March 13, 2005 – San Francisco to Taipei

March 13, 2005 – San Francisco to Taipei

Friday afternoon, 3:00 PM, BR0027 Evergreen Airlines (EVA) sits at Gate G98, a leviathan Boeing 747 with its distinctive green exterior being groomed by ant-like humans scurrying about beneath its enormous fuselage. At the rear of the aircraft, huge cargo handlers lift pallets stacked almost as tall as the aircraft’s body with shrink-wrapped boxes bound for Taiwan. The pallets are lifted to the cargo hatch, a huge mouth of a door that swallows the pallets as if they were morsels to be devoured in one bite. Passengers on this plane are clearly filling space that would otherwise be hauling goods. At 3:40 PM, the loudspeaker blares its message that BR0027 would be delayed in its departure. The official reason is that the cabin is still being prepared. Indeed, the beast’s belly has not been fully loaded with the commodities that will make this flight profitable for EVA. Most commercial passenger carrying jets haul cargo in the space beneath the passenger cabins. But this plane had half the passenger seats in the aft of the plane removed and it was greedily devouring payload.

An hour and a half later with the monster’s appetite finally sated, the gate agents announce that BR0027 would be boarding first class and business class passengers only. Families with children or other persons requiring extra time in the boarding process are also invited to board. I’m in neither category so I wait my turn. Minutes later I accept the gate agent’s invitation for Evergreen Deluxe Class to board. You pay a few hundred dollars over coach but you get a seat that provides legroom and a footrest. On the over 14-hour outbound flight, these luxuries would come to be appreciated. As it turns out, my seat is the second from the front of the aircraft starboard side (right) of the Boeing 747’s lower level. I used to climb the stairs to the luxury deck when I traveled to Asia in more affluent times, but that was then, this is now. I sit in my aisle seat and wait for the passenger seated in the window seat to arrive before I buckle up. In this location on the aircraft, there are two seats on port and starboard side of for several rows so the aisle is wider than anywhere else in coach. The space gives the allusion of comfort, as you don’t feel hemmed in.

The flight attendant’s voice comes over the intercom first in Chinese then in English to secure the doors and crosscheck—I’ll have to ask someone what crosscheck means. I’m pleasantly surprised that I’ll have no traveling companion for the journey and I look back to see a few other empty seats in the rows behind me. I thank St. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers and spread out dumping the book I purchased at Pacific Gateway News Store at SFO—The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. “One gorgeous read” raves Stephen King underneath the notice at the top saying “The New York Times Bestseller” and my Bose noise canceling earphones (they really do reduce the sound of jet engines to white noise) into the window seat next to me.

I stupidly left my sweatshirt in my suitcase, which I checked at the ticket counter—I usually carry it on board to avoid having to use the airline supplied blankets. Sans sweatshirt I wrap myself in the green EVA blanket. As the well-fed beast lumbers to the end of the runway and turns, it revs its engines and rolls gaining speed as it moves. There is a tension about takeoffs that after countless times doing it, never seems to ease. It’s a sense of foreboding that doesn’t stop until the giant has finally broken free of earth and soars skyward leaving the runway and airport behind. The tension drains and the motion of the plane shuddering as landing gear retracts and ailerons change to bank the plane to starboard or port following the control towers instructions, into its planned flight path, lull me to sleep. It seems I’ve been asleep for quite some time but when I wake, I can still see the coastline as the plane begins to pass over a fog bank extending far out into the Pacific. I move into the window seat to gaze back at the receding shore being obscured by the white ruffled layer of fog. In the distance the sun is beginning its descent into the horizon. The plane resembles an errant commuter rushing to catch a departing train in that we are literally chasing the sun to Asia. It’s a race we will lose but the 747 is making a go of it.

Traveling west with the sun the jumbo jet has an inherent disadvantage. At its cruising altitude of 33,000 feet, it’s battling a terrific headwind. Ground speed in this direction barely exceeds 600 miles per hour. By contrast, on the return flight, with these same winds at its back a 747 can come close to 800 miles and hour, shaving a good two hours or more off the flight time.

Anyone who travels a great deal by plane tends to become insular probably because you are so crammed in tight with others—even on the luxury deck—that you want to turn inward to find the space deprived of by your surrounding. The myriad of video and audio programming from the aircraft entertainment system is one form of diversion, but for many travelers, it’s that booked they picked up at the airport before they took off. I start The Shadow of the Wind. I bought the book because it brought to mind Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Club Dumas, which I had read—it was made into the movie The Ninth Gate. Both books involve stories involving characters tied up in the antiquarian book business. If I were any good at business or a thief that needed a place to launder his ill-gotten gains, I would open a second hand bookstore.

The main character in this new novel is Daniel Sempere who at the start of the book is 11 years old. His father owns a second hand bookstore and his mother has passed away. As the story begins the boy’s father is taking him to a place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a place that conjures images of Antonio Gaudi’s Casa Batllo. His father introduces him to Isaac who rules this place and he is invited to pick one book that he must keep secret to himself. Daniel buys the book, The Shadow of the Wind by Julien Carax, a Spanish author who published in Paris. Daniel reads the book, become smitten with it and seeks to find other work by the author. The antiquarian booksellers have no copies but one, the wealthy Gustavo Barcelo himself an avid collector, wants to buy the book from Daniel. The story becomes Daniel’s quest to learn of the author and locate his other works, but his quest is being dogged by another sinister character intent of burning every copy of any of Carax’s work.

I don’t finish the book during the flight. In fact, I’m distracted by want of sleep. After our meal, I try to let the two small glasses of red wine ease me into la la land, but I end up channel switching. It takes a few hours alternating between the video programming, the book, and the USA Today I got from the airline before I finally doze off. We were a little over a thousand miles into a 6522-mile journey. When I wake up the numbers are reversed, a little over two thousand miles to go with forty five hundred miles behind us. The sun, which was barely visible on the horizon had left us behind and was already carrying Saturday toward Western Europe.

Eventually, the mileage counter begins to decrement toward zero. We’re 31 miles from Taipei. Outside the aircraft it’s raining cats and dogs. We are streaking through storm clouds being buffeted in our progress. The temperature outside is 40 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s 10:58 PM. Our bags will be coming out of carousel number 4. The trek through immigration is short; only one other flight lands with us and the lines are no more than eight deep. I make it through immigration with my passport stamped by the agent—I miss having the stamps from other places like the U.S. upon return and many places in Europe all of which record everything electronically now. I collect my bag, find my ride to the Ambassador Hotel in Hsin Chu, where I’m staying and settle in for the long ride. I eventually get checked in and into my room just after 1:00PM. I call home to announce my arrival then settle in for a good nights sleep.