After this week of travel, we’ll meet another “aviation first”
for me; one that I have been looking forward to for half my life: flying on a
747. I don’t even expect it to be comfortable, from what I have heard from
others. But just the idea of a plane that huge, with its majestic shape, so
emblematic of the commercial airline industry as a whole, excites me. Every
time one flies over my house, which is typically just a couple of times a day, I am
awed by the size. So, there’s that to look forward to as well. And then, on the
return trip from Tokyo, a final notch for my fuselage will be the Boeing 777,
also a huge jet. I don’t really have any expectations or attachments around
that experience, other than I figure it will be cool, as it’s a newer model.
The time difference, and flight durations don’t play well
with any illusion of maintaining a normal circadian clock. I started thinking
about the optimum “plan” of how to combat it, and land in Bangkok Ticking like
the Thai. But that’s absurd to think possible. We departed Seattle at noon. We
fly for 11 hours to Tokyo, touching down at 3pm Tokyo time, which will be
around 10pm Seattle time. Bed time. But instead of bed, we have a 3 hour
layover in Narita, during which there will be no sleep, obviously. Then we have
7 more hours of travel to Bangkok, departing Narita at 1am Seattle time,
arriving in Bangkok at the equivalent of 8am Seattle time. So, you’d think the
logical thing would be to sleep the entire flight from Tokyo to Bangkok and be
fully rested. Perfect. Because we’ll be getting to Bangkok at midnight. Fully
rested.
I am just going to stay up as long as I possibly
can, perhaps pulling the equivalent of an all-nighter, and then have the sleep
happen at the hotel in Bangkok. But we’ll see if that actually happens.
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