Travel Pig

The flight from Dallas to Tokyo was to be 13.5 hours. I have flown many long flights but this one seemed to take so long. I have no idea why. It was daylight almost the whole way, we were chasing the sunset. During the flight we started planning the trip. Both of us have been so busy that we haven’t had the time to do much planning. We asked friends about their highlights in Vietnam, we checked out blogs too.

The views of Texas, Colorado, Idaho were beautiful and the clouds were ever changing. We had some wine, watched movies, read and talked. We laughed together at the dinner combo, weird chicken, smoked salmon with potato salad, julienned root vegetables and inedible fish jello in soba noodles, that was so bad that I had to scrape it out of my mouth with my chop sticks. The ice cream led to a discussion of Gilles, frozen custard, yes David, it’s the best ever!!! David is Julie’s bionic husband.

The bathrooms on the plane has interesting settings…. A bidet with shower and bath options and drying, while seated on the throne. I remember the same type of toilet in Seoul, Korea. I was afraid to try it, especially since it had mood lights in the toilet too. So I was brave and tried the toilet features. Interesting to say the least.

The flight arrived on time at about 6 pm in Hanada airport near Tokyo. The plan was that we would take the train from the airport to the city center, Shibuya, or Times Square of NYC. We filled out the forms and deplaned. When we arrived near customs, they asked for the downloaded items for MySOS and cocoa, we showed them our vaccination card and they pointed us to the right. Most likely, due to Covid we couldn’t leave the airport. So we had until 1:25 AM to occupy our time. And it was about 2AM our time. We were in the International terminal on a Saturday night. There were very few people around. We found a sort of food court and had some drinks. There we did some more planning and we felt very overwhelmed with all that we wanted to do. A plan was shaping but by 8 pm, neither of us could stay awake. We found some seats, suitable for sleeping on and slept for a couple hours. More planning and sleeping until 1AM and then we boarded the next 5.5 hour flight. We will land at 5:30AM to start our first day in Vietnam! And btw, the toilets had all the bidet feature plus music while you used the toilets.

The flight from Dallas to Tokyo was to be 13.5 hours. I have flown many long flights but this one seemed to take so long. I have no idea why. It was daylight almost the whole way, we were chasing the sunset. During the flight we started planning the trip. Both of us have been so busy that we haven’t had the time to do much planning. We asked friends about their highlights in Vietnam, we checked out blogs too.

The views of Texas, Colorado, Idaho were beautiful and the clouds were ever changing. We had some wine, watched movies, read and talked. We laughed together at the dinner combo, weird chicken, smoked salmon with potato salad, julienned root vegetables and inedible fish jello in soba noodles, that was so bad that I had to scrape it out of my mouth with my chop sticks. The ice cream led to a discussion of Gilles, frozen custard, yes David, it’s the best ever!!! David is Julie’s bionic husband.

The bathrooms on the plane has interesting settings…. A bidet with shower and bath options and drying, while seated on the throne. I remember the same type of toilet in Seoul, Korea. I was afraid to try it, especially since it had mood lights in the toilet too. So I was brave and tried the toilet features. Interesting to say the least.

The flight arrived on time at about 6 pm in Hanada airport near Tokyo. The plan was that we would take the train from the airport to the city center, Shibuya, or Times Square of NYC. We filled out the forms and deplaned. When we arrived near customs, they asked for the downloaded items for MySOS and cocoa, we showed them our vaccination card and they pointed us to the right. Most likely, due to Covid we couldn’t leave the airport. So we had until 1:25 AM to occupy our time. And it was about 2AM our time. We were in the International terminal on a Saturday night. There were very few people around. We found a sort of food court and had some drinks. There we did some more planning and we felt very overwhelmed with all that we wanted to do. A plan was shaping but by 8 pm, neither of us could stay awake. We found some seats, suitable for sleeping on and slept for a couple hours. Maybe planning and sleeping until 1AM and then we boarded the next 5.5 hour flight. We will land at 5:30AM to start our first day in Vietnam! And btw, the toilets had all the bidet feature plus music while you used the toilets.

