15 Hour Flight Part 2 + the Hong Kong Experience

Now for the second half of the 15 hour flight, the layover in Hong Kong, and the last leg to Ho Chi Minh City. The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful. Instead of taking a direct from Chicago right to Hong Kong, we flew north above Canada and the Arctic Circle. As we were looking out the window, all we saw was white. Miles and miles of uninterrupted snow. We stared out the window during one of our many laps around the plane… can’t sit in a seat for 15 hours. Me and Alex also met and became friendly with Winston our neighbor. He worked for the US Department of Energy and was headed to Beijing. He was very nice… and very generous. I spent the rest of the time on the plane reading Game of Thrones, falling asleep while reading Game of Thrones, and eating the wonderful airplane food (that was sarcasm, it was far from wonderful). The rest of the flight actually went surprisingly quick. We arrived at Hong Kong International Airport. And for the first time I saw what a Far-Eastern country looks like. It was eye-opening. The volume of people was so much greater than anything I’ve seen, even a NYC street during the holidays. The airport was not only huge but it was so much cleaner and nicer than Newark International. We found our gate, put our stuff down, and went off exploring. We headed to a Chinese restaurant. We ordered traditional Chinese food, not the Americanized stuff you find in your local suburbia. We also learned that the drinking age in Hong Kong is 18. We decided to legally order our first beers! They didn’t even ask to see our ID, it was very cool. After finishing our food and drinks we headed back to our gate and waited the rest of the five hours for our flight. When we boarded the plane, there were very few passengers. Most of us had gotten little sleep in the past 24 hours and were dead tired. I did not even make it to takeoff before I passed out. I only woke up to use the bathroom and to get a drink. We finally arrived in Vietnam! Most of us were still exhausted but we were excited that we had finally made it. I went through customs without any problems and headed down to collect my luggage. Thankfully my luggage was not lost but Nino and Hailie’s luggage was left in Chicago. After Team YOLO (name courtesy of Chairman Brice) was assembled we took our first steps out into Vietnam, basically on the opposite side of the world as tiny Whippany, NJ. I have yet to wrap my head around that. Although the humidity was absurd, the heat was not as bad as I had expected. But Dr. Berman soon informed us that the temperature was unnaturally low because of the recent rainstorms. This did not bode well for the next two weeks. We drove to the hotel, checked into our rooms, unpacked, and proceeded to pass out immediately.