The Long Way to Jordan

This year's vacation took me to Jordan and Egypt. Like last year's trip to Cambodia, I traveled with my friends Stu and Marty.

Our reason for visiting Jordan was to experience the ancient city of Petra. We left on Sunday afternoon and were lucky enough to score Business Class seats to Paris. The plan was to connect with an Air France flight to Amman, but it ended up going out full, so we had to wait until 5pm for a Royal Jordanian flight instead. We ended up getting lots of Paris Airport appreciation time as we walked from Terminal 2A to 2E to 2B. The joys of non-revenue travel never stop!

We landed in Amman around 10:30pm and were met by our driver Ibrahim. The drive to Petra is supposed to take about 3 and a half hours so we had a long night ahead. Ibrahim's English was not the best, but you had to give him credit for trying. As we left the airport, he stopped at a little convenience store and bought us all this strong Jordanian coffee. I am not a coffee drinker, but I did not want to be rude. I ended up covertly dumping most of it, and left the bottom sludge for Stu.

Ibrahim drove like a mad man most of the way to Petra. The speed limit was 100km per hour, but he probably averaged about 160-180. We got stopped twice by the police. They don't have radar, but every couple of kilometers they have check points. They record the time you pass them and then radio ahead to the next checkpoint. If you arrive at the next spot too soon, they make you stop. It was a little unnerving for us the first time, since we did not know what was going on. We also learned that it is against the law for non-Muslims to be out alone after a certain time in the evening, so they have to be accompanied by a Jordanian Muslim. Lucky for us we had Ibrahim.

There was very little traffic. Ibrahim explained that most of the truck drivers were saw were Bedouins. We jammed to the Supremes, Mamas and Papas, and Neil Diamond on Radio Jordan 96.3!

We stopped at a 24 hour truck stop so Marty could use the W.C (that Jordanian coffee goes thru you very fast). While I was waiting, a truck driver pulled up and said "Good Afternoon... I love America!" I think that was all he knew when it came to English.

We arrived at the hotel around 2am. All guests have to go thru metal detectors and their luggage has to be x-rayed. There were also armed police officers guarding the entrance. I would come to learn this is SOP in the Middle East.

We stayed at a Movenpick hotel (a Swiss company) called Nabatean Castle. The property was set at the top of a mountain overlooking the Rif Valley (Wadi Araba). The area is very harsh terrain, but an impressive landscape nonetheless. October temperatures are rather pleasant. Stu and I woke up in time for breakfast and enjoyed a nice meal outside with a spectacular view of the valley.

Dinner at my favorite restaurant in Spain

I have not really done anything blog worthy in the past month and half. I was on call in September and was only used for a Costa Rica trip and a Tokyo trip, both of which were uneventful. This month I flew a few Costa Rica trips, but since I was low on time, managed to get a make up trip to Madrid, squeezed in right before my vacation.

It was an uneventful trip, but I had a nice time. Some of the crew joined me at my favorite restaurant in Madrid, Casa Mingo, known for it's Asturian cuisine. I can never get enough of that place!

Now it's vacation time. I am off for the rest of the month and will be visiting Petra in Jordan and then crusing down the Nile in Egypt.

Buyers Remorse in Chile

My last trip of the month was a rocket/bullet to Chile (they are called this because like all South American layovers, we fly 10 hours south all night, have a 10-12 hour layover to sleep during the day, and then fly 10 hours north all night home). I would give my back teeth to have longer layovers, but they are popular because it is a fast way to get your hours. We are only paid for time inflight, so these trips give you 20 plus hours of pay and you are only away from home for like 30 something hours. But I digress.....

After my power nap in Santiago, I went downstairs to work out. On my way back I stopped at the gift shop to buy some postcards (I always send my friends Bruce, Leslie, and Frankie a postcard). The lovely sales woman starts telling me about lapis lazuli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapis_lazuli) this semi-precious blue stone that is only found in Chile and Afghanistan. So I try not to be rude, and I spot this tiny little lapis lazuli figurine of a moai, which are the big stone heads found on Easter Island, the Chilean territory 3000 miles west of the mainland in Polynesia where I vacationed in 2004. I figure, how great! It's something that is meaningful to me, since I have vacationed there, yadda yadda yadda. The price was in Chilean pesos, and being ignorant to the currency rate, I did not realize until I got back to my room, that I ended up paying like $40 for this little guy. And just to give you an idea of how little my little moai figure is....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer%27s_remorse

I'm now calling it an early birthday present to myself. My friend Tricia tried to console my spirits by telling me that it would be a lot more expensive if I had bought it here, but I think she was just trying to be nice.

Mo Jr., the moai, is now prominently displayed on my mantle along with my three other moai figurines I have collected over the years.

Now that the month is over, I am also done with the FAA Fatigue Study so I can finally take the darned sleep band off my left hand. Wearing that nonstop for the last 28 days drove me nuts.

Farewell Barbados.... I will miss you!

August is the last month that the great Barbados trip will be on the bid sheet, and I was able to fly it one more time. Unfortunately, it poured buckets the entire day. I was flying with my friends Moa and Irune, and my new friend Luis, so we still had fun.

Instead of going to Just Grillin', the Caribbean themed restaurant across the street, we went to a great bar/restaurant on the beach about two miles down from the hotel called Carib. The food was fantastic. I had veggie samosas for my appetizer and the seafood crepes for my main course as well as some local Banks beers to wash it down.

As we were getting ready to leave, the sky opened up in a major way, and we got soaked trying to get a cab back to the hotel. But of the four times I layed over in BGI, that was the only time it rained, so I cannot complain.

