2011-01-09

That new aeroplane smell of my 777-200 seat with its ability to recline with stretched toes helped me to sleep a little. With bumps from each little fluffy cloud, I tend to wake up, so this transatlantic+transcontinental+transsemicontinental flight makes me a bit zombieish. This gives me ample opportunity to gaze out the window at some of the countries over which we flew: Canada, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and even India. When the clouds cleared, I felt like I was in Alaska since I could see Russia from my aeroplane.

We went over Afghanistan at 37000ft during the night. You could see many stars, but only a single light on the ground over the first half of the country. It was like over the Atlantic, seeing a few ships’ lights on occasion. Eerie. I’m pretty sure I could see Kabul and the villages to the south once we went near there. A very fine wispy web of tiny lights along the side of all the mountains. Once past it, nothing again until eastern Pakistan.

Flying over populate area at 15000ft, there were still not as many lights as you’d normally see in the US. Do we waste light by pointing it up? Are we too paranoid and need that extra light?

Now that I’m landed, the next adventure is the taxi ride!