Saturday – February 12, 2011 –

This morning was exciting when I woke up realizing my first trip to Asia had finally arrived! After spending the night at the Hampton Inn near the Atlanta airport last night, I was fully rested for an epic adventure to Southeast Asia. I ate my free complimentary breakfast before leaving the hotel at 8 a.m. on their airport shuttle to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Upon checking in at the airport and going through security, I took the train to the international terminal. After a short wait, I boarded Delta #281 and departed around 11 a.m. for Tokyo-Narita International Airport.

After my previous flights from L.A. to Sydney and Atlanta to Johannesburg, this was going to be another one of my longest flights. Today was practically a day lost in transit, but I would gain one day back on the return journey.

I watched a few movies on the flight, read up on Thailand, taught myself some basic Thai with the Lonely Planet phrasebook app on my iPod and watched a Lonely Planet video I had downloaded about Bangkok. The food was pretty good and Delta’s international service is so much better than their domestic service.

We flew over Lake Winnipeg, Hudson Bay and the high Canadian Arctic before turning south over the North Pole. I slept about five and a half hours before I woke up over eastern Siberia. It was really beautiful and I never thought I would have the opportunity to fly over eastern Russia! We passed west of the Kamchatka Peninsula before crossing the Yellow Sea and having breakfast over South Korea. Then we approached the Japanese island of Hokkaido.