The joys (and challenges) of long-haul travel

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Well, travel is always an adventure, and not always the kind you were expecting, nor even the kind you were hoping for. Travel also is often accompanied by long stretches of potential boredom, unless you really love people-watching (which, fortunately, I do.)

Leaving on a 6:00 am flight means arriving at the airport by 5:00 am, which in our case means leaving the house around 4:30. I set my alarm for 4:00, but at 2:45 am I woke up and quickly realized that I was unlikely to fall back to sleep. Just as well, since we needed extra time to shovel the snow that had been falling for hours. We had 8-10 inches of new snow, and it not only took time to shovel ourselves out, but it made the drive to the airport more adventurous than we had hoped. Even with excellent snow tires, it took us several running starts to get up enough momentum to make it all the way up one short steep hill, but we made it eventually, and got to the airport by 5:10 or so. No big lines, no long wait, and our plane took off just a couple of minutes late.

We passed several hours at JFK, eating overpriced airport food and people-watching, and then endured our 16-hour flight to Hong Kong. Jaz slept, I didn't (much.) I did watch movies, and can heartily recommend The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Bangkok Dangerous was a good time-killer with good location shots, and Burn After Reading was typical Coen Brothers fare.

After a couple more hours at the Hong Kong airport - shiny, huge and relatively empty, with good free wi-fi so we could Facebook chat with friends from Jericho to St Thomas - we took off again and then landed in Bangkok just before midnight. By the time we checked into our hotel around 1:00 am, I think I had slept about 4-5 hours total since leaving home, so it goes without saying that I was not functioning at top speed.

I am now posting this on Wednesday morning (Bangkok time), having slept another 5 hours or so last night. Jaz was awake until about 5:30 this morning, having slept so much on the journey that she wasn't tired once we got here. I'll let her sleep for a while longer, then wake her up in time so she can have breakfast and finish her creative writing assignment in time to email it to her professor by noon.

I'm sweating and smiling, working on my third cup of coffee and glad to be here - and looking forward to a nap!

(This is the short-but-sweet version of our travel details. If you're a glutton for punishment and want to read about it in minute but mundane detail, check out On The Road To Cambodia , my other blog experiment.)

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Photos

Facebooking on the move
Jaz can multi-task better than anyone else I know!

Hong Kong food options
Mini Beijing Roast Duck Pizza, anyone?

Comments

[Mim]

SO GOOD TO READ YOU
Jess and Jaz: It is absolutey DELICOUS to read this blog. I am transported, even though my little office could not feel further away. I look forward to more. Mim

[Lori]

I'm chillin some beer!
see you tomorrow :)