Goodbye Barbados :(

Un sabado en Madrid

I was able to trade my Caracas trip for Honolulu and in turn was able to trade that for Madrid. I was really looking forward to flying the trip, since I have only been able to do it once since our base got it back in May. We flew out on Friday night and when we arrived on Saturday, we learned that is was a holiday of some sort and Madrid was like a ghost town. My friend Jan was on the trip with me and she wanted to go to the Sorolla Museum, which occupies the former house of this Spanish impressionist. It is free on Saturdays, so after our naps, we made our way over to the museum, only to learn that it was closed for the holiday.

We did learn that the Prado was open and free to the public so we made our way over to that part of town which was a little more hoppin'. My favorite painting in the whole wide world, El Perro Semihundido by Goya, is part of the permanent collection, and I had not seen it in person since 1999 or so, on a previous visit, so I was glad to get to see it again. It is one of the lessor known paintings by Goya, but something about it appeals to me.

We were getting kind of hungry so we stopped at the Prado cafeteria for some vittles. I had a tortilla espanola and a Pepsi Light, which kind of held me over til we could go for tapas.

Jan and George Ann wanted to do some shopping, and a lot of the little tourist kiosks across the street from the Prado were open, so we meandered around looking at all the junk they were selling. There was this crazy Italian woman who thought that George Ann worked there and she was kind of bossy so George Ann ended up helping her look for the scarves she wanted. I guess the fact that George Ann spoke no Spanish was lost on this woman.

From the Prado we made our way up to Puerto de Sol and the Plaza Mayor. Given that these areas cater to alot of tourists, most of the shops were open for business, although some of the smaller ones were still closed (August is the month in Spain where most folks traditionally take the whole month off and head out of town for vacations).

We arrived at Puerto de Sol, and made our way into the Museo de Jamon for tapas. I am very much against the pork, but they sell beer for 1 Euro, so how bad can it be?

In Spain, when you are done with napkins and wrappers, you just throw it on the floor. The responsible citizen in me still thinks of this as littering, by at a tapas bar that is part of the culture.

The crazy thing that always gets me about the Museo de Jamon is the big pig legs that hang everywhere. The salted legs are actually a delicacy and the ham is brichutto like (so I have been told).... but it still makes me think of Babe, the Sheep Pig.

After the Museo de Jamon we made our way to the Plaza. Ben, one of the guys on the crew, had not been to Spain since 1970, so we wanted him to see this famous landmark in Madrid. Right around the corner is the Meson de Champinon (Mushroom Bar). The place that everyone likes to go to, Plateros, was closed for vacation, so we went there instead. The mushrooms, calamari, and sangria were wonderful. It must also be famous with the airline people, because we saw Continental crews in there as well.

Leaving the plaza, the girls were interested in buying flamenco aprons so they would have something Spanish to wear on the plane, but I put my foot down and said no.

Just down the street from the Plaza, a new market has opened, with all sorts of stalls, ranging from flowers, to wine to food to dessert. I had some Dulce de Leche ice cream that rocked my world! The place was crowded and did not have air conditioning so we did not stay very long.

We took the bus back to the hotel around midnight, which is early by Spanish standards, but we were getting pretty tired. I did not sleep all that great that night, but had first break coming home and was out like a light for my 2 hour rest period. I don't think I could have made it all the way home without the nap!

San Juan.... Suite!

I picked up a trip this past weekend with a double layover in San Juan. It was an easy enough trip with one leg to Puerto Rico. The second day I flew to New York and then turned right around and came back to Puerto Rico and then flew home on the third day.

I was the #5 on this trip which means I was on my own sequence. I flew with a different crew each flight. I got kind of lonely because I was all by myself on my overnights. The crews I flew with either flew on to another city or they went to a different layover hotel. The second night I was at our long layover hotel. When we arrived, the two pilots I rode in with started giving the girl at the front desk a hard time because there was a new thing they had to do to get their free Internet from the hotel and they were upset about the extra step. I guess because I am so sweet and person, she decided to give me the one suite they had available. It was a great suite with three rooms (what I would need a dining room for is beyond me). The bathroom had a jacuzzi tub and a walk in shower. The view of the pool was pretty. All in all, very luxurious!

The last day I flew home with a crew from my own base, which was nice, because my friends Moa and Irune were on it. We flew a month together a while back and had a great time. The three of us are flying Barbados next week as well so we will no doubt have a good time on that trip as well.

Slam-Clicking in Japan

I traded onto Japan again this month. It's a great trip because of the high flying time in just three days. I normally go into town and do something, but I "Slam Clicked" on this layover (airline speak for slamming your hotel room door and clicking the lock) and just stayed around the hotel. It started out foggy and then was so hot and humid, I did not really feel like going into town and we were a few hours late arriving because of thunderstorms that delayed our departure back home. We got a little bit of a break going over because we had a couple dozen passengers who missed the flight due to the weather so we were not full.

When we got to Narita, I went down to the cafeteria in time to watch two of my co-workers having a mild cat fight (they've been flying for 40 years each and were still convinced the other person was incompetent). After that ended, I went ahead and had my garlic tofu over cabbage and a Sapporo.

When I was done with dinner, I went outside and took another "Around the World with My Feet Picture" in the Koi pond outside my hotel.

I slept pretty good and woke up early enough to go have a good work out before heading home. I was lucky to have some great co-workers in the back, including my friend John. It was packed coming home, but we still had a nice trip.