The sun has come up on my first real day in Vietnam. The weather last week from home had been forecasted to be rainy this week, but now that the sun is fully up, I think that was a mistake. Beautiful day to go exploring this busy, busy city. It seems odd to me to be in this place after focusing so much on simplifying my life. Of course, this is a work trip, and not the type of place that I would choose to come for rest and relaxation. I do think, though, that I can learn from the Vietnamese people, in how to do more with less and make more use of what we do have. So far, my impression of this city is one of constant activity - just from sitting in my hotel room, I can hear the constant buzz of life with tooting horns and trucks rolling by. Definitely a lively place!
My plane ride was long. Really long. Desperately loooooooong. After reaching Chicago, we had a very long ride to Hong Kong - 15 hours, but that jumped to 17 hours after a 2 hour delay for 'engine trouble'. My colleague is convinced that with all the extra security around, it was not engine trouble at all, but something more terrorist related. I wasn't too sure I wanted to travel over the Bering Sea with engine trouble - or terrorist trouble. But we landed safely in Hong Kong and traveled on to Vietnam smoothly.
If you are wondering what I did for all those long hours, here's a rundown: I slept for about 2 hours - I listened to Kabul Beauty School on disc, and I watched a bazillion movies. I listened to my favorite music, and when I was too much of a zombie to do anything, I just sat. I had twin babies behind me that screamed...that's right...screamed throughout the 15 hours - maybe for half the time on and off again. This made me treasure my children sooooo much. Mainly for the fact that I didn't have to keep them entertained while I was in zombie-land, but also because we never had that kind of experience with them on a plane.
So there's my low-down. More later.
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