Return Flight, LAX to TPE, TPE to HKG

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  The trip to California seemed to fly by, and in a startlingly short amount of time, I had to board my flight back to Hong Kong.

This time, I flew back from LAX, which was a lot more crowded and bustling than I expected.  Michael was gracious as ever in driving me to the airport.  It was really hard to say goodbye to him, and airports really do not make it easy because there are cars all piled up on your business which immediately brings the full heat of the stress, stress, stress that accompanies travel.

I was on a Hello Kitty flight!  This means that everything on the plane was Hello Kitty themed: my boarding passes, the napkins, the napkin holders, the pillows, the paper cups, the toilet paper, and even the exterior of the plane.

I was really tired so I made a half-hearted attempt to eat my dinner, before completely passing out.  I hate to sound so nit-picky, because Eva obviously puts a lot of care into their service and presentation, but the food just is not that good.

 Their oolong tea, however, is superb.  Very fragrant and delicate, and served piping hot.

 I had a two hour layover in Taipei, before I boarded possibly the oldest airplane in their entire fleet.  Clearly they are ashamed of the state of affairs because it's called "Uni Air" (have you ever heard of this airline)?  Eeeep.

Each seat had an ashtray (wow! when was the last time you saw one of those on a plane?), and there were only two very small drop-down television screens at the front of the cabin.

Due to the short nature of our flight, they served our meals almost as soon as we got on the plane.

Usually I am both sad and happy to land back into the routine of things - sad because my vacation / downtime is over and work has to commence, but also happy because I get to move along with normal routine, catch up with friends, and get back into the swing of things.  But this time I just felt sad and kind of lethargic.