Sitting at the Polaris Lounge at SFO last night, I was reflecting on a life lived in Travel as I was about to board my second trip around the world. This time, the circumnavigation is west-ward to Hong Kong, then Vietnam, via Singapore to Munich and back from Amsterdam to the US.
As my flight made it’s 6730 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, I came across a National Geographic documentary in the educational section of United’s programming. The show covered “the history of planes” which, serendipitously put my current journey experience (my entire traveling life in fact) in perfect words. It is true that we tend to take this revolutionary marvel of technology for granted as we adapt to an ever faster revolving world. Yet, without planes my 16-day journey around the globe would take months if not years and would likely not even happen. Such is the innovative power of the airplane – it is the World Wide Web that connects us all.
A full 14 hours and 30 minutes later, I was transported to an entirely different part of the globe. 31 years had passed since I had stepped foot on Hong Kong island so my jaw dropped as I was whisked from the new airport on Lantau island to the legendary Mandarin Oriental hotel in a Mercedes S-class in style. Nothing of the skyline I saw through the early morning dawn looked the same. What once was the tallest building, the iconic Bank of China tower is now dwarfed by new tall skyscrapers. Stay tuned for more from Hong Kong in the coming days.
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