Orlando, finally

The flight bound for LA left KL on Feb 27 at 3.15pm. Not long after take-off, late lunch was served on board and I had MAS signature satay, followed by prawn salad as appetizer. The main course was roast venison Italian style served with brown sauce and mashed potatoes and I must say that fine dining thousands of feet above ground was really not too bad. I then settled in to catch up on some work on my laptop before watching Happy Feet on the inflight movie on demand. It must have been my first full movie since Yiu Yiu was born. Not long after that, the plane touched down in Taipei for a 1.5 hours stopover for re-fuelling. I've never been to Taipei, though it's in my list of places to visit, so it's kind of funny that my first encounter with Taipei was only confined to the transit lounge.

The plane took off from Taipei at 9.40pm and soon, it was makan time again. This time, it was roast breast duck with mango as appetizer followed by spicy chicken breast on pasta as the main course. I knocked off at about 11.30pm and was awoken by the cabin crew who were up and about serving brunch. When I looked at my watch, I was surprised to find that I've slept for almost seven hours. The best (or perhaps the worst) thing about long-haul flight is they feed you non-stop. This time, I opted for something oriental in the form of shrimp wantan in noodles. After brunch, it was time for some movies again but before I could finish watching Madagascar, the plane started its descent into LA and the inflight entertainment was turned off. We arrived at Tom Bradley International Airport at about 4.50pm, local time.




(An aerial view of LA on the plane's descent)

Clearing immigation, to my relief, was quick and simple. The officer simply asked me some questions regarding my trip to the USA, and tada…I was through. After collecting our luggage, my two senior (in rank, not age!) colleagues and I took the free shuttle bus to Terminal 7 where our connecting flight to Orlando will depart. The bus driver, a young African American was shaking his head to the tune of his MP3 player all the while we were in the bus. We had to hang around the airport for close to five hours as our flight to Orlando wasn't scheduled to depart till 10.40pm.

The 4.5 hours United Airline flight departed on time. I had wanted to catch some sleep as by the time we reach Orlando, it would be 6.10am in the morning but I didn't managed to as the cabin was pretty noisy. So by the time we reached Orlando, I was feeling very tired. Luckily baggage claim was speedy and we were whisked into the waiting van to transfer us to our hotel at Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress. But the time I got into my room, I was so thankful that my 27-hours journey was finally over and I've never felt so happy taking an early morning shower!