One flight down, one to go (but it's a looooong one!)

I couldn't resist letting you know we made it as far as JFK airport so far. Nothing like a 6:00 am flight to get me out of bed early in the morning! (Considering I've been waking up at 3:30 every morning for the last week - damn those pre-travel anxiety dreams! - it wasn't as hard as I had anticipated.)

So, one quick flight down, and one loooong one to go. How long, you may wonder...? Well, it may be one of the longest nonstop flights on the planet: 17+ hours. I imagine many hours ahead spent reading, watching the seat-back entertainment system, stretching in a desperate attempt to avoid DVT (that's Deep Vein Thrombosis, for all you non-nurses), eating, sleeping (thanks to Ambien), and developing that lovely hairdo that happens when you spend 17 hours in an airplane seat. (I always end up looking like a toddler who has just woken from a long and restless nap.)

We will be crossing the International Dateline, which will be a first for both of us. All of our previous long flights have been trans-Atlantic, but I thought we'd mix it up a little this time and go in the other direction. Not to mention that I've always wanted to travel into the future.

We both know we can survive a long flight, having flown Atlanta to South Africa in 2005. I just have to remind my mom about the amnesiac effects she gets from the Ambien - on that South Africa flight, she insisted she had never been served a snack, while she had in fact eaten it just after taking her Ambien. (I think she finally believed it when she found the food wrappers in her carry-on bag.)

So, does anyone who doesn't already know care to guess where we're headed? Long flight over the Pacific - that narrows it down a bit. I'll give you a BIG hint: we're flying Thai Airways. As expected, that was the tip-off for mom: checking in for a flight to Bangkok made our first destination obvious. She debated whether she wanted to know the whole itinerary, and she decided she was ready. So for those who don't already know, here's our rough plan:

 •  Bangkok for two nights
 •  Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for 2 nights
 •  one week on a river boat on the Mekong, traveling from Vietnam to Cambodia. (If you want to learn more, check out www.pandaw.com)
 •  Siem Reap (Cambodia) for 4 nights
 •  back to Bangkok for two nights - Mom's birthday in Bangkok!
 •  Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand for 4 nights over Songkran, the Thai New Year
 •  back to Bangkok for the flight home!


I guess you'll have to wait a little while for another update. Even Thai Airways doesn't have in-flight wireless internet access (though they are known for other lovely amenities) so we may be on the ground for a little while before I post again. Photos to come as well, I promise!

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