45-Hour Trip: Part II

Translated by Thar Tet Toe

This is a continuation of  “Forty-Five Hour Trip” by Khet Mar. In Part I she writes about her departure from Yangon.

PART II

All went smoothly. The tickets were re-arranged by the staff of the China Airline and the plane took off at 11:30 pm.  After lift-off the little plane twisted and turned in its flight and jolted my sons immensely. They were greatly giddy as the result.

“My ears are bursting,” one said, but after an hour or so they fell asleep.

The China Airline offered a $50 coupon to each of us for shopping as a compensation for the change in flight schedule. We received a total of $200. Since it had to be used within one day, we did some sky-shopping on the plane. We carefully chose the items shown and, after careful review, we decided to buy a $160 sapphire-hued watch and a $60 game set.  We were a little over and had to add another $20.

The game set cost around seventy thousand in Burmese money and we were rather reluctant to buy it.  Yet, it came out right.  When they woke up, my sons were much pleased with the game set that they practically forgot to grumble.

We arrived at Taipei Airport at 6 am on March 10, sleepy and sluggish. Waiting China Airline staff told us that the next airplane would take off at 4 pm and that they have made arrangements for the day’s sojourn at a hotel.

Big buses greeted us at the gate of the airport.  As the buses carried us to the Hotel Taoyuan, an hour’s drive from the airport, we had a sight-worthy view of beautiful Taipei.  My sons were delighted to see the resplendent hotel.  From our room on the 10^th floor, we had a wonderful view of the city. The blue sea and the keen coastline of the city looked unique to our eyes.  The endless blue sea was on one side and Taipei rose up to the sky on the other.  The wonderful scene made us relaxed, body and mind, after the stuffy six hours on the airplane.

Click here to read Khet Mar’s bio