Nepal and Taiwan: July 2025: Day 8: Return (and delays)

Nepal and Taiwan

July 2025: Day 8: Return

Breakfast buffet at the Kaohsiung Marriott's executive lounge.

For your congee.

Breads and stuff.

Cold foods. Scallion chicken was delicious.

Brown sugar steamed buns and sweet potatoes.

Pork and bamboo congee.

Pretty solid meal.

Not the best congee, but it wasn't bad.

The fancy zataku seating area in my upgraded room.

2nd departure of United flight 838, KHH-NRT, on the board.

Ticketing area at Kaohsiung International Airport.

N35260, ~24 year old 737-800 part of United's Guam sub-fleet.

Heading left from security.

Cool portal window. Sadly no airplane.

Gates here are very heavily utilized, airlines only get 45 minute slots.

That's a lot of traffic.

UA 838, ready to board. This little Diamond DA 42 NG made it here from the USA? That's a long haul.

This little Diamond DA 42 NG made it here from the USA? That's a long haul.

Salmon and chicken and noodles.

Not sure this is properly called a pilot's glory, given we can't see the shadow of the airplane.

Purser Glenn, FA Alanna, and Sam (managing director, airport operations, Pacific, United Airlines).

Saying farewell to Jennifer (corporate communications at United, I think?).

Backup plan for my return home. It's... not ideal.

Not quite the full Mount Blanket.

Therabody amenity kits in grey, rectangular cases now? Menu.

Menu.

Slept through the snacks-- sad I missed the yaki onigiri chazuke and the naikumai omigiri.

N38955 needed 12hr 3min (actual) flight time, 7,100 miles (Flightaware), 6,643 miles (great circle) for NRT-IAH today.

Warm nuts.

Spicy prawn appetizer was... fine?

Lamb loin was completely forgettable.

Did not look like much.

Japanese pre-arrival meal (flounder) was okay.

N38955, ~10 year old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, arrived in Houston.

Menu at Polaris Lounge, Terminal E, IAH.

Crawfish pistolette. Kind of like empanada?

Polaris burger and crawfish pistolette both pretty forgettable.

So small?

Many, many delays due to thunderstorms. Ouch.

Ouch.

Vegan chorizo salad on IAH-LAX.

Magnolia Bakery banana chocolate pudding.

Breakfast at the Kaohsiung Marriott's executive lounge was pretty decent, the metro ride to the airport was lengthy but efficient, and then got news of unexpected flight changes upon my arrival at the airport. Everything ended up sorted out, although it was good United had some experienced staff on-hand during startup to keep things running smoothly.

Kaohsiung International Airport is actually a very busy place, with too few gates for all the flights that airlines want to operate. United flight 838 was in and out quickly, and I ended up talking to Sam Shinohara (managing director at United Airlines) on the return to Narita. Turns out he's responsible for all of United's airport operations in the Pacific, which means we had a long and very interesting conversation on the return to Japan. A relief pilot for United was seated across from us who also had plenty of questions for Sam, and it ended up being quite fun for the return. Even found out why my return from Narita to Los Angeles had gotten canceled, which was a fun and unusually detailed bit of insight.

Said farewell to Sam as well as to his colleage Jenny (and also international purser Glenn and flight attendant Alanna) upon arrival at Tokyo Narita, and ran off to catch my new flight to Houston (IAH). Was very glad United was able to protect my upgrade on UA 6 (NRT-IAH) given that my original (UA 33, NRT-LAX) had been canceled, and hence United had an entire 787's worth of passengers to rebook. The flight itself was pretty textbook, the lamb was indifferent, and being I'd been 8 flights the past week, was more than happy to sleep most of the flight to Houston.

The Japanese pre-arrival meal (flounder) was okay, then found that the trademark summer thunderstorms in the midwest were hashing things up. UA 6 arrived about 30 minutes late, but my connection (UA 1743) was delayed almost 3 hours, so turns out there was ample time for a very mediocre meal at the Polaris Lounge. Ended up landing at LAX more than 9 hours later than planned, which beat being delayed by an extra night, but was still a very long day.