After what seemed like an endless airplane trip, I have finally landed in Ho Chi Minh City! The flight began out of Dulles International Airport with a three hour layover at Narita, Japan — overall flight time 20 hours. For the most part the flight was generally what you want out of a flight — uneventful. However, I was thoroughly impressed with ANA’s service. The first 16 hour leg was inundated with food. Two hours into the flight they served a huge lunch portion which consisted of some kind of japanese noodles, served cold over a soy/vinegar base, a light salad consisting of potato salad, a slice of roast beef, and smoked salmon. The entree was rice and unagi eel (the kind that they use in sushi). Not to mention being served with a hot moist towel to prepare for food and green tea. The highlight of this meal was dessert — Häagen Dazs Vanilla Ice cream. That was one of three meals and I felt quite satisfied with the amount of food when I contrast it to my recent Las Vegas trip where they gave out pretzels — drinks extra.

The three hour Narita layover was pretty lame. I walked around the duty free shops and learned how expensive everything is in Japan. The dollar to Yen ratio is 1USD to 98Â¥. Being that I’ve never been to Japan I don’t know if that rate is good or bad but lets just say everything I saw at the duty free stores was pretty expensive. Ok move along I said to myself.

So now I’m finally in Ho Chi Minh city. The weather here thus far is pretty tropic. When I landed it was 11:30pm and it was raining and pretty hot and humid. If I had to guess, I’d say it would be around 82ºF 100% Humidity. For now I’m staying in the living room area of my mom’s brother-in-law. (Uncle in law). Its always such a culture shock to land in HCM city, the last time was the same too: landing at night when it was raining. Exiting the airport to a sea of Vietnamese families picking up their loved ones and guests, getting in a car and whizzing down busy streets, motorcycles everywhere coming from every direction, ignoring the rules of the road. Everything definitely takes a little time to get used to.

For now this will conclude my first post. Its 3:00AM and I’ve been pretty sleep deprived for the last 48 hours so good night!