How Hard it Is

It is nearly impossible to keep up with blogging while on the road. There is a distinct trade-off involved – stop traveling and take a day to write, or fall way-way-behind on the writing and travel instead. Then there is the problem of sorting through the thousands of photos that I’ve taken and attempting to create some sort of order out of them. For me, the end result is a constant conflict between trying to travel and gain the experiences that can inform my writing, and well, actually writing. This is compounded by the fact that I’d like my blog to be somewhat up to date and chronologically logical, so it makes it harder to post about things that happened, say, in Mombasa, when I’m already in Malawi. Finally, the internet connection has gotten progressively more rare as we’ve moved about, and it’s becoming difficult to post entries when I want them posted. That’s all just to say that – hey, this thing is much more difficult than I imagined it would be!!

 (Working in the airport lounge in Dubai)

In Trans(it) Pacific

Wow. What a day of travel

4:30am - Leave Young's Dad's house in Honolulu
7:15am - Flight is delayed from 7:15 to 7:50
9:00am - Flight finally takes off
9:25am - Crazy toddler who doesn't like seat belts finally stops crying
9:27am - Toddler starts crying again
9:30am - SOOOO happy I have my Able Planet noise reduction headphones; symphony of kids crying now

Fast forward 12 hours

3:00pm (Taiwan time) - Flight lands in Taipei
3:10pm - Flight to Hong Kong is delayed from 3:45 to 4:15
4:15pm - Flight to Hong Kong takes off
5:50pm - Land in Hong Kong
6:10pm - Through immigration and through customs - my third stamp in 12 months means I can get a frequent visitor card!
6:40pm - Waiting to check into Emirates flight to Bangkok

Coming up....
9:50pm - Flight to Bangkok on Emirates
11:35pm (Bangkok time) - Land in Bangkok

What a long day! Travel time - 17 hours of flying and 9 1/2 hours of waiting. Plus taxi time to my friend Brian's house in Bangkok, and we're looking at 28 to 29 hours of total travel time. Yikes!!!

Goodbye Vietnam, Hello Philippines

It's been a few days since I arrived in Manila, so I figured it was about time that I put up the latest airport pictures from the trip. Settling in here and getting down to work (doing a super-short project to help re-charge the bank account for the big upcoming three-wedding push) has been hectic and busy, so it's taken me a little while. Anyway, here is me leaving Ho Chi Minh City, and then arriving in Manila. The one thing that is consistently coming across at all these airports is... how similar they all are. They are essentially the same! Maybe just like our entire world, things, places, and people are all converging. More than ever, there are less differences than there are similarities. But, at least that means I know where the toilets are going to be.

Transiting in Hong Kong

I've decided. Pictures in the airports at the very least. Luckily I got to the airport fairly early today and on top of that I had Business Class check-in (had to spend my hard-earned miles for a ticket because everything else was fully sold out!) so I wasn't worried about time.

Without a tripod or a partner in crime, I had to figure out a way to balance my camera on top of a baggage cart and do continuous shooting. Here's a sample of what I got.

Leaving Los Angeles

A blog wouldn't be a blog without pictures, and a project wouldn't be a project without a theme. Or something along those lines. So here it is, put them together, and you have my first pictures from my trip. These two were taken in LAX on December 28th, 2009. What should you note? Well: Wayne, suit, backpack, airport. Pretty self-explanatory really. :)