March 16th '06- Adrenaline rush
March 15 or 16(depending on where in the world you are!)
I just want to make sure that someone in the world knows where we are just in case we get lost! We are on an adventure for sure! We finally left Travis Wednesday morning at about 0730 after having gotten to the airport at 0145 for
roll call, being passed around from one lounge to another, boarded on buses, waiting, loading, waiting, then being unloaded onto bus, to another lounge, reboarded on the bus and onto the plane. Apparently the plane sat so long that
we couldn't get a waiver to take off because there is an hour at sunrise when it's dangerous to take off because it's hard to see flocks of birds which might get sucked up in the engines. Annoying, and a tough way to travel, but you can't complain about safety or the cost ($0.00).
We got to Hawaii at around noon, in the rain. We managed to make 1pm roll call for a flight to Guam. We decided to go right away just in case we got to Guam and there was a once a week flight to Bangkok. We boarded and left Hawaii with no problems, this time on a C-5. It looked a lot like a commercial plane inside with no frills. I couldn't figure out why we were pointed downward when we were taking off. It turns out we were in a small compartment at the back facing the tail. It's such a huge aircraft that you can drive a bus inside! Anyway, 8 hours later we landed in Guam, in the rain. There is a 20 hour time difference between Hawaii and Guam, so we had left Wednesday afternoon and 8 hours later it
was Thursday night. It was a bad sign when the flight crew was completely frustrated with the ground crew because they couldn't line up the stairs so we could disembark. It seems that everyone and everything here is in slow motion and it's a disease that is contagious when one is stationed here (either that or it's the place where they hide the incompetent in the Air Force:). We finally got in the terminal and it turns out that they only have flights to Singapore twice a year and that was two weeks ago, and the only flights in Thailand are north and duty personnel only go there - the rest of us civilians are not allowed and we don't want to go there. So, with things looking grim we called Hertz, waited an hour while they had to send out a second person who actually remembered to bring their car registration to get on base. The guy took us very slowly to the Guam International Airport to get us a car. After calling around to about 20 hotels we found one(onbase lodging is full through September due to missions). The only problem was that they only had twin bed rooms, but out of desperation we booked adjoining rooms. So, we went downtown Tamuning to this hotel. It looked like little Japan. When we went inside to check in we figured out why. Tamuning is a prime Spring Break vacation spot for Japanese young people. We were beginning to wonder if we had landed in Japan. When we went into our rooms we found them very Japanese. The beds were very low and stiff. The bathrooms are cubicles that were put in like a little trailer as an afterthought. The toilets and sinks are very low and the shower is adustable so that it can be brought down. In order to turn on the power in the room the room
key had to be inserted into a key hole in the wall by the front door. A handy way to make sure no one leaves the lights on. We ran out and got Taco Bell at midnight and then crashed until this morning.
We were trying to decide if we should spend a couple days and head back to Hawaii for a week as we had given up
entirely on Thailand. I sent Rob out to the airbase to check on flights while we cleaned ourselves up. He came back and said, pack. He had found out from a girl who was on our last two flights (poor girl spent the night in the terminal)
who is headed home to Kadena that flights leave for Singapore all the time. We raced back to the airbase (literally) and checked in for a flight to Kadena AB, Japan with a stop in Osan, Korea. So, here we sit, on a wing and a prayer
running our own amazing race, waiting to board a plane that we almost didn't get on because when Rob did roll call they left Robert's name off the list (they not only do everything slowly but they also do everything in halves, not to be
judgemental or anything:) The kids are hanging in there and doing amazingly well. Hopefully we'll be able to get a reservation for a place to stay tonight. We emailed lodging to make a reservation, but if we managed here where no one
works except during the hours of 9-2 we can certainly make it in Japan. Every military passenger terminal has internet access so we have been trying to check as often as possible. The only good thing about this one is they actually have
wireless so I can use my own computer.
Talk to everyone soon!
I just want to make sure that someone in the world knows where we are just in case we get lost! We are on an adventure for sure! We finally left Travis Wednesday morning at about 0730 after having gotten to the airport at 0145 for
roll call, being passed around from one lounge to another, boarded on buses, waiting, loading, waiting, then being unloaded onto bus, to another lounge, reboarded on the bus and onto the plane. Apparently the plane sat so long that
we couldn't get a waiver to take off because there is an hour at sunrise when it's dangerous to take off because it's hard to see flocks of birds which might get sucked up in the engines. Annoying, and a tough way to travel, but you can't complain about safety or the cost ($0.00).
We got to Hawaii at around noon, in the rain. We managed to make 1pm roll call for a flight to Guam. We decided to go right away just in case we got to Guam and there was a once a week flight to Bangkok. We boarded and left Hawaii with no problems, this time on a C-5. It looked a lot like a commercial plane inside with no frills. I couldn't figure out why we were pointed downward when we were taking off. It turns out we were in a small compartment at the back facing the tail. It's such a huge aircraft that you can drive a bus inside! Anyway, 8 hours later we landed in Guam, in the rain. There is a 20 hour time difference between Hawaii and Guam, so we had left Wednesday afternoon and 8 hours later it
was Thursday night. It was a bad sign when the flight crew was completely frustrated with the ground crew because they couldn't line up the stairs so we could disembark. It seems that everyone and everything here is in slow motion and it's a disease that is contagious when one is stationed here (either that or it's the place where they hide the incompetent in the Air Force:). We finally got in the terminal and it turns out that they only have flights to Singapore twice a year and that was two weeks ago, and the only flights in Thailand are north and duty personnel only go there - the rest of us civilians are not allowed and we don't want to go there. So, with things looking grim we called Hertz, waited an hour while they had to send out a second person who actually remembered to bring their car registration to get on base. The guy took us very slowly to the Guam International Airport to get us a car. After calling around to about 20 hotels we found one(onbase lodging is full through September due to missions). The only problem was that they only had twin bed rooms, but out of desperation we booked adjoining rooms. So, we went downtown Tamuning to this hotel. It looked like little Japan. When we went inside to check in we figured out why. Tamuning is a prime Spring Break vacation spot for Japanese young people. We were beginning to wonder if we had landed in Japan. When we went into our rooms we found them very Japanese. The beds were very low and stiff. The bathrooms are cubicles that were put in like a little trailer as an afterthought. The toilets and sinks are very low and the shower is adustable so that it can be brought down. In order to turn on the power in the room the room
key had to be inserted into a key hole in the wall by the front door. A handy way to make sure no one leaves the lights on. We ran out and got Taco Bell at midnight and then crashed until this morning.
We were trying to decide if we should spend a couple days and head back to Hawaii for a week as we had given up
entirely on Thailand. I sent Rob out to the airbase to check on flights while we cleaned ourselves up. He came back and said, pack. He had found out from a girl who was on our last two flights (poor girl spent the night in the terminal)
who is headed home to Kadena that flights leave for Singapore all the time. We raced back to the airbase (literally) and checked in for a flight to Kadena AB, Japan with a stop in Osan, Korea. So, here we sit, on a wing and a prayer
running our own amazing race, waiting to board a plane that we almost didn't get on because when Rob did roll call they left Robert's name off the list (they not only do everything slowly but they also do everything in halves, not to be
judgemental or anything:) The kids are hanging in there and doing amazingly well. Hopefully we'll be able to get a reservation for a place to stay tonight. We emailed lodging to make a reservation, but if we managed here where no one
works except during the hours of 9-2 we can certainly make it in Japan. Every military passenger terminal has internet access so we have been trying to check as often as possible. The only good thing about this one is they actually have
wireless so I can use my own computer.
Talk to everyone soon!
posted by Melanie at 5:21 PM
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