Flying From Sunset To Sunset
By Lothar. Filed in Canada, China, General |
We just cruised the skies non-stop for an entire night and entire day, aboard Air Canada AC 88, a Boeing 777-200LR, without refueling. We left Shanghai on August 27 at “sunset” and flew for 12:40 hours, going east against the travel of the Sun, and landed in Toronto at 19:45, still the same day, August 27!
This time, there was a real sunset. In Shanghai, all we saw was a dirty haze in the “air” and dusk at 5 PM. I was prepared to use our duckbill face masks in the Pudong Shanghai International Airport, but nobody around us was coughing or sneezing. We had to go through immigration, in order to check in our bags. We were a little worried that we would end up stranded here in the Terminal, like Tom Hanks in the movie.
The Chinese let us exit without any problems, even though we had no visa to enter their country. Although they did keep us on the ground, sitting in the plane, for 2 hours. We had boarded our plane, climbing up the metal staircase on the tarmac in a thunderstorm, and apparently lost our take-off time slot. While waiting on the ground, the flight attendants kept us “filled-up” with champagne, until I had to give Gabi a Pepcid for heartburn!
I slept on my bed in 3A, Gabi behind me in 4A still watched a movie after dinner. We were cruising east of Sapporo on the Hokkaido island when I went to bed. Next time I woke up around 3AM, we were above Alaska, near Fairbanks. The 777 has a window next to the toilet. I could look at the brown mountains with little vegetation below us, without disturbing the sleeping fellow passengers. It is 3 o’clock in the morning and the sun is shining! We had a nice dinner/breakfast at 6AM China time and 6PM Toronto time. We were served a tasty omelette, which I felt was a good choice for either time of day!
We landed in Toronto with the last daylight of August 27, having spent 15 hours on the plane. Thanks to traveling east across the International Dateline, we saw a whole night and day go by within that time.
Now it is 4:30 AM and we are sleepless in Toronto, even though we have the soft bed in the Fairfield Inn And Suites!