Notes on Travel, Part 3 - 10:25 PM PDT 8/17/2005

The first leg of our trip was uneventful- PDX to LAX. My co-workers somehow ended up in "Economy Plus", whereas I was in the very last row. You know, those seats that don't recline and are extra-narrow. I was actually managing to fit my 6'n" frame into the seat rather comfortably until the person in front of me decided to recline their seat. Grrr. Actually, it wasn't so bad, especially since I found myself sitting next to a nice Kiwi family making their way back to Auckland after a few weeks of circumnavigating the globe.

Upon arriving at LAX, I was quickly reminded of exactly why I like Portland's airport so much. To go from terminal to terminal at LAX requires a shuttle bus. This is, in and of itself, not especially strange. What's strange is that catching the shuttle involves exiting the airport, going through the baggage claim area, out to the curb, past all of the rental car shuttle-bus pickups, to a special pick-up area. Once the bus eventually shows up, there's much dodging through traffic, with people and cars running every which-where. It's about the least-organized way of handling this problem that I can think of. And the real killer is this: there's almost no signage. When you get off of the plane, there's no sign saying "Airline Transfers - Take Shuttle Outside" or anything like that. Everybody on the shuttle did nothing but talk about how poorly-signed the whole process was.

So, for the record, in the spirit of "Stupid things I've figured out so that you don't have to", here's how to catch an international connection at LAX:

• Follow the signs for "Ground Transportation" until you're out on the curb.


• Then, look for the airport bus pickup areas.


• Once you find that, wait for the "A" bus. This will go from terminal to terminal. Note: there are several different international terminals you might need to go to, so it's worth paying attention to which airlines are listed at which terminals. For Singapore Air, the "Tom Bradley International Terminal" is the one you want.


• Get off at the appropriate terminal, re-check in, ask about your bags, mess around with frequent flier numbers, go through security, etc.

At the moment, I'm sitting in the aforementioned T.B. Int'l Term., waiting for my connecting flight to Singapore to board. I've got about two more hours to go. One interesting note— my itinerary says that this leg of the journy (LAX to Singapore) has a total elapsed time of 19 hours and 30 minutes, and is a direct flight. What it does not say is that the flight stops in Taipei for an hour. This caused some confusion, as the big reader-board in the main terminal just said "Singapore Air fl. 29 - Taipei", whereas our tickets said "Singapore Air fl. 29 - LAX-SIN". According to the ticket agent, all of the other passengers were just as much in the dark as we were. Hey, as long as I get to Singapore in time to make my connection to Kolkata, I don't really care where we go. And it's nice to know that they won't be trying to fly at 777 for more than 19 hours without refueling. :-)

Actually, it's quite a pleasant surprise— when I woke up this morning, I had no idea that I'd be going to Taiwan before the day was out. Now there's a sentence that can't come up too often! (With full apologies to Patrick)