I woke up Friday morning at 5 o'clock in Pittsburgh, now 34 hours later I am finally in Ho Chi Minh City at 2 o'clock Monday morning. My weekend consisted of two fairly simple, short, laid back flights preceding and following one behemoth 16 hour flight from Chicago to Hong Kong. Preparing for that flight I convinced myself that if I fell asleep early, I could cruise until the end. However, once I took my seat in the middle of a row of 9, I realized that I would not only have teach myself how to maneuver plastic utensils with my elbows touching in order to eat but that I had little to no chance of sleeping comfortably with my legs forced into the shape of the reclined seat in front of me. This resulted in me watching movies until I was tired enough to sleep through anything. This method actually worked very well and I ended up getting at least 5 hours of sleep through periodic slips of consciousness (I highly recommend Citizen Kane and Birdman).
First Impressions of Ho Chi Minh City:
1. Communism is real! With our arrival being just a few days after the 40th anniversary of the liberation (or fall) of Saigon, the city was covered in giant billboards, posters, and banners commending the victory of the North with images of soldiers, workers, and tanks. It was very interesting to see first hand the kind of propaganda I had previously only heard about in history class
2. Scooters, Motorbikes, and Mopeds. Everywhere.
3. The hotel is surprisingly nice and I look forward to killing jetlag tomorrow with a morning workout and swim (we'll see if that actually happens when the morning comes)
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