Viet Nam 2010: The Return

It’s been tiring. Not that I mind being the center of attention – but with no one else to tag team with, for days, I find that every evening I’m spent. I don’t feel like walking around, like hitting the gym – just a shower and then check email in bed, over which I tend to nod off (did I mention the connection is slow?). On the last day we’re back a little early, so I wonder whether I can still hit the gym this one time in the hotel before leaving for the airport.
Before asking (I’ve checked out already, after all) I take a look to make sure that I have exactly the right time for my flight’s departure. I do have the right time – but a cold dread takes hold of my gut and I reach for the phone as I realize that I have the wrong day. I know coordinating between Emile’s changing itinerary on the road and myself was a little rough, and our counterparty kept changing arrangements on us until the last minute, but … I don’t know how this happened. My fault, I’m sure – it was information that I had on my printout since the morning I left. Three quarters of an hour of internationally roaming phone calls literally to the other side of the planet results in the realization that tonight’s flight is fully booked, as is the one tomorrow and the one after that. Korean Air won’t get me home before *Sunday*. After the wonderfully helpful lady on the helpdesk and I have established that I want to go home, preferably *now*, no matter how or in what class, I get booked on an Air France flight via Paris, Economy class, which leaves really soon. I get the hotel concierge to order me an airport taxi while I’m waiting for the e-ticket confirmation and jump in the moment I have it (technically I could have gotten that while under way, but I’ve gotten cut off once already and won’t risk Hanoi’s somewhat chancy cell phone service again).
I’m off to the airport, still in my suit, and as I fire up my laptop while the taxi weaves through the cacophony of honking motorcycles, past odd architecture and the flower market, that I feel like I'm in my own movie - a long way from home.
Where I’m now going. It’ll be two looong flights in really cramped seats, but – all’s well that ends well. As, I believe, I've mentioned before.