A Very Mute New Year's Eve...and a Monkey

Happy New Year to all!

I ended up with a trip flying to Hong Kong over New Years. We left San Francisco on December 30th and arrived about 7 pm New Year's Eve in Hong Kong. I was really looking forward to being out and about that evening to see how NYE is celebrate there. In particular, I was hoping to see the fireworks. Many times spontaneously, there will be fireworks shows at 8 pm above the city buildings ringing the harbor with the skyscrapers themselves playing a role with a light show. Did you ever see that YouTube video of the house decorated for Christmas, and the lights changing to the tune and beat of the music of the TransSiberian Orchestra? That's what it reminds me of.

The crossing to HK was notable for two reasons. First, during the flight, we received a terror alert of almost the highest level. It began with a message from United via our onboard computers that asked for all the flights to check in immediately. These procedures were adopted after 9-11 and I can only describe them in the vaguest of ways here, unfortunately. We train for receiving the messages, but I've never done it for real. So we get the demand to check in, then learn some minutes later that the alarm was triggered by an incident on a domestic plane where a man was standing in the aisle in front of a woman and child and...how can I say this in a family blog...whacking the monkey. He refused to stop until he was, um, done. Apparently a struggle ensued, triggering the alert to all UAL planes. Definitely a first for us. The guy's probably looking at a court date and some creative 'splainin to do once he gets home. (And here I thought the only danger was that you could go blind...)

Second, I lost my voice. I had a bit of a sore throat, but didn't think much of it. Took my Airborne and went on my way. But during the nearly FIFTEEN HOUR FLIGHT it worsened into laryngitis, and all I could do was whisper. So, I didn't go out. No sense whispering in a noisy bar. When I walked into my gorgeous suite overlooking Hong Kong Harbor, I knew I'd made the right choice. Here's a shot of some of the buildings decorated for the holidays. Note the green and red light borders:

Apparently on NYE, they do the fireworks at a shopping center 10 minutes from the hotel. For this tired pup, that was too far to go. In fact, after being up around 24 hours, I fell asleep about a quarter to midnight only to be jolted awake by what sounded like every car horn in Hong Kong blaring. I jumped up and got this shot of what little fireworks there were:

The next morning, sipping coffee and savoring the fine view:

When we do these uber-long flights, we bring 4 pilots. Two sit at the controls and two behind them. After take-off the relief pilots, aka "the bunkies" whose job is to relieve the flying pilots halfway through the flight retreat to the bunkroom to go to sleep. A bunch of people asked me where we actually sleep on our breaks that on the longer flights like this one can be as much as 6 and a half hours long. Here's what the bunk room and the bunk beds look like. They are in a sound-proofed room inside the cockpit:

Well, it's not the Westin but it beats a coach seat, yes?

Next up this month: Osaka, Japan and Shanghai, China. Wishing a happy and healthy 2008 to all!