China ice
(View from the plane: Mongolia? China? Siberia? Russia?)
Yesterday I was on the same flight as two of Ying’s colleagues, so the flights and the intervening stopovers were far less dull than usual. I was even invited into the business class lounge in Amsterdam Schipol and it was actually amazing. In comparison to the constantly jarring, tinny tannoy reminders, “Mr Chang and Ms. Gruber, you are delaying the flight…” there was utter silence. Aside from the odd tinkling of a teacup or the clicking of laptop keys, it was bliss between flights. Even the flight was remarkably less painful than it could have been. There was a spare seat between my neighbour and me. I got off very lightly indeed! I made it here fine, aside from the expected, but always punishing, jet lag.
Two hours before landing, this is the view that greeted me from a window of the plane. I wasn’t lucky enough to have a window seat, but I was lucky to be in the aisle, so wandering about the plane was an option. I spotted this on a wander through the sleeping passengers and rushed back for my camera. I have no idea whose airspace we were in at this point – but we were coming from Amsterdam and headed for Shanghai on KLM airlines (if anyone can shed some light). I assume it is a desert of some kind as for at least half an hour there was little change in the scenery besides the odd ridge or plateau – Ying’s colleague, David suggested the Gobi desert or perhaps Mongolia. There were no roads, buildings, vegetation, nothing, it felt like we were gaping at the naked, windswept surface of the moon as the sun rises over it.
The flight between Amsterdam and Shanghai flies over the Arctic. Look at the time that you took your picture and the time that you flew (remembering that you might not have changed that time on your camera to Amsterdam time) and calculate approximate where you would be at that point.
very instructive ying