SoCal / The Longest Night
We left L.A. on Thursday night and currently find ourselves in Hong Kong on… Saturday morning. On our 15-hour flight we rode the Earth’s night (it was never light outside throughout the entire flight) and skipped a day on the calendar: sorry March 12, but you never existed for us! Cathay Airlines provided us with some amazing food (we had previously selected from a list of 20+ options to have Indian food for dinner and breakfast, and were not disappointed) and excellent entertainment choices: I watched “Inglorious Basterds”, “A Serious Man”, and a couple of episodes of “Life” (basically a “Planet Earth” follow-up) while Norika got to catch up with the Twilight world by watching “New Moon”. We still found time to see “Catch Me If You Can” before we landed (with that in mind, see if you can guess who slept more). All in all, it was as good a 15-hour flight in Economy Class gets. The really crazy thing, however, is that we almost did not make it into this flight.
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Although we flew in and out of there, we can’t say we spent any time in L.A. other than in the car or in the airport. Caitlin picked us up at the latter on Wednesday morning, and we drove over to Oceanside, a middle-sized city that looks like an archetypal Californian coastal town.
There we satisfied some of our most basic cravings, namely Authentic Mexican Food (including pickled carrots and horchata) and possibly the Best, Most American Meal I ever had. It was no golden eagle steak but rather an impossibly tall, elaborate burger with refillable, special fries (I got parmesan bleu, while Caitlin’s were cajun-flavored), followed by a classic Oreo milk shake… all that in a pier, overlooking the Pacific Ocean that I had just met for the first time.
I was also a sucker for the pelicans, one of which almost hit us in the head during a clumsy take-off.
Caitlin also took us to San Diego a couple of times (a half hour drive to the South), once to hang out with her friends and prepare a massive lasagna — I believe we counted 7 layers of noodles! Norika also had the privilege to stay classy and watch Will Ferrell’s “Anchorman” for the first time. On Thursday afternoon we visited beautiful Balboa Park which, despite featuring some amazing pieces of colonial Spanish architecture, was actually built in the early 20th century to “preserve” that particular style.
Legit or not, the sunny weather and the pleasant surroundings made for a great afternoon.
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That night we arrived at the airport more than 2 hours before our flight, which we hoped would spare us from being as rushed as we were in Sao Paulo.
Wrong!
We had done all of our homework concerning visas and allowed lengths of stay in Thailand: Brazilians can stay for up to 90 days, Americans for up to 30 days. If you leave the country and come up, a new cycle ensues (though if you leave and return by ground, you only get 15 days instead of 30). That’s precisely why we decided to add a Cambodia side trip to our itinerary: our departure is precisely 31 days after our arrival, and Norika needed the aforementioned renewal. Unfortunately, we did not have any factual proof that Norika and I will be leaving Thailand to go to Cambodia, for our plan was to purchase bus/train tickets after arriving in Bangkok (apparently our Cambodia hotel reservations wouldn’t cut it). Consequently, the airline could not let us (more specifically, Norika) board the flight to Hong Kong.
Argh!
Well, not so fast. The staff actually contributed with some productive ideas, and we ended up settling for buying a (fully refundable) return ticket to Hong Kong for early April. Of course, by the time everything was processed boarding was imminent, and we had to ask the airline staff to help us cut to the front of the huge security line. All in all, it was another rushed airport experience.
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Naturally, once we arrived in Bangkok, Norika got through customs without any trouble; no checking of return dates or yellow fever vaccination. Despite hearing/reading stories about massive “red shirt” protests in the city, the only sign that such thing was going on were the numerous police crews patrolling the streets (supposedly, some 50,000 were mobilized to keep things under control in the Thai capital). More on that soon, perhaps.
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amicornorkale
Totally into your blog, I check it all the time. Keep it coming so I can live vicariously through you! I have one suggestion for the blog that you can do what you will with: I think it would be nice if whoever (Marcelo or Norika) was writing a certain part of the post would put their name up at the top. Sometimes I find myself trying to figure out who is saying the stuff, so I think that would be cool. Also, PICS OF DOG FIGHTING CRAB PLZ!
I’m on board with Jack although I can usually tell because you guys write differently. Seeing you guys in LA really makes me miss you though. Hope you continue to have fun!