The first day of my trip was extremely long, tiring and stressful! It was far from the ideal way to start a trip. I started my journey in the great state of New Jersey at newark airport. I had a 13 hour flight in front of me to Japan... That's the longest I've ever been on a plane! I was psyched when I found out that beer and wine were free and so were the movies (I hate when they make you pay for movies and booze on the plane!) However, I was not psyched that I had the middle seat. The flight was going pretty well until all of a sudden with about 4 hours left I felt really dizzy and got very sweaty and nauseous. I went to the bathroom and felt like I had to throw up. I literally could not get up from the toilet seat and was so dizzy I couldn't see straight so I hit the help button. When they came I opened the door then I passed out. I woke up probably a few seconds later to the flight attendant banging on the door. Once they got me out of the bathroom they put me on oxygen. I felt better within minutes but it was scary.... I have never experienced anything like that before. The good thing about the incident was that I got to move my seat to a seat with a lot more legroom and I ended up sitting next to a man in his 60's that was from the same hometown as me. He was going on a diving troop to Micronesia. I hope I'm doing things like that when I'm in my 60's!
When I got to Japan I had a 4 hour layover. I did some shopping at the airport... They certainly live hello kitty over there, I even saw an airplane with hello kitty all over it... Really?!? I ended up buying a green tea kit Kat bar, a sushi magnet and chopsticks. I really want to go back to Japan. I just got a really good vibe for the airport. The people there are so nice and happy... Almost unnaturally so. The flight was good. I pretty much slept the whole way, didn't faint this time.
I finally made it to Hanoi after almost 24 hours of traveling. I got my visa, went through immigration and got my bags fairly quickly, which were the 3 things I was most worried about. However the things that I wasn't worried about at all ended up being the most troubling. I was expecting someone from the tour company to be there to pick me up, that didn't happen so I got in a taxi to go to the hotel that I was told that I was staying at. When I got to the hotel it was around 11:30 pm and the hotel lobby was pitch black and locked. Thank god my taxi driver (who didn't speak a lick of English) called the hotel and they came out. They then told me that I didn't have a reservation for me. The guy the showed me the list of names the tour that were booked at the hotel and my name was not there so naturally I started to freak out. He ended up putting me in a room that I paid for and I immediately emailed the tour company to find out what the hell was going on... I was worried that I had been scamed. I immediately heard back from him and it turned out that they sent me to the wrong hotel... Thats's kind of a major mistake. As for to not being picked up at the airport, they picked me up at the time that I arrived in Japan. They next day I cabbed it over to the right hotel but nonetheless still a scary experience... Things are gonna get better from here!
