El Salvador 2017: JFK to CNX (31 hours of travel to Thailand)

July 2, 2016

A girl from Pittsburgh locked in a glass room for 8 hours, a group of Asian adults weighing themselves on a baggage scale, and an eerily music-free airport in China. One of the things I like most about traveling is having unanticipated experiences. Now I wouldn’t have chosen to have the teen behind me at the international transfers line have a seizure, but watching the passengers act and then be baffled by the lack of assistance from the Chinese airport employees was, if nothing else, intriguing.

Nathan drove me to JFK airport on Wednesday evening and I walked for 5 hours up and down the halls until my flight left at 1:30 AM. The 15 hour ride was uneventful. I was thankful that China Eastern Air was tolerant of passengers standing and stretching in the aisle. Sleep was hard to come by, but over the 15 hours I felt fairly refreshed. I took many catnaps with my jacket thrown over my head. This did not lead to a good hair day on Friday (Thursday got skipped when I crossed the international dateline).

My introduction to the Shanghai (China) Airport was eye opening. Having never been to China other than these 6 hours, its hard to know what to make of the experience. I will let it speak for itself. I stepped off the airplane at 5AM into a sweltering hallway at the end of which was a sign. We had two choices: Transfer Hall & Baggage Claim. This seemed simple enough as I was transferring to a Thai flight. What puzzled me was that no one else on my flight seemed to be choosing “Transfer Hall”. Could I really be the only passenger not staying in Shanghai. I turned to a woman, a 21(?) year old marine named Alexis who said “Don’t go there!!” OK…

Alexis and I followed the crowd toward baggage claim and then turned off at a poorly marked counter where we waited in the heat with 50 or so other transfer passengers from around the world. The counter was not yet open. Folks communicated with strangers and friends in their language group. Most people determining if they could get wifi on their phones even as they heard the ding of inboxes belonging to travelers with whom they did not share a common language. I made another friend in line, a woman from Haiti/NYC (Mirielle). Yes, you can find someone with whom to practice Haitian Creole while briefly visiting China.

So it was at this point that the teen behind me collapsed with a seizure into her mother’s arms. I tried to tell the mother to lay her down gently and I would help her, but the mom could not speak English, Spanish, Chinese, or Haitian Creole. She could however yell “Help me! Help me!”. A most important phrase to know. We were able to gain the attention of one of the bored employees who, once the girl became conscious, guided them away from the crowd. The incident left behind a rather large pool of urine and blood which no employee showed interest in cleaning, so the passengers redirected the transfer line to work around it. Eventually I was through and directed to go “that way” and with very little assistance, Mirielle, Alexis and I found our way through a minuscule security area to the nearly empty, stifling hot main terminal.

I spent the next 6 hours (flight was delayed 2 hours) noticing the changes in the airport (A/C comes on at 7:00 AM — Praise God!—and then a moderate collection of stores starts to open). I was very thankful for 2 other women traveling solo and interested in doing laps with me. We enjoyed the misspellings of words like soap (sope) and poisoned one of us with Starbucks that contained milk (one vomiting episode resulted).

Now the very best belly laugh that I have had in a month was when I finally got on the next plane and met the girl who had been locked in a glass room all night long. She is a Junior at Waynesburg College (PA) and had gotten a grant from Pitt to study abroad in Thailand. This was her first time away from the US.

The girl (sorry I don’t know her name) arrived in Shanghai airport as it was closing for the night and she felt uncomfortable accepting a ride to a local hotel. Little did she know that an airport employee would escort her and 2 other American men to a glass room (called “Transfer Hall”) and lock them in for the night. She slept one hour with a blanket she had in her luggage. There was a bathroom and on occasion other passengers would come in and then leave for the hotel, but the employee would not allow the three of them to leave. The only words that the man knew were “Sit down!” The room got more and more hot as the air-conditioning was off all night. This sweet girl is telling me all this as we are being shuffled around an airplane so that we can replace a 3 year old who has been seated in an exit row.

At that moment the steward came to us with a very serious face and pointed severely at the exit door.

“Don’t touch! Don’t touch!” he said pointing at the door. Then he hands us a page to read about how to respond in the event of a water landing.

“OK?” he demanded pointing to the paper.

I looked at the girl who looked stunned but smiling. I pointed at the paper, “It says that we have to agree that we can communicate clearly with passengers. Do you think they care that it will be with charades?” She started to laugh.

“OK?” the man repeated.

“OK” we said. The steward grabbed her blanket, which had been under the seat in front of her and put it on her lap. Then he took her camera from her hand and put it behind her back… ok… then he put her seatbelt on her and tightened it up (all while leaning across me since she had the window). She and I looked at each other and the giggles set in hard.

He pointed at my items and seemed to want me to put my purse behind my back and my pillow under my seatbelt. I couldn’t keep a straight face, but I did what he said. The two of us looked like the most uncomfortable passengers on the whole plane and we laughed so hard we were crying. I assured the girl that foreign travel really can be fun and she was going to have a great trip.

When we landed in Chiang Mai, I found that one of my two suitcases has gone missing and the other broke open. Lol. At least I have clothes. I am hoping that the one suitcase will be found soon. It has lots of materials for working with the children. I am now in my room with a wide open day ahead. I am glad to have wifi, to have slept well and I am surrounded by beauty. I began my day (Saturday) with a run through the botanical gardens. I even risked entering the labyrinth… the fact that you are reading this is evidence that I made it out.

Thanks for taking the time to enjoy my experiences with me… travel is best when shared.