was a 737-800, one of the newest incarnations of the ledgendary Boeing 737. The interior is more modern and comfortable then a 747-400, and Iam farely surprised that a single isle plane can provide such a smooth ride. Service is very good. Something special is the they let the people seated in the rare board first to avoid congestion in the isles. There's even moisturizing lotion in the lavatory. Yet there are no peanuts nor snacks before the meal, and the meal, though tasting good, a little less in dishes then Japan airlines, which I usually fly. For example, no soba noodles, the cake simpler(creamless), and no bottled water.
Something special about this flight is that, unlike 747s with which the checked baggage is packed into cargo craters before loading onto the plane; our checked baggage is loaded directly into the cargo bay. And as we've got 3 huge boxes, we could spot them easily, and sure enough, we saw from the terminal waiting room, our boxes loaded onto the plane.

Sapporo is farther then I thought. The estimated flight time is 3.5hrs, as compared to 2.5hrs to Tokyo. Yet I'm not sure if there is any difference between the speed of a 737 and a 747, which I usually take to Tokyo.
.......to be continued.
June 29th: Packing << | >> June 30th /2: 札幌