From the Other Side of the World, Part 1

Well, it's 4:30 AM back home in the U.S.; my wife and children are sound asleep in their beds, the first glimpses of sunlight in the eastern sky still nearly two hours away. But for me, on the other hand, I'm working really hard and tricking my body into believing that it's 5:30 PM...

I loaded my luggage into my car just over 24 hours ago, shortly after 4 AM CDT on Friday. Thankfully my car started (that's another story for another day), so I made it to the off-airport parking lot without a hitch. Check-in was uneventful, but making it through Security was more "exciting" than usual. I made a stupid rookie mistake -- a last-minute decision to pack an extra carry-on so that I could fit a few more "comfort items" (i.e., one of those big, squishy horseshoe-shaped neck pillows, etc.) -- but I wasn't thinking (perhaps because it was not even 5 AM?), and left my toiletry bag in my 2nd carry-on item. Oops -- I got "caught" with hair gel and shaving cream over the 3 oz size limit, so I had to toss them. (That was some nice hair gel, too. Man, what a waste. But I digress...)

Thankfully I didn't have to suffer any humiliating body searches or anything -- they just tossed my "contraband" in the garbage and I moved along, looking for a bite of breakfast. I tell you what, Einstein Bros. must have paid a pretty penny for their location at the MEM airport -- they are located straight ahead after you walk through security, and it looked like the only thing open at such an early hour, so they had a line out the door. After getting my bagel breakfast sandwich and some mediocre (read: Not Starbucks) coffee at Einstein, I walked towards my gate... and sure enough, passed a Starbucks right there in the terminal. If only I had known! In fact, I considered tossing my coffee and getting the real thing from SBUX, but I decided not to waste the money. Yeah, it'll be expensed, but it would still be a waste.

So my 6:05 AM flight to Chicago was smooth and comfy -- not to boast, but I was in seat 1A, which had me channeling my inner Ron Burgundy. You know, I'm a pretty big deal... While on the flight, I decided to be disciplined, so I read a chapter and a half in my Managerial Marketing textbook. When I got to Chicago, I had about 4 hours to kill before boarding for my next flight -- I got a 24 oz raspberry strawberry smoothie, ate a banana, checked my e-mail, then read some more. And I people-watched; big airports like O'Hare are great for people-watching. So many interesting folks in our big, big world...

My strategy for this trip was to work as hard as I could to try to adapt to Singapore time -- 13 hours ahead of U.S. Central -- as early in the trip as possible. So my 6:05 AM flight out of Memphis was actually 7:05 PM in SIN. My 12:20 PM flight out of Chicago was actually 1:20 AM in SIN -- so my idea was to try and sleep as much and as early as I could on the flight. Being that this is a company trip, I am flying in Business Class -- and let me tell you, I am very thankful for that. Tons of leg room on this 747-400 (even with my legs stretched out in front of me, the tips of my toes barely touch the seatback in front of me); personal TV/video screens, seats that recline almost to flat. Even so, despite the comfortable seat, I've never been one for sleeping on planes; I think I slept for about 2 hours. (And that was after a very long and drawn out lunch, during which I got to watch all of a movie -- "Leatherheads" I think it's called? About pro football back in the 1920's, with George Clooney and John Kraszinski -- Jim, from "The Office". Not a bad flick.) During the rest of the flight, I listened to some music, worked on some MBA homework for a little while, watched a movie on my laptop ("Batman Begins"), got another couple hours of sleep, and then it was time to have a light lunch (dinner? breakfast? 4th meal?) before descent.

Anyway, the flight in total was just over 15 hours long. Our route had us fly from Chicago up through Canada, a few hundred miles shy of the North Pole, down over Siberia, Ulan Bator and Mainland China before landing in Hong Kong. My first impressions of Hong Kong (the airport, anyway)? Very clean, very quiet, very humid, and everybody appears to be very friendly. Oh, and 1 USD is equivalent to just under 8 HKD -- I found that out when I went to purchase replacement hair gel and shaving cream.

It's also very beautiful here; at least from my vantage point. I'm sitting in the United Airlines "Red Carpet Club" (for 1st and Business Class passengers) up on the upper level of the airport, glancing out an expanse of glass windows, watching the planes come and go. I've never been to Hong Kong before, and unfortunately on this trip I'm not going to be leaving the airport. But I must say that I wasn't expecting it to look so much like, well, kind of like Hawaii. The airport is right on the water, and their are green, rolling hills not too far off, their peaks covered by clouds. Anyway, I'm just finishing up a cappuccino -- at this point I'm trying to infuse enough caffeine into my body so that I can stay awake for the duration of my trip. My next flight leaves here in at 7:50 PM (it's 6:11 PM now -- yes, I've been typing for almost 40 minutes. Sorry if I've bored you!), and it's about a 3.5 hour flight to Singapore; we're supposed to land around 11:35 PM. I chose my seat assignment on this next flight -- it's another 747, and there were some empty Business Class seats on the Upper Level; I've never been "up top" on a -47 before, so I'm looking forward to that aspect of the flight.

Once I arrive in Singapore, my goal is to clear customs, get my luggage, get some cash out of an ATM, and head for the Taxi stands. Straight to my hotel, where I will likely take a shower to refresh -- by the time I get to my room, it will have been about 32 hours since I left my house in Olive Branch, MS. Even with the 13 hour time differential, I am hopeful that I will be so mentally and physically exhausted that I will be able to fall asleep for a good 6-8 hours...

I'll check in again sometime tomorrow (Sunday), likely from my room at the Marriott. I still have some school-work to get done, so I plan on spending a few hours doing MBA-stuff in my hotel before launching out to do some sight-seeing around town. I'll post some pictures up tomorrow as well; I've taken several, but I left the USB transfer cable in my checked suitcase, so I don't have access to it right now.

Well, that's it for now. I better sign off and go freshen up a bit, so as not to scare my fellow passengers too much on the Hong Kong-Singapore flight. And I might grab another cappuccino. After all, I think I've slept for a total of about 8 hours in the past 48 hours, and I need to try to stay awake for another 6 hours or so before I can crash land (err, probably not the best term to use right now!) on my bed in Singapore.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!