Airplane Food

On my flight from Chengdu to Hong Kong last week, there were a lot of Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong (just in time for the typhoon). I sat next to two ladies and it was pretty apparent that they don't fly often; it may have been their first flight ever. They talked loudly for the entire 2.5 hour in the air.

During the Dragonair flight, they served breakfast. When the tray arrived, there was a croissant and a small plastic container of butter. Neither of them knew what to do with the butter (there was no Chinese on any of the packaging). One of them opened up the package and put a chunk of the butter into her mouth directly. The other one couldn't open the package and gave up. Later, the flight attendant came around with English tea. I gave her my cup and also took some sugar and cream for my tea. Both ladies asked for tea as well and one of them took a creamer while asking the other what it was. She then opened the seal and drank the cream like a shot of alcohol. Mmm... maybe I should have offered to help.

I've also noticed that Chinese passengers are not very polite to the flight attendants. I always thank them for giving me the food tray, offering me a drink, or even taking the tray away after meals. Never have I seen a "Chinese" Chinese person (as opposed to a Chinese-American) thank the flight attendant for service.