Paris Arrival

After flying for 25 hours, I was asleep after dinner at 7.30pm Friday 16th March. Woke up feeling refeshed like I had a good nights sleep. Trying not to disturb a sound sleeping Marcus, I tip toed around looking for the time. 9.49 pm, crap, I've only been asleep 2 and bit hours. Knowing my sleep habits, no point forcing the issue. On to the blog with a glass of wine driving my words and touch typing in the dark so as not to interfere with Marcus' sleep.

15th March - We flew from Welly to Chch to catch our Air Asia X flight to Kuala Lumpur. They had annouced the axing of Air Asia flights from Chch the night before, so ours must be one of the last few. As I have applied for an upgrade to premium which comes with food, luggage, sitting with your travelling companion and water (3 free toilet stops, no credit card required to activate life jacket, non coin operated emergency exit, 3 for the price of 2 life boats - my suggestions), I didn't want to spend the extra $300 paying for those in case I got premium. Four hours before the flight they emailed me that we didn't and you can only book meals 24 hours in advance. Luckily, we managed to buy luggage and sitting together "upgrades" on the iPad in Chch airport.

The Air Asia service is pretty good, and if more people tried them they may not need to terminate this route. The only complaint I had, and not even a real one, is that the seat pitch angle is shallow. But I REALLY appreciated the shallow pitch applies to the person in front. As it turned out, neither of us needed the on board meal after pigging out in Koru Club in Welly, and swiping their fruits and WT packing an US army surplus worth of supplies in one of Marcus' bags.

Chch to KL was fine because the seat between Marcus and I was empty. I took two Blackmoore Natural sleeping tablet which WT bought for us. Marcus slept a little, no impact on me. I don't think "natural" guarantees that it works, healthy maybe, but useless, industrial strength for me next time.

Arrived in KL International, but "low cost terminal", so no air bridge, and at 11.30 pm most of the shops in the low cost terminals were closed. As we hadn't eatenmuch on the plane, I did find a place that reheated chow keuy teow and mee india for $13 and $14 RM. A glass of Tiger beer was $33 RM. I came to the conclusion that a full price airline was death by firing squad, budget airline death from a thousand cuts.

The flight to Paris was completely full, I didn't see an empty seat anywhere, unless the owner was in the toilet. There was one lady who was next to the toilet, and she jumped everytime the toilet flushed as the occupant came out.

The captain (Captain Wong) announced that he was going to take us to Paris. We were flying south, loop back west and reach an altitude of 40,000 feet. We were going to go around Afganistan, and as there is a head wind the flight will take 14 hours instead of 13. Then captain Zulkifly, First Officer is going to take over ...... I didn't need to know all this and it is not like you can opt out of the PA system. When I booked the flight, I wanted to go to Paris, and the ticket says that too. Also do I bang on the cockpit door to annouce that: I am going to have nasi lemak for dinner, washed down by a nice shiraz, then I am going take a dump in the WC on the left rear fuslage. Then Marcus and I are going to watch the 3 Musketeers and collect the same bags we checked in off the carousel in Paris. Sheesh.

As the flight was 14 hours, and nothing can keep me interested for that long (my marriage to WT excluded), I took four Blackmoores Natural sleeping tablets. I was awake for 13.5 hours listening to my noise cancelling headphones cancelling out the engine noise. I have to get hold of Amy Winehouse's and Whitney Houston's prescriptions, and combine them, for these long flights. Four tablets, 3 Savignon Blances and 2 Tigers don't work, the girls would still be alive if they used mine.

I decided to have chat with the young lady next to me. Turns out she had been working on a travel/work visa for 3 years in OZ/NZ. Last job was salmon farm in Sud Island. Salome (great name to have on a salmon farm) is from Toulouse and I told her that I will be visiting my nephew there. We may meet again.

Landed in Orly Sud which is in Paris South (Sud Island above is not a spelling mistake). Immigration officer says to me he loves NZ. I said you like NZ rugby, Marcus laughs and probably thinks we will be declined entry. Non, non I like France rugby, I looove Peter Jackson and LOTR. Welcome to France.

I'd booked Super Shuttle to take us from Orly to the apartment in Montparnasse. He was waiting for us when we emerged from customs. It was supposed to be a shared shuttle but we were the only ones there. So I enquired. It appears the French are very like my friend Mino, a Samoan, late doesn't matter. He had worked out the head wind Captain Wong announced, and took all the other passengers to their destinations and came back for us. The driver was going for a holiday to Bangkok with 5 of his mates and asked if he should travel Air Asia. When five 25 year olds travel, you don't recommend a pay per drink airline. Non, I said, go with Thai, unlimited drinks!

We arrived at the apartment at 10 am and Thierry cannot let us in till 1 pm because he can only do this on his lunch break. So in the three hours we:

1. Had a baguette breakfast at LesArtise.

2. Acivated our Lebare SIM cards.

3. Bought recharge coupons for our SIM cards.

4. Had a lapin (rabbit) for lunch at Cafe Chineur.

which took us to 1pm.

As a side note, and fatherly bias aside, I have to say the four years of French in school and Mandarin in various institutions paid off. The boy was asking for tables for two, are you cooking breakfast, what is your free wifi password, what does the other two items on your menu mean....... The most brilliant part was everyone treated us really well because Marcus engaged with them in their language, and all of them speak Anglais.

Our landlord Thierry is a gem. His apartment was perfect for us. Completely and functionally refurbished with nice shower, stove, combine grill and microwave machine, LCD tv, roll out bed, washing machine, and south facing - warm. Thierry spent an hour with us going through the contract and how everything works. The part I like best was how the toliet flushes. The sewage system here in gravity driven, so the power to flush comes from each indvidual toilet to drive to contents into the Paris sewage autobahn. The flush is so powerful that the bathroom sink spouts out the water in the U junction from the reverse pressure. Thierry says don't be frightened, it is normal. I want every toilet in Wellington to be connected to the Oriental Parade fountain.

After Thierry left us, we took a quick shower to feel clean (French customs insist that the plane is sprayed before landing - to make sure everyone smells nice when we disembarked I assume) and went for a walk. First thing was to see how far Gare Montparnasse was. Gare (as in car with G) is the station where we take the fast train (TGV) to Bordeaux next Friday. Then off to supermarche to buy dinner.

I was told by my travel books to eat out at lunch, and eat in at dinner. You get the same meal for half the price at lunch. Anyway dinner from the supermarket cost 21 euros, about $32, for which we got 1 pizza, 1 Italian salad, a bag of mandarins, 6 bottles of water, a pinot blanc, a savignon blanc, 2 cans of beer, and a litre of orange juice (sans pulpe). First day in Paris done until I woke up at 9.49pm. Bon nuit.