I’ve been awake since 6AM. Mike Mandili from the library systems office drove me to the Los Angeles Airport. I’m writing as I’m en route to Seattle, the first leg of my trip. My Northwest flight is on an Alaska Airline plane for reasons I don’t understand. So far the flight is a little bumpy! From Seattle I will travel to Tokyo on another plane then switch to a flight to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok I get to sleep in a hotel then finally I’ll travel into Phnom Penh via Thai Airways.

The L.A. to Seattle flight is only partially full. There’s an empty seat between me and an elderly woman. A few minutes a go she asked me if I minded a plane flying over us. I told her I prefer that to it running into us!

There’s a two year old in the seat behind me - of course. So far he’s pretty well behaved. We just had lunch: ham sandwich, cookie and some grapes.

The plane landed in Seattle on time around 1PM. I had about an hour and a half to kill before taking off on flight 007 for Tokyo. The Tokyo flight is too crowded. There are kids everywhere! It will be a 10 hour flight to Tokyo. Then I still have another leg to Bangkok (6 hours). A Japanese teen named So is seated next to me. He’s returning from a month’s visit in Seattle with his brother who attends University of Washington. He’s very pleasant. They served dinner around 5PM (L.A. time) It was pretty good: chicken, noodles, cold pasta, California rolls, carrot cake and cheese.

The flight to Tokyo is taking a northern route along the western coast of the U.S. and Canada, along Alaska’s border. I imagine it will be like the trip to Taiwan in 1993.

Trip to Cambodia with John D'Amicantonio