Europe 2014: flight

As I've managed to get my flight tickets and the conference registration fees subsidized by the Taiwanese government, I was required to take 'local' airlines. This means that I need to take either EVA Air or China Airlines. Through a contact from my dept, I managed to get a return ticket to/fro Amsterdam for less than NT$35,000 (around €880).

arriving at Schipol in the morning

Transiting in Bangkok, my flight departed from Taoyuan Airport at around 11pm after a delay of more than 30 minutes. It was a code-sharing flight with KLM. First a 3-hour flight to Bangkok, followed by a 12-hour flight to Amsterdam Schipol Airport. The transit (waiting) time was supposed to be around 2 hours, but because of the delay in departure, that time was shortened to about 45 minutes. I was surprised that the plane was almost full. After talking to the guy sitting next to me, I found out that some of the passengers, like him, are going to the East Coast of the United States, while many were part of tour group(s). Didn't get much sleep during the flight maybe because I was too excited, but other than that, it was an unexciting journey.

The trip back to Taipei 23 days later was much more eventful. I was seated next to a Thai mum with her 15 month-old baby girl in the bassinet seats. She was traveling back to Thailand to meet her parents with her Dutch-Thai baby girl. I shall write about this in another entry later. :)

My plane left Schipol Airport at 2pm on Jul 16, and arrived at Taoyuan Airport same time the next day. Within a week, three planes (MH17, GE222 and AH5017) have crashed in different parts of the world, either due to human intervention or natural interference, in which almost 350 people perished. One of the planes even departed from the same airport as my flight less than 24 hours later! Although I found out (much) later that my plane avoided the conflict zone unlike the ill-fated flight, I still couldn't help but feel shaken. Life is short and so unpredictable.. Thank goodness I don't plan to fly anywhere else this year. My next flight will be my annual trip home for CNY this coming Jan/Feb.