Jet Travel: American Style
Oct 6th, 2008 by Michael Max
Somewhere on the road between Wuyi Shan and Jiuhua Shan there was a town that involved in a bus change. It was the summer of 2005. Anwei Province Chinese summer hot, with a roasting heat that vied with the humidity and gritty air. Restrooms in Chinese bus stations are by definition a moment of endurance. But, this one due to the lack of running water was a collection station for buckets of piss. Having already been weeks on the road at this point it did not register as disgust or surprise, more like that initial feeling of something being not quite right, like when your car has been broken into, and your first clue of an ajar door registers simply as “oh, that’s odd.”
Today boarding American Airlines flight 1593 conjured up an image of what a Russian Aeroflot flight in the 80’s might have been like. The seats are ratty and frayed. The cabin is dirty. Obviously a family with small child recently occupied these seats; there are telltale cracker crumbs and a nebula of cookie dust. As we taxi out to the runway the head flight attendant informs us there will be no coffee or tea on this flight, nor water to wash our hands in the bathrooms. This plane is not carrying any water.
It registers as odd, but surprisingly without a feeling a surprise.