44 pounds per person?

That's our baggage weight limit for the internal flights within Vietnam. I guess that means I'll be lugging a carry-on bag weighing 50 pounds onto the planes and stuffing it in the overhead bin. I can't wait for Caren to purchase some "little" item for our house the first day of the trip and have me schlep it all over SE Asia. Like the headboard-sized wood carving of elephants I carried all over Myanmar or the huge area rug we bought on sale in Hong Kong. Or perhaps I can just buy another seat for it?

From the time we leave LAX on Sunday night until we touch down in Ho Chi Minh City (with a change of planes in Taipei) it will be nearly 20 hours. Thank goodness I sprung for business class tix this trip. Got a great deal by buying the tix back in November of last year. There had better be some good movies to watch onboard.

Most evenings, the Bradley International Terminal at LAX is an absolute zoo. You've got a zillion flights heading out to Asia, flights to Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and a smattering of flights to Central and South America.

You see people hauling these monstrous cardboard boxes to the check-in counters. I didn't know stores sold luggage that looked like that. Do you ever wonder what's in some of those boxes?

Why do people check-in huge boxes of clothes to take to their relatives back in the Phillipines when the clothing is probably manufactured there in the first place? Or why does the diminutive Chinese couple heading to Hong Kong have two suitcases bigger than both of them? Then there is always the stylish looking young woman (or man) who only has a small 20" rollerboard and is travelling to Australia for two weeks. Talk about travelling light. I guess she/he will just buy anything they need wherever they are headed to. Go figure.