Dec 10th Pics

December 9th, 2004

7:56 am. December 9th, 2004. Will Rogers International Airport. The trip begins.

It all seems a little surreal. Around the world. Such a challenge and an adventure. I'm very sad to have to leave Lisa behind for three weeks. Fortunately, I have an international cell phone and the internet. 30 days. Wow. I hope I have everything I need.

This trip actually began many years ago. I can remember dreaming of taking this trip and wondering where I would want to go. I made a list of places that would of interest to me. Now I'm going to see how many of them I can see in a month.

Around August, 2004, I started checking for tickets. I called the sellers of 'round the world' tickets, but they just couldn't get the schedule I wanted. So instead, I booked everything myself. I originally wanted to include Nepal in this trip. But around October, the US State Department issues a travel advisory against going there. No Mt. Everest on this trip. Maybe next time. The silver lining was I was able to upgrade part of my trip to business class between Bangkok and Cairo.

I have to make sure that I don't push my self too hard. I'll turn 45 years old on this trip. I'm not the young person I once was. But I still feel like I am. I just need to have an even pace and set priorities. Except for my flight to Cambodia, I don't have any early morning flights, so that will make it easier. The flight from DFW to Korea will be a challenge - 14 hours. Then another 5 1/2 to Bangkok. All the rest are easy compared to those.

I only have a carry-one backpack with wheels and a day bag. Traveling light will make the trip less stressful. Unfortunately, my new glasses weren't made right, so I'll be using my old ones. Drink plenty of bottled water and be safe. Indeed.

I hope that I'm able to keep up with my daily log and pictures. I know from past trips that I'm very good the first few days.

Well, it's time to put the computer away and get ready for my first of thirteen flights. I'm seating in seat 16B. Just a short little hop from OKC to DFW.

Dec 10th Pics

 It's 2:00 am in Bangkok. My flights from Dallas to Korea (15 hours) wasn't too bad. I was able to get a lot of sleep. I had some Korean food for lunch, which was a bowl of vegetables and fish. I added dry seaweed, sesame oil, and some hot sauce. Pretty good. The movie was 'The Borne Supremacy'. Unfortunately, I woke up in the  middle of it and the sound wasn't very good. For dinner, I had some Cod fish. And for a snack, I had a tuna fish sandwich. I sat to a very nice American girl, who was a social worker for the Air Force. She had been in San Antonio for a research conference.

The layover in Korea went fast and I got onto my next flight into Bangkok. Once again, I was able to sleep most of the way. For Dinner, I had some chicken. Once I got off the plane and went to wait in line for immigartion. Of course, I was in the wrong line and I had to go half way down the terminal to get into the correct one. I called Lisa, so the phone does work. The taxi ride was 300 Baht to the hotel.

I'm staying at the Nana Hotel. It's a nice room, very quite, with a nice bathroom. There are 2 TVs and 2 beds. There are a lot of people hanging around outside, even though it's 2 am in the morning. All in all, a very good day.

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