The Longest Day

Do you like travel? If you ask me this question, I will say yes without hesitation; but when I think it over, I’m not sure about that because travel has wide meaning and it is just “the general activity of moving from one place to another.” Travel can be a tour, it also can be a boring business trip, or it is a daily commute from a city to another. Therefore, my feeling on travel is complex; I’d like to talk about my “longest day” this time, joyful coexisting with painful.

The experience of my “longest day” was happened in one of my business trips. I used to travel by early flight when I had business trip, and this special trip was without exception. It happened in Feb., 2005, when most of people still enjoyed Chinese New Year vacation; I travelled from Shanghai to Shenyang, which locates in the northeast of China. I got up around 5:00am and caught the first flight. Everything seemed on track, I arrived at Pudong Airport (one of airports in Shanghai) and the plane departed on time. I took a nap like I usually did and was waiting for the plane landing; the whole journey would take two hours. When I was dazed with nap, I felt the plane started landing. What’s up? The time was passed a half hour only; the broadcast from captain soon told us because of mechanical trouble we must land at Hongqiao Airport, another airport in Shanghai which is close to my home. After landing, we transferred to Pudong Airport again by bus; it was around 10:00am. Five hours had been passed since I got up and what I can do was waiting for an uncertain time that plane took off.

This painful experience was just beginning; otherwise that day would not be the longest. Sooner we got the announcement that we could take off at 12:00pm. I was so appreciated the airline company’s punctuality, the plane departed from airport according to the schedule; and I was really tired and fell asleep quickly. It has another 30 minutes flight time to destination when I woke; but in the meantime we got the depressed information that the plane should turn back due to destination weather issue. I was almost collapse! Ten hours passed! I couldn’t believe that I was still in Shanghai since my eyes opened in the morning. I was only keeping my fingers crossed that everything was going to be OK and imaged some pleasant scenes, such as drinking with friends after landing etc. Fortunately, the air flight wasn’t cancelled. After two hours’ waiting, the plane finally accomplished its mission; I safely arrived to Shenyang at 7:30pm.

The same coin has two sides. In fact, on the other side, this travel experience was a good opportunity to practice my patience, let me keep optimistic mind. Meanwhile, the time wasn’t waste too much because I finished couple reports while I was waiting. I feel happy so far although that is my “longest day”.

This is travel, full of surprise; you will never know what will happen. Just free your mind, stay clam and face it; nothing is impossible!