Outward Bound

It’s Groundhog Day. Again.

19000 feet below me is the South China Sea. We’re banking left to set up our approach into Chek Lap Kok International Airport in Hong Kong. I’ll be on the ground in about 15 minutes. The flight has been incident free – unless you count me spilling a full glass of water on myself while I was trying to catch some Z’s.

The flight has been uneventful, something I will never grow bored with. As they say, the number of take-offs is optional. The number of landings is not.

I watched a couple of movies en route. Hotel Rwanda is a great, but tragically sad story - So much conflict for no real reason. V for Vendetta was much better than the spooky previews had indicated. Not a classic by any means, but it was worth the two hours this time.

With 4 trips in the bag, lately I’ve found myself passing out travel advice to some of my coworkers who are making this trip for the first time. So, in case you ever find yourself on a 15 hour plane ride to Asia, keep these simple tips in mind.

1. Pack light. No matter how long I am going to be away, I usually only bring 4 sets of clothes (wear one, pack the other 3). Laundry service is well worth the nominal charge. Especially if your work pays for it. Besides, all that extra space can be filled with stuff you pick up during your trip.

2. For the sake of all that’s holy – don’t check any bags! The small hassle of carrying it around with you easily is outweighed by the time savings you will have when you skip past the baggage claim. Not to mention that you won’t have to worry about losing your luggage!

3. Wear a shirt with a front pocket. Comes in handy for passport storage as well as train or ferry tickets. It sounds stupid, but the amount of times you have to pull out and put away these documents in a moment’s notice makes this a must have.

4. If you bring your laptop, don’t forget that airplane power adapter. Or else, you’ll just end up with an expensive brick in your bag.

5. If flying business class on a 747, make sure to get an upper deck window seat, preferably in row 15. Upper deck window seats have the invaluable benefit of a small side compartment that can hold your computer bag right beside you. The compartment also doubles as extra table space, which allows you to watch movies on your laptop even while the tray table is monopolized with dinner. Check http://www.seatguru.com for more info.

6. Memorize your passport number. Just do it.


Appetizer, business class style.


Here I am with my full setup. Note these essentials: QC3 headphones, map screen, laptop on side table with movie playing, dinner, and a selection from the wine list

Tomorrow is looking like a full day of work. I will try to post at least every couple of days with updates on my trip. I will be here until the 14th, so if any of you have certain interests you would like me to cover, I would be happy to try. Zai jian!