After three years away, I was curious to see what Narita airport would look like, compared to Incheon where I had just been two weeks prior. This is one of the slower airports in Asia Pacific to recover – Incheon is number two in recovery after Singapore – and although Japan fully reopened on October 11, Narita felt like a shadow of its former self.
It was around 5pm, most shops were closed and everyone was masked, mandatory. It felt like Changi in the early days of reopening circa March 2022. There were staff ushering passengers into two lines – one for those entering Tokyo and another for connecting passengers like me.
I felt like in the past months, I had been on a Covid time travel path across Asia – from places fully opened to partially to just opened.
Cacti, a common characteristic of desert scapes.
Arriving in Los Angeles, there is no doubt this is on the extreme end of the time travel path – packed, hardly any masks in sight, a hubbub of activity. Immigration was fast and painless and as I picked up my bag to re-check it in for Phoenix (a pain point I wish could be addressed), a beagle followed the trail of the passenger in front of me and started barking at one of her bags. “Must be our doggie treats,” laughs the woman. “Maybe it’s the weed gummy,” says her friend.
I learnt that everything is a gummy these days in the US – vitamins, sleeping pills and, weed. I went into a store (I think it was called Sugar Rush) in Scottsdale, and there were gummies in all shapes and sizes.
Everything is also pickle ball these days – and you wonder how a fad becomes a trend and then becomes “a thing” – like bubble tea or Mala hotpot. A 2022 report from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association called it the fastest growing sport in America, with 4.8m players nationwide (a near 40% increase from 2020). There are now an estimated 35,000 courts in the US, more than double the number from five years ago.
I was told that the reason pickle ball got so popular so fast is that as Americans got older, it was considered to be the more genteel game than squash or tennis. “Maybe it’s just we are getting fatter,” said an American friend.
At Phocuswright 2022, being held at JW Marriott Desert Ridge, pickle ball is one of the pre-event activities being offered, and it was fully subscribed, along with the hot air balloon rides.
The taxi driver who drove me from Sky Harbour airport to the hotel (I couldn’t get an Uber, too busy) told me he moved from Bangladesh 18 years ago. He’s streaming Quran prayers in his car.
Our conversation goes like this. “Where are you from?” “Malaysia.” “You are Muslim?” “No.” “What race are you?” “Chinese.”
He reminds me of taxi drivers in Asia who have no compunction asking personal questions such as “how much money do you make?”
He proceeds to tell me that he speaks Bangla and that it’s the sixth largest language in the world. “No 1 Chinese, No 2 Spanish, No 3 English, No 4 Hindi, No 5, Arabic – Bengali No 6.” I absorbed my language lesson quietly, after 24 hours of flying, I wasn’t about to get into an argument over whether Portuguese or Bengali was No 6.
“America, best country in the world. Best economy. Best currency,” he told me. I nodded. This was another conversation I wasn’t going to get into.
He continues. “What is your work?” “Travel.” “What company?” To be expedient, I threw out, “Expedia.”
I am hoping my monosyllabic answers would stop further conversation, my head is not attached to my body at this stage.
“Can you advise me?” And he proceeded to tell me about how he had bought a ticket online to Bangladesh for his annual trip but his wife had been diagnosed with cancer and he had to cancel, and how could he get his refund. He hadn’t bought insurance, but could he buy insurance two weeks before his flight and then cancel and get a refund?
I am beginning to wish I hadn’t lied.
I felt bad for him but I’d never felt as relieved as when we finally arrived at the hotel. But my poor new friend – he’s just another anxious traveller unsure how our industry works.
The theme for the Phocuswright conference this year is “Travellers. Titans. Trailblazers”. The first time I travelled to Arizona almost two decades ago, I experienced everything a first-time traveller does here – walked the Grand Canyon, rode a horse with a handsome cowboy, learnt to line dance at a salon, and heard the rattle of a snake outside the door of my adobe ranch house.
Hermosa Inn: Super spot for sunset cocktails.
I love desert scapes, something timeless and primordial about them. Flat. Wide. Open. And “cactus” everywhere. They look like giant stick men doing yoga poses. I learnt that all cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti. Not sure what to do with that information but just be careful when walking the streets of Old Town, you don’t want to walk into a prickly succulent.
At night, I look up to the sky – twinkling stars everywhere and the moon seems bigger here as well, like the food portions.
Did you know, the Titan of cactus is the saguaro cactus, which normally reach heights of 40 feet (around 12m) tall, that’s about 10 of me. The tallest saguaro ever measured towered more than 78 feet (about 24m). You wouldn’t want to bump into one of these in the dark.
My first night here, I went to Hermosa Inn, a boutique hotel in Paradise Valley. Local famous artist Lon Megargee blazed the trail when he built this private escape for himself in the 1930s. His art works of local landscapes, native Americans and cowboys still don the walls of this charming accommodation. Sunset cocktails are popular here – sipping tequila cocktails while watching the big, orange ball of fire cast all kinds of shades of pink and gold across the wide, open sky as it bows out for the night is quintessentially Arizonan.
For dinner, I head to The Mission, the restaurant located next to the first church built by hand by Native Americans in the old town. The guacomole which is made at your table is a must – a warning, after you’ve tasted this, you’ll never eat guacomole anywhere else. (Video below)
As a Traveller, I reckon I am a bit of a Titan foodie and a Trailblazer in terms of conversations with taxi drivers.
