January 9 (I think), 2003 Hong Kong 9:19am, Danville 8:19pm

“The Flight”

I figured this 7 and a half hour layover in Hong Kong would be a good opportunity to try and capture some good thoughts from our travels thus far, even though we’re not even in Vietnam yet. We got to the airport on Tuesday January 7 with plenty of time to spare, which, of course, left me wishing that our flight left earlier in the day. We did finally get on the plane, though, and the flight from Cinci to LAX was enjoyable. The highlights were classmate Tim’s reaction to his first flight; an aerial view of the Rockies, the Grand Canyon, and Los Angeles.

LAX airport is like nothing I’ve ever seen, and I have a feeling I’ll be saying that a lot on this trip. There are so many people trying to go so many different places. My Dad remarked that those are the times that one realizes just how many people there really are in this world. After a lengthy layover and some belly-pleasing food, we went through the hoops and made our way onto Cathay Pacific’s Airbus. The humor of many of us bigger-boned Americans squeezed into spaces designed for petite Asians did not escape me and actually served to make the 14:46 flight a little more bearable.