Last Flight

After the last post about travel and food, I looked through my photos and the Japan/Taiwan trip in late 2015 was the last time I was in an airplane. I think I drove to San Francisco and Mammoth Lakes after that but no more flights. Then I started dialysis in July 2017 and I have not been outside of Southern California since then. I used to travel quite a bit. My previous passport needed additional pages sewn in because I ran out of room for visas and entry/exit stamps. I believe my record year for boarding passes was 60 plus. This was when I was traveling to Asia visiting friends and consulting for my friend’s company in China.

I am a bit ambivalent about international travel now. I miss the adventure of visiting a new place and trying to figure out where to go and what to eat. There are still many places that I’ve never been and want to visit: Korea, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Eastern Europe, Costa Rica, South America, and lots of places in the United States. However, flying to Asia usually requires a long haul flight. LAX to Tokyo wasn’t too bad but I remember many 14-15 hours flights to Hong Kong from LA. With worsening peripheral neuropathy, I don’t know if I can sit that long in a confined space. I probably have to fly business class in the future if I need to take a transatlantic or transpacific flight. I think I had a panic attack on the flight back from Paris in 2014 and that was in premium economy. Just thinking about sitting in the middle seat in economy is making me nervous.