26 hours

Colin and I left for the airport at 11:15am on Tuesday and arrived at our hotel in Bangkok 2am. On Thursday. Almost a full 26 hours of traveling.

Here’s how it went:

I hugged my two favorite dogs, kissed my beautiful Mommom goodbye, and then my parents rushed us the nearest Walgreens. After three immunization shots (Japanese encephalitis, typhoid, hepatitis A and B) and one prescription for malaria, you’d think I’d be ready for a year abroad in Southeast Asia. Guess what? You’d be wrong. Don’t feel bad, I was wrong too. Turns out, you need an up to date tetanus shot. Mine expired last fall. A 15 minute pit stop at the Take Care Clinic and we were off to O’Hare.

Then came the hard part: saying goodbye to Mom and Dad. Everyone managed to hold it together as we hugged and kissed in the drop off zone… Little did they know they’d have presents and goodbye notes waiting for them back home. (I’ve found it’s easier to write a goodbye than it is to say it.) Inside, Colin and I had quite a bit of rearranging to do, since the two of our three carry-ons were over the 15lb limit. After shoving excess books and electronics into our scuba gear bag we checked in, passed through security, bought an absurdly overpriced lunch, and waited to board our flight.

My plan was simple: get on the plane, reset my watch, drink a bottle of water, pop a sleeping pill, and wake up in China. Unfortunately, the seats weren’t as comfortable as I hoped and that sleeping pill didn’t even make me groggy. Instead, I enjoyed a delicious meal, toasted to our trip with a complimentary glass of red wine, and watched movies I never got the chance to see in theaters. Colin slept like a baby. It must have been that silly neck pillow he bought in Walgreens that did the trick… Sixteen hours later we landed safely in Hong Kong around 8:30pm on Wednesday; 90 minutes after that and we were boarding our flight to Bangkok.

Feeling well rested and determined to adjust to the time change, Colin decided to stay up for this short flight and very graciously lent me his pillow. I drifted in an out of sleep for the next two hours, just enough rest to be able to function after we landed. We had read beforehand that it’s obligatory to show evidence of a flight home and sufficient funds to travel at customs, in reality they look at our passports made sure the pictures matched our faces and waved us through. The second we retrieved all of our luggage we knew we had brought too much. Something we’d have to deal with later. For now, we needed to find a cab and get to our hotel. We did just that. By 2am I collapsed onto the bed, sent my parents a HeyTell, and slept a sweet sleep for the next nine hours.