One Day in L.A.

jill
Feb 14, 2019
3 min read

(click on photos to enlarge and see comments)

Finally time to head to Thailand...but it is still 39 hours away! First leg of the trip: a 4 1/2 hour flight to Los Angeles, where I'll have an over 11 hour layover before leg #2 to Taipei, Taiwan. Of course I had almost no sleep the night before--way to start off my trip! As the time to leave for the airport got closer, my stomach started to hurt from nerves, which made it hard for me to eat anything...which leads to more stomach pain. I was really sad to leave my cats most of all.

Got to the airport at about 530 am and finally ate something on the plane which made me feel a bit better. Luckily for me, my friend Lisa from back in my A&M/PolyGram days offered to come and pick me up from LAX and take me out for awhile so I didn't have to sit in the airport the whole time. It took a few minutes for us to find each other, but I recognized her right away (and am eternally grateful to her for the offer). First we headed to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and had a great time catching up.

It had been cloudy there for a bit (like it was in Atlanta), but the sky began to clear, so she agreed to take me to Venice Beach in Santa Monica because I wanted to see the Pacific Ocean. Also saw some great street art along the way. Once there, we walked down the boardwalk and killed some time in a nice way.

After a nice lunch and a walk (already walking a lot and I'm not even in Thailand yet!), we headed back to the airport so that (hopefully) Lisa wouldn't hit too much traffic--it was already 4pm.

Back at LAX, I checked in and got my boarding passes--shit's getting real, ya'll. It was just after 5pm, and I still had about 6 hours to kill before my flight. So very bored, and hungry--or maybe that's just because I'm bored. Started watching some stuff on Netflix, and that helped pass the time (started watching Riverdale, for those who are curious--a REALLY cheesy show, but dang, it kept me occupied, so I will forever be grateful). Once I went to the gate, I noticed that I was one of only a few Caucasian faces waiting there...most were folks headed back to Taiwan. Even here in LA, the announcements are in English and Chinese (I think). Already strange and scary, lol. Never sure if I'm missing something important.

Boarding and flight go well--I recommend EVA Air for their extra legroom, their food, their bathrooms, and most of all for the video they show for the inflight emergency information. A lot of modern dance...not really sure it is helpful in an emergency situation, lol.

Best. Safety. Video. Ever.

I get maybe a couple of hours of sleep on this, the longest leg of my trip--about 14 1/2 hours. After arriving in Taipei, I first decide to find my gate, as I only have a couple of layover hours to kill. I get some water and set up shop in the waiting room--the most generic and boring room ever. Really wishing I had sprung for the EVA Hello Kitty jets--they look much more interesting, and the waiting rooms are adorable.

While I was there, a sweet, very tiny Asian woman from Canada travelling to Thailand to visit family asked me for some help emailing her husband--she had never used email before, so not only did she not know how to connect to the airport wi-fi, she didn't know how to send an email! I helped her get set up (turns out her name was Mona), and she was so grateful she kept hugging me. Good karma for my trip.

My flight gets delayed a bit, but not too bad. Not exactly sure why, since the plane is right there at the gate...but now they move us to a different plane and they have to reload everything.

This flight is about the same length as my ATL to LAX flight--about 4 1/2 hours...but I FINALLY arrive in Thailand two days after I left!