did you know....

that refugees were flown on commercial flights with other passengers? i had always thought they were flown only in non-commercial private carriers/flights or even by the army... well, guess not!

we had a huge group of people (more than 12 of them?) who looked out of place, the women in some unidentified traditional garb, flying with us on our long flight - singapore-tokyo-chicago. they were seated all the way in the back.... 1 baby who couldn't stop wailing throughout, 3 little kids, 3 really elderly peeps, 2 middle-age and the rest all youngish looking adults... with many huge sacks (yes, sacks) of their belongings. not regular luggages or bags, but sacks. odd looking sacks with mended holes? with some oversized duffle backpacks and more sacks. we were discussing why they were allowed to bring in such hugggeee sacks onto the plane.... but sleepiness took over (we had to wake up at 3am for 7am flight...)....zzzzzz.....

anyways, this was b's first long flight ever (23++ hrs), and because he didn't have any mileage points, we couldn't upgrade to business class, well i could upgrade and leave him all cramped up by himself.. ha! i thought it was going to be a nightmare for him so i thought of all possible ways of entertaining him, but as usual it wasn't necessary at all, his very easygoing nature took over, and he had zero whinings. thanks for being so awesome :) it also helped that i picked good seats while booking our flights :pp i love expedia!

i insisted that we had to take the bloody shower at our narita airport stopover, even when our first leg of flight was delayed because the runway sweepers at changi airport decided that they should be super-kiasu and sweep the runway 3 times more than usual. and our transit time became only 45 mins from our original 1 and a half hours, so i was practically pulling b along the way to the shower room.... anyways, you all should too if you're transitting there!!!!! it's super cheap, just US$5 for a nice shower cubicle all to yourself, equipped with everything you'll need (but of course we girls will bring and use only our own toiletries :p) including dresser and chair and hairdryer and creams etc. and you get to feel all refreshed, nice-smelling, oil-less, clean, and happy! :D

side-note: this is why i really dislike transitting in hong kong, because their freaking sucky shower room costs us$12 for nothing, except towels and the usual shampoo + soap we won't use... throw in an indifferent service personel and it totally blows. i can shower for free in the star alliance lounge but when i'm flying with someone else who wants to shower too, i can't possibly just abandon them, can i.... well, i guess i could if i wanted to be a selfish biatch. ha

because i insisted on the shower, we didn't have time for the yummy jap noodles... ppfftttt... b loved the shower, but you know, food is always much more important to a mannnn...... bahhh.... whatever... so we quickly bought some japanese snacks and got onto our second leg of the flight....

so anyways, that same group of people with huge sacks were in this flight to chicago, and this time, we were seated all the way in the back, just a couple of rows in front of them. so i had to walk past them everytime i go pee (which is quite often, with my weak bladder haha). they looked super miserable. and hungry. they didn't eat any of their plane food at all, i know it is "plane" food, but it looked more like it didn't suit their tastebuds than that it sucked.... and left it mostly untouched... it's too long a flight to go without food i think...

and then it was welcome to chicago! but not so welcome i guess, you know how "friendly" the us customs are... lol... there is actually a customs check-in area meant solely for refugees, so says the huge sign, and no surprises, that whole group of them were led by custom officers to wait there.... together with a huge group of what seems like an african tribe... for real... they were in tribal garb....

and so whilst being ordered around in the queue like dog packs by the custom officer, b whispered to me "wow, you planned all these right? a simple flight also have stories to tell!" hahhaha!!! you're so singaporean, b!!!!! *hugs*

and he made the same comment again on our way to the hotel in the cab....

there was a hoo-hah on the highway when there was a mini explosion, and the owner of the burning car who had already ran out suddenly ran across the highway back towards the car, and our cab driver, being the ever spontaneous ang-moh, quickly winded down his window and kept shouting for him to get away from the burning car

yup. i totally planned all these.