Suzie was to pick us up at 11, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast. The lounge had a wonderful coffee machine where we could make cappuccino, coffee with milk, or just plain coffee. We enjoyed our last morning in the beautiful hotel. We were a bit worried about excess luggage, but at least we only had our carry ons and a small tote rather than all we'd carried onboard in Hong Kong. It was about 30 minutes to get to the airport. Suzie went in with us to the check in counter. We now had 5 suitcases, so knew we would have to pay something. It was only $55 for one extra suitcase, very nice and well worth it. Suzie stayed with us until we were ready to go thru security even though I kept telling her it was OK for her to leave. She was very conscientious.
Once thru security, we had about an hour to look around at all the shops. I had a few bahts left which I wanted to spend. They had some very nice shops. We then boarded our Thai Air 747 for the short flight to Taipei. When we booked our flights, we had a choice of transferring in Taipei or Tokyo. We were very glad to be avoiding Japan after their horrible earthquake. We had an almost 4 hour layover. My Platinum Am Express card nor Mel's Delta Crowne Room card allowed us entry to any of the lounges so we found a sofa to sit on for a while. Nice that they actually had sofas in the airport! When we finally headed to the gate, we found plugs as well as free internet computers. We should have found those earlier! Once at the gate, they checked our boarding passes and passports to allow us into the lower level waiting area. We were laughing at the wheelchair brigade by the gate. We'd never seen so many on one plane, there must have been 20!!! They were mainly old, not disabled, and very well taken care of.
The flight home was long. The fasten seat belt sign was on most of the time and the flight attendants were asked to sit down several times. I'm a nervous flier, so to me it was awful. The attendants were pushy and brusque. They almost took off the guy sitting next to Mel's foot when they charged down the aisle with the beverage cart. During most of the flight I was the only one with a light on in that huge 747! Everyone else was asleep. When it was light outside, I had my shade open. The attendants kept closing it when I got up to use the rest room. They just weren't very nice. Hope we don't fly Air China again anytime soon.
Another jumbo jet had arrived at the same time we did so Immigration was very backed up. At the luggage carrousel I found someone to help us with our bags. We had too many to put onto 2 carts. It was nice to have someone else do the heavy lifting. The Customs guy looked at our huge pile of bags and asked if that was for just 2 people. We told him we'd been gone for 2 months, he said "Welcome Home" and that was it. Very nice. Brigitte was there to get us and we were on our way home. It was a great trip with many wonderful experiences but it was good to be home.
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