July 2, 2008 - Air over Hong Kong, China 12:30pm

My third plane of this trip has just taken off from Hong Kong. My remaining two hours in the Taipei airport ended up being more interesting than anticipated, as I spent it hanging out with a handsome Scottish guy named Chris. After saying goodbye to him, the 1 hour flight to Hong Kong flew by (no pun intended), and I was greeted in China with a bit more of the “foreignness” that I had expected in Taiwan. I was ushered off the plane, into the face of a flight attendant who rapidly shouted at me in Mandarin, to which I stared at her dumbly and managed to nod when I heard the word “Bangkok” come out of her mouth. That is my next destination. I could only hope that she understood that. Then, in a massive flashback to the kindergarten bus-boarding process, she stuck a huge orange sticker to the front of my shirt, handed me some sort of pass that I couldn't read, and pointed down the terminal. I had NO IDEA what was going on, but I obediently embarked in the direction she shoo-ed me until I was greeted by someone who reached for the pass I was holding. The ordeal turned out to be nothing more than another round of security checks for us foreigners, and now I'm safely aboard my plane to Bangkok.