Packing Day

Written by Jonathan Smylie

Our clothes are drying in the sun after being thoroughly soaked in a pesticide and water mix. This, all the guide books say, will kill any mosquitos that lands on the fabric. We have yet to take off the parts of the bikes we'll take with us, the seats and pedals, but that chore is rising quickly on the do-to list. We picked up the 31 malaria pills we will start taking tomorrow morning and will carry them on the plane with us. We finished our last workout at the gym two hours ago, in shape or not, the plane flies tomorrow and we'll be on it. We fly Thursday night to Atlanta where we spend the night and Friday at 11:00 am we begin our flight to Seoul and then south to Bangkok, about 24 hours in total travel time. Tonight we'll lay out all of the clothes and double check them against our list. Over the last few days, I've had to pull myself out of the most recent book on Vietnam I've been reading and focus on the last details of packing and work. I look forward to the plane flight, when all the scurrying around is finished and the anticipation can be simply and deliciously enjoyed--uninterrupted. Now, where did I put that list?