Arriving at Star City

J say: I hope we stay in a nice hotel near the airport.

J later says: Why are we staying at a 4 star hotel tonight?

Ha. ha..nice place with funky furniture in the lobby!
The Swedish guys near the ATM machines said: "In Vietnam, you are millionaires."
I think this says; Welcome to Vietnam.
Behind these pilots and flight attendants is an indoor enclosed in glass garden with no entry.
Waiting for Mr. Immigration Man
"Ne -ver sin!" = toilet in Vietnamese!
Do you like the number 3?
Judy said: "Lea put yur head in that plant". I always do what my AVT Mentor tells me to do!
To the orchids at the airportJudy says: Are these real?

Day I from Jim's Journal

On the plane from HK to HCMC - "fearsome threesome"!

Lea's vegan Gluten free

JIm's veggie.

Judy with Broccoli, Lea with passion fruit.

Sunday February 19, 2012

We’re making our way across the globe. We left Boston with clear skies and sun glittering off the surface of Boston harbor. I’m missing a day of “frostbiting”.

We spent some time watching Whitney Houston’s funeral in Newark Airport while waiting 3 hours for our flight. While waiting I noticed the boarding process was starting VERY early, on closer inspection, I realized my watch batter died at 1;45pm EST Saturday. Is that some sort of indication that I am supposed to ignore time when I have a million planes to catch?

We met our favorite mentor, Judy Simser, in line to get on the plane! Everybody ready for the 16 hour flight to Hong Kong? After 3 movies and a variety of snacks and meals we arrived in Hong Kong. We flew over Labrador, Greenland, across the Arctic, Siberia, and China.

Watch batteries proved “hard to find” in the Hong Kong airport, but for a couple of thousand US dollars I could easily replace my watch. I decided to wait. I showed my watch to the guy in the Swiss Army shop my Swiss Army watch and he said: “Oh, that watch is over ten years old! We have a different logo now! They are much more expensive now!”

Now we are aboard another 737 like the one we flew from Boston to Newark.

We are making our way from Hong Kong to Saigon. Everything has been very easy and people are friendly on all the flights.

We arrived in Saigon at Sunday midnight VN time – Sunday noon Gloucester time.

NJ to HK

GREAT to be with Judy Simser again!
We flew EAST 16.5 hours on a 777! See the huge airplane? We flew over Ottawa, Quebec, Labrador, over Greenland, way across Siberia and crossed China to Hong Kong!

My vegetarian meals were yummy! Movies we watched included; Money Ball, Like Crazy, A Big Year. Jim liked "Like Crazy" the best. I think they were all "okay for watching on a long flight."

We made it to Hong Kong arriving on Sunday 8 pm their time - 8 am our time!
Expensive shops in the airport make us more excited for the markets in Vietnam!

Fun to be checking e-mail, blogging and traveling the world again.

Below - I am pointing to the word "Watson". Seems like every store in the Hong Kong airport is owned by Nuance-WATSON! Let's see it we are related to those Watsons?

Jim's watch battery died at the gate - now we know he's on vacation! He investigated a good deal on a watch in HK, but..whew - expensive! The cheap ones were $500 - HK or US dollars ???

How do Jim & Judy look after watching movies for 16 + hours.
Look out the window of the plane - see? That is what Siberia looks like!
Surreal to be in Newark NJ during the amazing televised tribute to beautiful Whitney. We watched Whitney Houston's funeral at the Newark NJ airport as these diligent workers got our 777 ready for take-off.