Checked in with the visa. Julie and I were both told at our respective airports that we needed to down load two apps for travel to Japan. We did and they weren’t needed nor were they easy to navigate!

Another exciting adventure about to begin! I had a great dinner with my son, George and his girlfriend, Grace. A little French food at Blue Boheme, one of my favorite restaurants, owned by my friend Ken Irvine. Amazing food!! Stayed up too late but woke up early. And guess who was going to Dallas a few minutes after me?

Yup, my daughter. She is headed to Milwaukee for a friends wedding.

I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t check in on line but when I got to the airport I had to download MySOS in order to land in Japan. Couldn’t get internet at the airport for a few min and then had to change my Apple ID. Just another hurdle. Then actually had time to talk a little business with Natalie. We are in the process of, hopefully buying another practice, so of course the broker needs stuff asap at 6 am. He had all week. He’s a slacker! Luckily my daughter is capable of doing what is needed while I am gone for two weeks!!!

Julie will be on her way to Chicago now. We will meet in Dallas. Hopefully both of our flights will be on time. At one point we planned to meet in Seattle, but the connection time in such a huge airport was too risky. We have a long layover in Tokyo so we will take the train into the city! I think we arrive at 6pm and then depart around 1am. I did the same a few years back with Natalie when we were traveling to Thailand.

Done with work today. Everyone is ready for a break. I am ready! Just a few things left, including a mani-pedi right now!

We both finally have Visas! I have one and Julie has two, so far. I was punching numbers to make this happen! Our last trip together was years ago to South Africa! What a trip. 14 days, 13 different places to stay, from hotels to cabins and peoples spare beds. But also feeding baby elephants to petting 6 month old lions, feeding tigers and handing out one burner stoves to the poorest of the poor in Port Elizabeth. Eye opening Adventure!! Vietnam here we come with nothing to give but ourselves!! And maybe future projects!

I originally booked my ticket in a January. No Visa needed, then in March the Vietnamese government decided to change that. Still do not have a visa! Back up plans are in progress! Stay tuned!

Kind of a lazy day, wait that was yesterday and the same for today. Walked around both days, dodging the storms. Some were quite violent. Last night it thundered for over an hour, with constant flashes of lightening. I had reservations for dinner at a Michelin restaurant but I cancelled because I was too full from lunch. Lunch was at the Gato restaurant across the street. Great pappardelle with ragu.

Another photo of the building where the flat is

Mugolone was the Michelin restaurant. Not a star, maybe a nod. Not so great. Food was attractive, but tasteless, service was tired. Sometimes pizza is perfect!

One more night here. I am full of pasta. Tomorrow I take the train to Florence for one more night in Italy. I think the rain is over!

Today started off with a windy thunderstorm, now it’s clear. Time to get some reading done!

After a short nap and a nice message from my host that the race would start earlier than the day before, I headed back to Il Campo. Same bar. They had a table reserved and they didn’t care that it was just me. After a few minutes the people next to me asked if I had been there the two days before. They were part of the bachelor party that we talked to! They asked where the rest of my group was and I told them that they had to get back home, then they asked if I would like a ticket? Yes!!! They had seats near the bar. Of course I bought them a round of drinks. They didn’t know the race was starting earlier than the day before so we got ready to find the seats. We raced back and forth under the bleachers but we were too late to get to the seats. I left them and tried to peak through here:

This was the best part. I had no idea who won, but as the losing contradas left, I moved towards the track. I had front row seats to see the horse parade down the track and then next came the cute jockey! It was very exciting. I shed a few tears of joy!

One of the Serbians, next to me asked me to join his friends for a drink at the San Paola bar so I did, but very hard to understand them so I left and ran into another celebratory parade of the Unicorno Contrade

What an exciting turn of events. A rain delay, no ticket, then a ticket, unable to get the seats then seeing the celebration! Wow! Almost as exciting as a Packer Super Bowl win, very close!!!