All times are local

Staffless transfer counter in Taipei

First short leg of the journey complete and I'm now sitting in Taipei airport at 5.25am wondering why I feel so awake but then remembering it is 8.25am back in Australia. So what travel wisdom can I impart from my ten hour flight from Sydney to Taipei.....

1) Flying at night is awesome and not from some crazy poetic reason about souring majestically through the night sky (I really have to slow up on the West Wing references). I have never left Sydney as late as I did last night (10pm) and I also have never slept well on a plane. This flight I got on, programmed some music and watched one episode of Glee and ate some "food" (more on that later) and then I slept fairly consistantly for the next five or so hours, woke up played some suduko, more sleep, eat more "food" and fell asleep again while watching Juno. I slept for around eight hours of the flight which is more than I sleep at home so flying at night gets a big tick from me.

2) Security checks are weird. At Sydney, I was randomly selected for an additional security check where they tested me and my carry on bags for explosives and then frisked me. The additional check was voluntary but all I could think was "voluntary? what does they do to you if you say 'no'?"

3) Beware of China Airlines if you are of Chinese appearance and do not speak Mandarin. I was sitting next to a guy and his two sons who would have been about 5 and 7. I heard them speaking when I got on and established that while the father was likely from Taiwan, the kids had Australian accents so had either been born there or lived there most of their lives. Despite the fact the plane was flying out of the Sydney, the default language of the cabin crew was Mandarin and they only switched to English for people not of Chinese appearance. These poor young boys were therefore only spoken to in Mandarin and it was very clear that while the elder one spoke some of the language, the younger one clearly spoke next to none of it. I kept thinking if this is so obvious to me why can't the cabin crew pick up on it when the kid isn't answering their questions and is instead staring blankly at his dad.

4) Someone had China Airlines has a thing for Leonardo di Caprio. There were six....that's right SIX ...films starring him on the entertainment options. Which was a pretty massive chunk, considering there were only about 25 films on offer in total. Unfortunately for me, Gilbert Grape which I vaguely felt like watching wasn't one of them nor was Romeo and Juliet. I didn't see anyone doing it but I think there is something profoundly wrong with anyone who wants to combine the pain of air travel with the torture of Titanic....

5) URG most digusting plane food EVER! I'll begrudgingly admit that my mother was right. I should have confirmed things with the airline before leaving. Somehow me being a vego got lost in their computer system....which meant I was asked if I wanted chicken or fish and when I told them that clealy there'd been an error and I didn't eat either I got vegan food. Now vegan food when prepared well can be tasty but vegan airplane food is like a weird hell combo of badness. Weird smells, wacky textures, dryness, and the meanness of getting a super dry museli bar when everyone else had Tim Tams....urggg! I complained and got a Tim Tam at least but I was starving so had to eat some of the vegan hell food and now don't feel that good.

Anyhow that's all from me for now....Next stop London....