Saturday, March 22, 2008

Viet Nam 6 months later

I'm back in Viet Nam after 6 months and it feels great to be back! But getting here this time is not something I could have prepared for. I realize the flight is long and always wonder how that's going to be but this time I had to talk myself through every single second of the journey. The flight to Seattle is 3 hours and 40 minutes. That's a long flight by USA standards. I was the window seat with 3 people so it was cramped. Still, I slept and felt optimistic that I could make it 14 hours to Taipei without any problem. After a 5 hour layover in Seattle (at night, everything closing up) I boarded the COMPLETELY PACKED plane for Taipei. This newer China Airlines plane has smaller seats - - which really means you're just closer to your neighbor. But top that off with the fact that mine had a box of some sort under the seat in front of me (AV box? small heater?) that gave off heat but mostly took up the space my right leg wanted and needed to stretch out. The guy next to me, as nice as he was, smelled like mothballs. It's what the Vietnamese do: they put mothballs everywhere I suppose to keep moths away, but ugh. It stinks! I quickly became accustomed to that odor but couldn't deal with the box under the seat. I managed to sleep for a few blocks of time but nothing like I normally do on these flights. Normally I have good 'seat karma' and am afforded three seats across with just me so I can sprawl out and sleep deeply. Not this time.

Plus, there was an American guy with his Asian wife who was an absolute crazy stereotype of an American. Picture this: red wife beater, baseball cap, belches loudly and often with belch often lasting about 5 seconds (the long, drawn-out kind!!)and a strange habit of saying, "i'mgonnagityou" or "i'llgityou" to his wife CONSTANTLY. ?? It was the strangest thing. He's a loud talker, of course, and seems to like everyone looking at him by saying things loudly like, "They put it in Chinese like I can understand Chinese" on a Chinese airline. Then he'd belch. Then he'd say his "i'mgonnagityou" thing to his wife. So odd. And of course, out of the 40 rows in the plane with 10 seats across, he gets placed directly across the aisle from me.

In Taipei we all complained about our lack of sleep and comfort. My computer quickly picked up an internet connection so I was able to Skype a few people and let them know I had arrived safely. It still amazes me that I can talk to people through my computer without interruption or even a delay. I freshened up and changed clothes so felt somewhat presentable when I landed in Viet Nam. The flight to Viet Nam was mostly empty so I had 3 seats across to myself!! I slept like a baby for almost the entire 3 hours. It was heavenly and much-needed.

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