I am on the third flight of my journey to the East, on my way to Bangkok with a final destination of the island of Bali in Indonesia. As I sit on the plane listening to its constant humming, I feel this urge to write down my observations about this particular flight.
I am lucky my job takes me to places. Overall I may have perhaps visited over 150 cities around the world but if I am asked how each of them were, my memories were mostly a blur, and perhaps the most vivid were those spent at airports and airline lounges.
The first leg of my flight took me to Detroit from Montreal. Seated in business class on an early morning flight, the first thing that I noticed was that I was one among two women in that section of the flight. Around me, these men who I assume were either going to meetings or going home from one, were chattering on cell phones. One was asking an assistant or colleague to check a letter before it got sent out, one was asking about prices of materials, and I could hear intimate low voices talking perhaps to loved ones saying they were taking off soon, and would be turning their phones off.
On the flight from Detroit to Narita, I was in the upper deck of a 747 jet, and once again observed that I was one of three women in this group. It is interesting though, the kind of people one meets on these flights. The lady I was sitting next to was flying to Singapore through Tokyo, and informed me that she is originally from Nova Scotia, but now lives in Michigan but based in Singapore working for an IT company. A nice gentleman who helped me get to my gate in Detroit came from Montreal on business and was on his way home. People like these make me think that truly the world has become a smaller place.
In my job, traveling to different countries is an integral part of my work. My organization works with almost 140 countries around the globe, and project implementation is always much more effective if these visits are done on a regular basis. Since my move to Montreal, though, my trips are far less but it always takes me a long time to get to my destinations which are almost always in Asia and the Pacific. While I love returning to Asia, nowadays I really feel the weariness that creeps in with each long flight. For this one for instance, my travel time is even longer than the number of days for my meeting, but it is important for me to be there, so there really isn’t a choice.
I still remember my very first business trip: I was an eager and naïve twenty something, traveling to Moscow. My very first trip abroad was to the USSR back when it was still a communist country. You can imagine the thrill I got from the mere thought of imagining that I would be standing in the Red Square and can see the interior of St. Basil’s cathedral! This trip did not disappoint, and it was only the beginning of an often interesting relationship with airplanes, hotels, airports and airline lounges….
As I get closer to my destination (I am now on my fourth plane ride as I finish this post), I am excited. Bali holds special memories for me. I will be meeting people I know and worked with for a long time and whose achievements and efforts I respect and it will be good. The discussions will as usual be animated, but this trip also gives me a bit of butterflies in the stomach. While I am meeting familiar people, I am also sitting at this meeting in a different capacity. We will be discussing issues that are sensitive to the countries and I am representing an organization that facilitates funding for these projects, so the responsibility on my shoulders is quite heavy.
But I am a person who loves challenges, and this will be just one of those, and again another learning opportunity. I will leave the meeting with a feeling that I have gained something, that my storehouse of knowledge has again been increased and I have shared a lot of what I know to the people I met, and for this, the long plane rides are all worthwhile.
Note: written on board NW 27 Narita-Bangkok, 10 November 2007
I am lucky my job takes me to places. Overall I may have perhaps visited over 150 cities around the world but if I am asked how each of them were, my memories were mostly a blur, and perhaps the most vivid were those spent at airports and airline lounges.
The first leg of my flight took me to Detroit from Montreal. Seated in business class on an early morning flight, the first thing that I noticed was that I was one among two women in that section of the flight. Around me, these men who I assume were either going to meetings or going home from one, were chattering on cell phones. One was asking an assistant or colleague to check a letter before it got sent out, one was asking about prices of materials, and I could hear intimate low voices talking perhaps to loved ones saying they were taking off soon, and would be turning their phones off.
On the flight from Detroit to Narita, I was in the upper deck of a 747 jet, and once again observed that I was one of three women in this group. It is interesting though, the kind of people one meets on these flights. The lady I was sitting next to was flying to Singapore through Tokyo, and informed me that she is originally from Nova Scotia, but now lives in Michigan but based in Singapore working for an IT company. A nice gentleman who helped me get to my gate in Detroit came from Montreal on business and was on his way home. People like these make me think that truly the world has become a smaller place.
In my job, traveling to different countries is an integral part of my work. My organization works with almost 140 countries around the globe, and project implementation is always much more effective if these visits are done on a regular basis. Since my move to Montreal, though, my trips are far less but it always takes me a long time to get to my destinations which are almost always in Asia and the Pacific. While I love returning to Asia, nowadays I really feel the weariness that creeps in with each long flight. For this one for instance, my travel time is even longer than the number of days for my meeting, but it is important for me to be there, so there really isn’t a choice.
I still remember my very first business trip: I was an eager and naïve twenty something, traveling to Moscow. My very first trip abroad was to the USSR back when it was still a communist country. You can imagine the thrill I got from the mere thought of imagining that I would be standing in the Red Square and can see the interior of St. Basil’s cathedral! This trip did not disappoint, and it was only the beginning of an often interesting relationship with airplanes, hotels, airports and airline lounges….
As I get closer to my destination (I am now on my fourth plane ride as I finish this post), I am excited. Bali holds special memories for me. I will be meeting people I know and worked with for a long time and whose achievements and efforts I respect and it will be good. The discussions will as usual be animated, but this trip also gives me a bit of butterflies in the stomach. While I am meeting familiar people, I am also sitting at this meeting in a different capacity. We will be discussing issues that are sensitive to the countries and I am representing an organization that facilitates funding for these projects, so the responsibility on my shoulders is quite heavy.
But I am a person who loves challenges, and this will be just one of those, and again another learning opportunity. I will leave the meeting with a feeling that I have gained something, that my storehouse of knowledge has again been increased and I have shared a lot of what I know to the people I met, and for this, the long plane rides are all worthwhile.
Note: written on board NW 27 Narita-Bangkok, 10 November 2007
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