As I write this, I am about 35,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean just past the International Date Line (as my entertainment console tells me). As you can see in the back of a seat picture, the 747 from L.A. to Hong Kong is sweet. Starting from the beginning of my quest, the journey opens with a sleepy eyed Nathan waking to the sound of “Five Minutes til Midnight” and the subsequent beep of the alternate alarm at 4:45 am. The flight from Greensboro to Memphis was a quaint jet (as you can see in the picture to left), and a cute flight, clocking in at just about two hours. In Memphis, we had only 30 minutes between landing and the time of our next flight, so we hit the speed of sound walking on those awesome flat escalators to be sure we didn’t miss our connection.

The jet that took us from Memphis to L.A. was slightly larger and I was able to experience First Class seating. Since Northwest overbooked the flight, I had my ticket on standby waiting for a seat this past week. Eventually the company just moved me up to First Class where there must’ve been an open seat (score!). On this flight we consumed our first airplane meal—a Northwest breakfast tray. It was awesome. On the left you will see a few pictures taken out the window of this jet on the five hour trip to L.A.

In L.A. we transferred from Northwest Airlines to an Asian airline (alliteration!) called Cathay Pacific. This 747 was the owner of said entertainment hubs which provided hours of movies for me during the 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. During the flight, we had quality conversations, but while Grandpa slept, I watched 21, Flawless, and The Chronicles of Narnia Price Caspian (and an episode of House). I was pleased at the options, as each of these movies turned out to be most enjoyable. The other perk of the Cathay Pacific 747 is that I was constantly eating. The airpline has excellent service, so between the plane’s snacks, drinks, and water glasses, we also had our second airborne meal over the Pacific Ocean.

Now I finish today’s post in Hong Kong, but today is now Sunday… The interesting part of flying from American to Asia is the fact that I started my day at 4:45am on Saturday and we arrived in Hong Kong at about 7pm on Sunday. Weird. As I write this, it is 2:10 am in the good ole ‘boro, but the sky outside of the airplane is bright and sunny. Weird. I have a feeling that I will be kinda tired. To be continued…
More pictures can be found at picasaweb.google.com/nate.tilley/Asiatrip

nate.